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indi_timberpathI returned to this series a bit sooner than I expected to; I didn't have my steam deck for a while, and when I got it back, I wanted something simple and playful to dive deep into. There's not a lot to say about the basics of this game that I didn't already say about the previous one, it's a cute Zelda-like, packed with little things to do in its map, and told in a cute frame story of a grampa telling his grandkids a story while they're out camping.
Entirely in terms of mechanics, I think I liked this game a bit better than the previous one; there was a lot less fiddly platforming in the main story, and some really clever new tools to discover in the dungeons. There was a hook-shot (in this case actually a yoyo) which is always a fun things in games like this, and also a really clever little teleport gadget, which let you set a point on screen and then jump back to it from anywhere else while on the same screen, which was used both in some clever puzzles and also had obvious applications when dodging attacks, especially in boss battles.
I liked the puzzles in this one better as well. One of the mainstays of the first game was a 'simon' sort of memory game that came up a lot and each one ended up taking a very long time, to the point that I found them frustrating even though I'm pretty good at such things. There were also some challenges that required clever placement of bombs and attacks that I never really managed to work out on my own. In the sequel, I dind't run into any of that. There were a few styles of repeating puzzles, but I really enjoyed all of them. One involved places where a duplicate would appear on the map, and you'd have to trace out a path of tiles with both you and your duplicate moving at once. At first the paths are similar, but later on they become quite different, and require some clever use of the movement tools I mentioned before to complete the path. Other puzzles that featured were based on a couple of Japanese pencil puzzle games that I already know and enjoy, Masyu and Hashiwokakero. It was really clever how the game integrated these into a top-down hack-and-slash world, especially with how it used simple ones to teach the rules (and just how to manipulate them on the map) and then built up to more and more complex puzzles.
The plot of this one was simple and cute as always, and brought in a little more emotion by being based in the frame-story sibling rivalry between the two grandkids, Lily and Chrys. In the story, this translates into a Labyrinth-style adventure where a wish from the young heroine wakes the ancient Minotaur King who whisks away her bratty brother, to train him up to be his minion and successor. They make up in the end of course, both in the game-story and in the frame-story.
For me, that part led to a slight disappointment, which itself led to a larger thought about a trend I've noticed in certain kinds of media. There's a part in the game where cut-scenes show the heroine's brother, in the questionable care of the Minotaur King, when I really thought it was going to let me have control of him, realize something not-great was going on, and have a two-protagonist story. It didn't go that way, and I'm not that upset about how it didn't go that way, but it reminded me or something that's been in the back of my mind for a while: The limited roles for boys in kids' entertainment.
I first want to acknowledge that this is a really fraught thing to bring up. I don't want to sit here and go "there's not enough male characters in cartoons," because... just no. That's not the case. But it DOES feel like, for the last several years, when a piece of needs a bouncy curious kid protagonist to just go and have fun and do adventures, it seems to be a girl more often than not. I'm thinking of things as separate in tone as Bluey and The Owl House; there's a particular sort of playful dreamy kid type who is a girl, for the very reasonable reason that there's a big representation gap to be made up for, and there's lots of great in-group/out-group tropes to be played with, but it does sometimes leave one feeling like the only way to be a male protagonist is to be a lot more aggressive and stereotypical.
This didn't really affect my enjoyment of the game; it's not even a comment about this game at all really, it's just something that wandered around the back of my mind as I had a lot of fun exploring dungeons and collecting upgrade pieces. I really enjoyed this game, and I'm hoping for more in the series!
Entirely in terms of mechanics, I think I liked this game a bit better than the previous one; there was a lot less fiddly platforming in the main story, and some really clever new tools to discover in the dungeons. There was a hook-shot (in this case actually a yoyo) which is always a fun things in games like this, and also a really clever little teleport gadget, which let you set a point on screen and then jump back to it from anywhere else while on the same screen, which was used both in some clever puzzles and also had obvious applications when dodging attacks, especially in boss battles.
I liked the puzzles in this one better as well. One of the mainstays of the first game was a 'simon' sort of memory game that came up a lot and each one ended up taking a very long time, to the point that I found them frustrating even though I'm pretty good at such things. There were also some challenges that required clever placement of bombs and attacks that I never really managed to work out on my own. In the sequel, I dind't run into any of that. There were a few styles of repeating puzzles, but I really enjoyed all of them. One involved places where a duplicate would appear on the map, and you'd have to trace out a path of tiles with both you and your duplicate moving at once. At first the paths are similar, but later on they become quite different, and require some clever use of the movement tools I mentioned before to complete the path. Other puzzles that featured were based on a couple of Japanese pencil puzzle games that I already know and enjoy, Masyu and Hashiwokakero. It was really clever how the game integrated these into a top-down hack-and-slash world, especially with how it used simple ones to teach the rules (and just how to manipulate them on the map) and then built up to more and more complex puzzles.
The plot of this one was simple and cute as always, and brought in a little more emotion by being based in the frame-story sibling rivalry between the two grandkids, Lily and Chrys. In the story, this translates into a Labyrinth-style adventure where a wish from the young heroine wakes the ancient Minotaur King who whisks away her bratty brother, to train him up to be his minion and successor. They make up in the end of course, both in the game-story and in the frame-story.
For me, that part led to a slight disappointment, which itself led to a larger thought about a trend I've noticed in certain kinds of media. There's a part in the game where cut-scenes show the heroine's brother, in the questionable care of the Minotaur King, when I really thought it was going to let me have control of him, realize something not-great was going on, and have a two-protagonist story. It didn't go that way, and I'm not that upset about how it didn't go that way, but it reminded me or something that's been in the back of my mind for a while: The limited roles for boys in kids' entertainment.
I first want to acknowledge that this is a really fraught thing to bring up. I don't want to sit here and go "there's not enough male characters in cartoons," because... just no. That's not the case. But it DOES feel like, for the last several years, when a piece of needs a bouncy curious kid protagonist to just go and have fun and do adventures, it seems to be a girl more often than not. I'm thinking of things as separate in tone as Bluey and The Owl House; there's a particular sort of playful dreamy kid type who is a girl, for the very reasonable reason that there's a big representation gap to be made up for, and there's lots of great in-group/out-group tropes to be played with, but it does sometimes leave one feeling like the only way to be a male protagonist is to be a lot more aggressive and stereotypical.
This didn't really affect my enjoyment of the game; it's not even a comment about this game at all really, it's just something that wandered around the back of my mind as I had a lot of fun exploring dungeons and collecting upgrade pieces. I really enjoyed this game, and I'm hoping for more in the series!
