The factor about Misfortune Ramirez Hernandez, the titular protagonist of Little Misfortune, is that she solely has a number of animations, and one in every of them is falling flat on her face. That’s a part of the lot she’s been handed in life, and as her thematically acceptable identify would possibly recommend, the remainder of it isn’t nice both.
But for each time she takes a spill, she additionally has an animation for getting again up. And for every thing else, there may be glitter.
Little Misfortune is a fairytale horror story – suppose Brothers Grimm, not Disney. It begins with a voice in Misfortune’s head asking her to play a game in trade for everlasting happiness. Misfortune says sure, as a result of she’d love to offer that everlasting happiness to her mum, and likewise names the voice Mr. Voice. You can’t actually blame her for being uncreative right here, contemplating her personal identify.
What follows is an interactive journey, although not some extent and click on like developer Killmonday Games’ earlier work, Fran Bow. You transfer left and proper by way of every scene at your individual tempo, work together with objects to debate them with Mr. Voice, and make choices that’ll come again round later within the story. And you possibly can throw glitter at any given second.
This is objectively good game design, however it’s additionally desperately endearing. Misfortune is, you could be shocked to listen to, surrounded by tragedies massive and small at each second. As I stated, you possibly can hurl sparkles everytime you really feel known as to, however at sure prompts it should trigger her to beat the concern, pasting a brand new, nicer picture borne of a kid’s overactive creativeness over the worst of no matter catastrophe she’s witnessed. As a metaphor for perseverance and having fun with the little issues, it’s not refined, however it is extremely cute.
If you’re something like me, although, you would possibly end up tossing out handfuls of the stuff at issues way more summary than Misfortune can correctly grasp. The game leans closely on real-world horrors alongside its extra supernatural scares. Some subjects, like abuse, underpin the complete narrative and broadly work to offer it a grounding in true unpleasantness. But others, like suicide, really feel tossed in for shock worth earlier than by no means being addressed once more.
That feeling isn’t helped by the tonal mismatch that locations these grownup fears alongside way more juvenile humour. Jamming a poop joke after an occasion of animal demise does little however make sure that they journey each other up, the place touchdown one on its toes alone was already tough.
Sometimes the abruptness of capital I-Issues and goofs overlap instantly, complicated whether or not one thing is supposed to be one or the opposite or each. Mr. Voice may be very clearly suspicious from the beginning, and shortly turns into creepier and creepier. But the half the place he assumes eight-year-old Misfortune goes by way of puberty and describes that as “your body is preparing to create life inside of you,” nonetheless feels prefer it comes from completely nowhere, as does the joke (?) in the identical dialog the place Misfortune mishears “hormones” as “homos.”
There are many of those weirdly jarring moments, which grow to be larger obstacles as a result of every thing hinges on Little Misfortune’s story and writing. Other than some very minor puzzles, all you’re doing is unravelling dialogue and plot, so when that dialogue falls flat it’s particularly apparent.
The reverse can be true, nevertheless. While many “choices matter” games wrestle to really feel satisfying with out going all the way in which right into a branching narrative, Little Misfortune’s brief runtime (about three hours) and lack of distractions signifies that callbacks to earlier choices land while not having to be massively impactful on the plot itself. Not every thing seems to get referenced once more, however the bits that do are highlights. Like how I discovered myself very invested in a single explicit fish.
More usually, the dual motivations of loving Misfortune and hating Mr. Voice are simply sufficient momentum to hold by way of the sticking factors. The game often reuses voice performing for Misfortune, so she says repeated traces like “mmm-okay” and “yikes forever” in the identical (cute) cadence each time. It is noticeable, however doesn’t actually have an effect on the game besides in a single half: it attracts consideration to repeated situations of Mr. Voice giving her some terrible, slimy praise for enjoying alongside, to which she at all times replies with the identical shy “thank you.”
Despite having my pores and skin crawl at virtually every thing Mr. Voice stated, his breaking the fourth wall to rope the participant into his scheme creates an terrible sense of complicity. Thankfully, that is instantly balanced by the enjoyment every time you possibly can lead Misfortune into any small act of revolt towards him. It’s a giddy mixture of grownup smugness at getting one over on a rival mixed with infantile conspiratorial whispering underneath a blanket fort.
And regardless of every thing that occurs to her, Misfortune received’t allow you to down. Every time she falls over, she will get again up. And each time the game veers off observe you are able to do the identical: throw somewhat glitter and transfer on.
