Part visual novel, part point-and-click, plus some light management. The main game is in pixel art, which can be a turn-off for some, but is perfectly executed in this gem. All animations are clear and readable despite having so little to work with in terms of visual detail. The use of paralaxing layers to create depth in the environments as well as vertical scrolling for grander vistas was a good move that helped avoid flatness that usually comes with pixel-art games. The tone of the game is kind of gloomy and maintains a steady curve of despair that grows as the situation grows more and more dire. This is portrayed well in the tone of the characters in the game. The relationship between the player character Eryk and his daughters and wife felt like it had some depth to me. The daughters each had a main personality trait but could show the depth and multidimensionality that real people have by moving between moods and reacting to events in the game in their own way. Some events in the game really touched me, which I was definitely not expecting when I started playing. Even grew to like the youngest daughter nearing the ending, even though she initially was the character I was most worried about getting endlessly annoyed by. Character development is a thing and it's in this. I only played it through once, making a set of choices mainly using my own internal moral compass but the game left me with a sense of there being radically different outcomes from other options in the choices I made, which is a great thing regardless if there actually are a bunch of other resolutions to the story or not. Illusion of choice and all that. In the first act, the balancing act felt very difficult and as if I was working against a steep curve, but during the second act it almost felt easy, which was kind of strange. Might be that there are some balancing issues here and there. All in all, a super pretty game that uses its setting well. I want more!
