Game Thoughts - Littlewood by Sean Young

Note: This is more a first impressions thing for now, since we haven't finished it yet, if it can be finished.

What's It About?

You play as a hero who saved the world of Solemn, but unfortunately, you lost your memory. A girl named Willow found you in one of the destroyed towns, and now, your goal is to build the town back up in the hopes of attracting people who may know you and help you regain your memories.

For this type of game, this is a concept we haven't really seen before.

Writing

While the dialogue for the villagers and other NPCs can become a little repetitive depending on how you're doing in the game, what really drew me into this particular game is the premise, and how your little interactions with them as well as their conversations with each other give little bits and pieces of lore to think about.

Like, what's going on? How did you lose your memories? Are you really the hero of Solemn? What about the Dark Wizard?

Setting the game after the quest to defeat the big bad evil guy really makes you wonder not only what's happened, but also what's next for the world. There's a lot of mystery there, a lot of unexplored territory.

For one, I look forward to progressing more and uncovering more of the past while building for the future.

Art

As you might see from the screenshots, it's a very simplified pixel art style that constrains itself to the grid pattern of the map. It's really cute, and I think it helps with one of the main gameplay mechanics, which is town building. It keeps it simple.

Audio

The music is quite comfy, and the little sounds that your actions make are satisfying. It's not overly spectacular, but it does what it does.

Gameplay

One of the things that I appreciate with this game is how the controls are really simple. With how it is, at least on keyboard, you can pretty much play the game with one hand. Of course, you can also choose options with the mouse, but as I said, one-handed gameplay is possible. For PC, anyway. We don't have a Switch, so I wouldn't know if it's similar there.

There are also a lot of interesting mechanics in this game that make it unlike a lot of other farm sims we've played.

The biggest one would be the "build mode" that it has, and it pretty much overlaps with crafting, construction (you instantly build houses as you place them), farming (you put in tilled land as well as the vegetables and fruit trees), and a bit of foraging (in the case of flower picking). You could say that it's kind of overpowered in the sense that you can also travel throughout town using this mode, since where the cursor is last left is where your character will be when you exit build mode.

Another one, that I think is borrowed from them incremental upgrade games, is how you can improve the buildings and services in your village, as well as the outside areas that you unlock via the hot air balloon. Leveling them up can give you rare items, as well as open up more options.

And yet another element that I found interesting was the lack of a clock. Instead, "time" moves while you're doing actions and spending stamina. When your stamina gets low, it becomes night time, serving as a signal that you should go to sleep soon.

I like that it allows you to just roam around freely as long as you still have stamina left, letting you make more purchases, as well as interactions with the villagers and other NPCs. (I would have to note that complimenting someone makes you pass out if your stamina is at the lowest, so be careful lol)

Oh yeah, even though this is a fantasy setting, and you're a former hero and all, there are no battles in this game (at least not with the areas I've unlocked). At least, not with monsters, who will pretty much just knock you out if they catch you. It's kind of nice that all you have to do is avoid enemies instead of outright fighting them.

All in all, I enjoy the gameplay. It's easy to pick up and keeps you engaged.

Overall

So far, we've had a good fun time with the game. Art and music are nice, the premise is intriguing, the controls are pretty simple, and there's so much to do and leveling up is so fast that the gameplay loop doesn't really get boring. Plus, players can decide what to do without the pressure of a time limit.

Not only that, but they can truly build a village that's to their liking, given the various options in the game's Build Mode.

You can get it on GOG and Steam for PC, and it's also available for the Nintendo Switch.