A very cute little mystery novel with a pretty creepy undertone. Some endings are bad, some are tragic, but the magic is none are permanent, as you explore the branching story of the book to find the true ending.
You play as a little deer boy named Luka, but thats only half the story. You’re also the reader. As Luka travels around exploring and getting into trouble, he’ll encounter Charms, adorable little picture frames each with a word embedded. As the reader, you then use these charms to drastically change the trajectory of the plot.
Its the first day of Summer, and something weird is going on in the old Valentine warehouse. Nobody seems to be noticing, so Luka and his friend Rolo decide to go check out the situation and see what’s going on. It’s not gonna be easy though, there are lots of ways for things to go wrong, and a lot of them are tragic and emotional. But, you have to make mistakes to learn, and you’ll be able to turn back time using The Chronicle, and use that knowledge both in the meta sense to piece together the story within the world, but also in the game sense by using new Charms at previously encountered Turning Points to change the plot trajectory.
The characters are all super well designed and engaging, and the world design brings everything together. Each character has a number of full sized dialogue sprites, as well as adorable little in-world ones, and they make my eyeballs feel fuzzy and warm. The music and sound design bring the whole thing together, adding just as much to the world on its own as the characters, design, and narrator.
Speaking of narrator, all of the narration is wonderfully voice acted and incredibly engaging, it comes from the perspective of someone writing the book alongside you playing through the story and deciding it’s trajectory. She also interjects at several points with her own thoughts and opinions on the story, which is especially prevalent at the games many dead ends/endings. While it’s a little sad that the characters aren’t also voice acted too, I can understand why they chose that route. While you’re playing as Luka, you’re fully engrosed into the world, and the narrator only steps in with narrative voice during dialogue, such as tone or mood, which simultaniously keeps you hooked into the world of Beacon Pines, but also into the world of the author writing it. An impressive feat.
I’ve not said much about the plot, and that’s because it’s a mystery novel, and an incredibly emotional one at that. Based on that alone I’d recommend this game, going in blind. I do gotta say though, the plot gave me the strangest sense of deja-vu, as if I’d read this story before, but I know I definitely havent… Maybe it’s tapping into hidden memories for me, not sure.
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1269640 £16.75
Humble Bundle: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/beacon-pines £15.49
Itch.io: https://hidingspot.itch.io/beacon-pines $19.99
Switch: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Beacon-Pines-2256114.html £17.99
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