Just finished it too. Short, but sweet. Slight collision issues once or twice, but besides that I loved it. The 'super hard' optional puzzle, I actually had solved it 3/4 of the way and accidentally got the solution to the puzzle through cycling the second number.
I also instantly recognized the singer of the ending. I was like "is that motherfucking Akiko Shikata" and it was! Said so in the credits! Of Umineko no Naku Koro Ni fame.
I really like the short, to the point nature of this game. It doesn't overstay its welcome, and has a lot of "I feel smart" moments for solving certain things. "Ah, I get it!" You know the moments.
The princess is one of my new favorite videogame heroines of all time now.
What a beautiful little fable.
Most annoying enemy was the Boo-like ghosts that turn into platforms. Often was a tiny bit buggy, but otherwise the game's pretty tight. Controls are generous, and it feels pretty great to play in wolf form, it makes you feel very powerful.
The one downside to that might be that since enemies are afraid of you in wolf form, and you don't take damage at all, and you don't collide with enemies, it feels kind of ethereal in nature rather than brutal.
The animation is superb. As a person who's animated for a 2D platformer before, I know how hard it is to make a satisfying melee feeling for one. There is so much personality in the art of this game, coupled with the animation and story, it makes you stop caring as much about minor foibles and glitches. The wolf form is also one of my new favorite videogame designs, so I just had to buy that plushie. Four eyes, four ears, et cetera. The tone was very "dark NIS" at the same time, giving it the feeling of a more traditional fable like the original Aesop's Fables or Grimm stories, but they navigated it masterfully so it didn't turn into the almost edgy for edgy's sake story of, say, NIS' Witch and The Hundred Knight.
Yoko Taro said once that with the game industry being what it is right now, it's very much impossible to charge 60 dollars for a 3 minute long game, even if it's the most beautiful and meaningful game of all time. At the very least, this is a lot longer than that, and it's cheaper, but the saying comes to mind - and I would gladly pay this price for a short game this beautifully poignant again.
Parting note: this is not a high budget game, not even close. Probably very small, actually. There are moments where you will think about certain things, like the sphere of light around fires, or the oddly angular fog. I loved the game regardless.
