Story and setting are great, although the combat can get repetitive.

The gameplay gives off the vibe of a developer more interested in narrative than mechanics -- full of segments that feel more like checkboxes than craftsmanship. On its own, that's not a deal breaker, but it does raise the question of... why is the writing so bad?

The intro is so unbelievably weak in execution. Outside of explicit cinematics, the protagonist's tone swings wildly from line to line. A building-sized monstrosity on the horizon is but a faint curiosity, while a billboard getting blown over is horrifying. It's as if they never fully decided on her characterization or the actress was just going down an alphabetical list of lines she had to read. A complete failure in voice direction.

Scenes also feel like checkboxes more than storytelling. It's like they got half way through the storyboarding phase and just, like... stopped writing? They achieve their purpose in the sense that they lead into the next scene, but stories are more than a linear sequence of factual events.

Gameplay, uhh, exists? There's a game and you're playing it. Personally, I would have preferred they either put in the time to flesh it out, or remove it entirely. Does it make narrative sense for the random teenage girl to be parkouring on ledges over a flooded river like she's Ezio? No, and neither is it engaging enough to justify its existence on its own merits. It exists because that's what the big boy games have. Ledges and narrow cracks to shimmy through. Box: checked.

Maybe this all changes later in the game, but I'm so intensely dispassionate about what I've seen so far that I don't care to continue, which is a shame because I was really looking forward to that talking fish.

Brief summary: A combination of 'It take's Two' style platforming and boss battles mixed with ethereal magic and storytelling of 'Kena Bridge of Spirits'. If those two mean nothing to you, it is a solid platformer with a mixed bag of repetitive combat and some unique boss battles. Amazing music, art style and a deep and emotional story. Grab if you liked the former titles or any platformers in general. Also a fun grab if you enjoy bayou music or whimsically dark stories. easy Overall :8/10 Characters: 7/10 Combat:6/10 Art:9/10 Sound:9/10 Story:8/10

Long Summary:
Characters: All characters outside of the main one are very one note. Mom is a loving mom with some secrets, antagonist is very antagonist and rather obvious even though they try to throw you. All side characters serve more as storytelling points rather then actual characters. Kind of like side narrators to the story a narrator is telling you. Hazel at least stands out as an individual person that you could see existing if there was a modern young woman suddenly dropped into a land of dark fairy tales and told to fight for her and her mother's life. She's brash, impulsive, but empathetic and kind.
The only other characters that have depth to them are two antagonist with plot twist to them in the story. Everyone else is rather one note even though they try to lend them a deep backstory. 7/10

Combat: Fun and fast at first. Until you realize you will never get more powerful once all your base abilities unlock. After chapter 6 or 7 you will see the same enemies again and again for the next 7 chapters or so. I maxed out all attributes by chapter 12 and felt barely more powerful then chapter 3 simply because the combat stays the same and you still get beat up just as easily by beginner level enemies if you're not careful. All the bosses feel very samey as well after chapter 3 with most having a 3 phase or more health bar you have to whittle down in between running in circles on a very small easily hittable surface. This is just kind of the typical boss fight these days I suppose, but after facing the more unique bosses in the beginning, it was a let down for the final boss to just be the same but spread over more stages and constantly having to fight minions. Combat is the main draw down for me personally for this game, but its still serviceable. 6/10

Art. Fantastic. Loved the look, loved the style both stop motion and basic. Designs were interesting and stood out. Warning though, turn off any frame interpolation software or frame generation like DLSS or otherwise if you want to actually see the stop motion in game and even in some cutscenes. The algortihm smooths out a ton of it and makes it look awkward instead of intentional. Feel free to leave it on if you only want to play the game without the stop motion style, but if you're just playing story mode and want to enjoy the beauty of the world, turn it off and have fun. 9/10

Sound. Great and weird. Tons of songs and ambient music in this game. All unique and telling their own stories or lending their own atmosphere. If you like bayou music, hymns, gospel, the blues, or country music, you will find a gem in here to enjoy. If you hate all of those, I suggest you move on since there is a lot of it. It's kind of a main piece to the game. 9/10

Story. Has its ups and downs. Most of the backstories and thematic unraveling of the painful tales this game tells are great. The overarching story is also a interesting heroes journey. Where it gets clunky is some of the dialogue and making the MC seem as confused as a child trying to understand Lord of the Rings. Hazel is our eyes into this very uniqe world, but there is a lot of times where you will figure our the twist or theme of a story from the beginning or halfway through and she's still wondering what happened or why she's doing something. I understand you can't exactly predict things in a completely new fairytale world like a giant catfish magically wisking you away on its back as it tells tall tales, but there is still a lot of pattern recognition and it feels very grating to listen to Hazel sometimes. There is also comedy in here that just doesn't land. 8/10