Really a great gem of a game and exactly what I was looking for now :-) A RPG with a compelling and rather unusual story, an interesting world, memorable NPCs ... and not so enormously long as some other AAA games have become - absolutly great, I hope for more!
Unique game. Environment and visuals are gorgeous and art style is somewhat cartoonish and childish. Though mythos it draws inspiration from bears to be approached much more seriously, this one starts goofy, with silly mechanics and characters, while still keeping some horror-ish undertones and visual cues. At first I thought it would be just a light entertainment, a parody of a sort, but along the way, its storytelling evolved into deeper and darker eerie tones, contrasting less mature elements it consists of. It makes quite a nice game, which kept drawing me in more and more, though I didn’t expect it judging by the start. Music is pleasant and appropriate but nothing worth keeping soundtrack of on your music player.
Best part of game are its many lovable details, its voice acting and dialogs and the way they tie together the story, both on its childish and deeper levels. This part is superbly done and all in all makes for a really nice storytelling which is not abusing its folklore backdrop. Unfortunately, it’s very ending is not on par with the rest. Whether it was because of project deadlines, financial issues, or authors just intended to wrap it up being excessively vague, ending takes some serious effort to make sense of and feels rushed and unpolished at best. And I love vague! While there is enough story content to analyze and hopefully come to more or less satisfying sense of closure, it is just not on the same level as rest of game, which is a crying shame. E.g, NPC mushrooms you keep meeting during game got a much more neatly wrapped up ending arcs than protagonist and main story.
In the end, if you can appreciate unique take on classical European fairytales and whacky gameplay and dialogues, you will love Blacktail. Objectively, it deserves 4 stars, but last one is on me ;)