- Profoundly emotional pet story
- Stunning art, details, and music
- Engaging, varied, accessible gameplay
- Must-play for pet lovers
- Features overwhelmingly sad, disturbing content
- Experience is short, potentially expensive
Emotions
Players experienced profound sadness due to the game's emotional narrative, which often focuses on themes of pet loss, animal suffering, and separation. The story deeply resonated with personal experiences of losing a pet, frequently leading to tears and intense emotional impact from beginning to end.
Players felt satisfaction from the game's deeply moving story, high overall quality (including graphics, sound, and design), and its ability to meet or exceed expectations. The engaging gameplay, fair challenges, and perceived value for money also contributed to a highly positive and fulfilling experience.
Joy stemmed from the adorable portrayal of dogs, especially the Corgi protagonist, and the game's beautiful visuals and heartwarming moments. Players also enjoyed the fun mini-games, humorous elements, and overall positive and 'healing' experience, sometimes leading to happy tears.
Players experienced excitement due to the game's overall outstanding quality, varied gameplay mechanics, and engaging adventure elements. Anticipation for the game's release, the emotional rollercoaster it provided, and the strong recommendation to others further fueled this excitement.
Frustration arose from difficult or repetitive mini-games, often coupled with poor or awkward controls, particularly during jumping sequences and quick-time events (QTEs). Technical issues like camera bugs, unclear objectives, and perceived inconsistencies in the plot or marketing also contributed to this feeling.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 96% · Negative 4%. Score: 4 / 100
Positives:
- The game delivers an incredibly moving narrative about pet loyalty, loss, and the hope of reunion, particularly resonating with pet owners. It often evokes strong tears and provides comfort and healing, especially for those grieving a lost pet, presenting heavy themes with warmth and a hopeful conclusion.
- Reviewers consistently praise the game as a masterpiece and a true gem, often calling it their 'Game of the Year' and 'best purchase'. They find it worth every penny, exceeding expectations, and commend the developers for the clear love and care invested in its creation.
- The game is highly praised for its beautiful, warm, and often hand-drawn art style, especially in cutscenes. Reviewers highlight the meticulous details in dog animations and behaviors, including the Corgi's iconic 'peach butt.' The excellent soundtrack and sound design significantly enhance the emotional and immersive experience.
- Players appreciate the diverse gameplay mechanics, including platforming, puzzles, QTEs, and various mini-games, which effectively prevent boredom. The difficulty is generally moderate and accessible, making it enjoyable for both experienced gamers and casual players, further supported by forgiving checkpoints and retries.
Negatives:
- The narrative contains dark and graphic depictions of dog abuse, suffering, euthanasia, and suicide. Many players, particularly dog owners, found these themes emotionally difficult, heartbreaking, and potentially traumatizing, impacting their overall experience.
- Some feedback indicated that the game's graphics, including fur details and general models, were not particularly outstanding. There were also mentions of eye strain due to bright visuals.
- Many players felt the game's content, typically 4-7 hours, was too brief for its price point. This led to desires for more gameplay, exploration, and replay value, with some suggesting a lower price.
- Reviews highlighted janky, imprecise controls, especially for jumping and action sequences. QTEs, mini-games, chase battles, and stealth sections were often found difficult, repetitive, or poorly implemented, leading to player frustration and immersion breaks. Core mechanics were also noted as lacking depth.
- Players noted a lack of character customization, side quests, and a clear purpose for certain mechanics like stamina collection. This limited post-story engagement and overall replay value beyond the main linear narrative.
Gameplay:
- The game centers on a deceased Corgi's emotional and perilous journey from dog heaven/purgatory to reunite with its owner. Along the way, it forms companions, overcomes obstacles, and performs dog-specific actions, though it also depicts instances of dog suffering.
- Gameplay blends third-person platforming, stealth, and a variety of mini-games including rhythm, racing, and chase sequences. Quick Time Events are frequent but designed to be forgiving, and a 'sniff' mechanic guides the player through levels. The Corgi's short stature influences platforming and cooperative puzzle-solving.
- The game offers a relatively short, linear experience, typically completable within 4-7 hours, with all achievements unlockable in this timeframe. Its overall difficulty is low to moderate, making it accessible and intuitive for beginners, despite some challenging sections.
- The game's story is primarily conveyed through 2D watercolor illustrations and picture-book style drawings, along with character actions and gestures. There is no voice acting or extensive traditional dialogue.
- The game features optional collectibles that increase the Corgi's stamina, offering convenience for traversing longer distances. These items are few and easy to find, but not essential for completing the game.
Performance:
- While many players report smooth gameplay and generally acceptable optimization, even on lower-end systems, specific areas like snowy blizzards, river descents, and later game stages can experience significant frame drops and lag, sometimes requiring a switch to lower graphics settings.
- A specific issue was noted in the cave stage where lowering the brightness too much made it impossible to see anything. This suggests potential problems with the game's brightness curve or level design in dark environments.
- Players perceive the game's PC hardware requirements as 'decent' or reasonable. This suggests the game is generally accessible and not overly demanding for a broad range of systems.
- The game's installation size was described as 'old fashioned,' indicating it might be quite large or align with typical installation sizes of more substantial, traditional game titles.
Recommendations:
- Players overwhelmingly recommend this game, especially to dog owners, animal lovers, and those who have experienced the loss of a beloved pet. It's praised for its ability to evoke deep emotions and provide a consoling, heartfelt experience about the bond between humans and their animal companions, often resonating deeply with personal memories.
- The game is described as a powerful emotional journey that will likely make players cry. Many reviewers warn to have tissues ready, highlighting the narrative's ability to trigger profound feelings, particularly for those with a personal connection to pets or experiences of loss.
Miscellaneous:
- Many players had eagerly awaited the game's full release after experiencing its demo. This pre-release engagement indicates a strong initial interest and positive impression from early previews, leading to immediate purchase and play upon launch.
- Players acknowledge Dreamotion Inc. and KRAFTON, Inc. as the developers and publishers, expressing gratitude for their work on the game. This indicates positive recognition for the studio behind the emotionally impactful experience.
