Foxtail has some of the prettiest pixel art I've ever seen, the nest screen is stunning. The characters animate smoothly and every screen is so detailed and has so much to look at. There isn't, however, much to do at said screens. So much of this game is just empty space, it feels like padding, like fat.
The same can be said for the plot, thus far. There is a subtext to it, mythos and lore, that is presented to the player very well, and is well crafted, but its just alluded to and never used for anything in the story or the development of the characters. The plot doesn't goes anywhere while the player is meandering about gathering items. For about 3/4 of the game, there is nothing at stake, and when something happens, its back to gathering more items, and plowing through empty, yet beautiful, scenery.
The items you gather themselves have little meaning, its just going through a shopping list, a long one at that, so the player can get another list. There is very little sense of accomplishment and the characters themselves do very little, what few lines they have are rather pointless and convey little information about themselves or their world. Its almost fitting there is no voice acting since the dialogue has so little consequence to the action. One of the characters is even deaf and doesn't have a dialogue tree. Another character can't talk, and somehow has one... This inconsistency with sound spills to the music, its pleasing, but some loops are so short they get grating.
The most meaningful information is conveyed through books, and the few puzzles that use those books shine in the game. If in the future the lore learned by the player is used in the puzzles like that, this game could turn into a gem. Trim down the empty screens, the size of the shopping lists, get the characters to interact some more and this could be gold.
As it is, it's silver, shiny, but not that valuable as an experience.
