Reviews
Very earnest.
I could really feel that this was a passion project, it exudes such a cute and pure whimsy that is hard to resist. The animators obviously had a ton of fun as well, crazy face shapes, different styles entirely and the big action scenes felt very good. It would have been very easy for this movie to fall into safe corporate "quirky" but it came across as genuinely what the creators liked and found funny.
The How to Train Your Dragon reference was a cute surprise, but I guess it makes sense for a movie that came out more than 15 years ago (damn, I'm old).
The pacing is my biggest problem with it, as it feels like it wants to show off so much while never having time to dive any deeper. It often feels like we're rushing through from one sequence to the next with very little breathing room. As others have pointed out, the ( 2? ) villain's motivations are quite underdeveloped. It seems like they had a villain ready but realized they made her impossible to reason with, so made a second one. Which is also isn't that evil after all, since she's quite easily convinced to stop being bad? It felt a bit messy.
Despite that, the message of friendship and remembering lands quite well and ties this up into being a cute, positive movie.
I hated the baby demon, please never again.
Very earnest.
I could really feel that this was a passion project, it exudes such a cute and pure whimsy that is hard to resist. The animators obviously had a ton of fun as well, crazy face shapes, different styles entirely and the big action scenes felt very good. It would have been very easy for this movie to fall into safe corporate "quirky" but it came across as genuinely what the creators liked and found funny.
The How to Train Your Dragon reference was a cute surprise, but I guess it makes sense for a movie that came out more than 15 years ago (damn, I'm old).
The pacing is my biggest problem with it, as it feels like it wants to show off so much while never having time to dive any deeper. It often feels like we're rushing through from one sequence to the next with very little breathing room. As others have pointed out, the ( 2? ) villain's motivations are quite underdeveloped. It seems like they had a villain ready but realized they made her impossible to reason with, so made a second one. Which is also isn't that evil after all, since she's quite easily convinced to stop being bad? It felt a bit messy.
Despite that, the message of friendship and remembering lands quite well and ties this up into being a cute, positive movie.
I hated the baby demon, please never again.
September 2026
Super fun!
While quite scary at first, it doesn't stay too mean with jumpscares, opting for a healthy balance of eerie atmospheres and encounters.
While I haven't played the games, only watched playthroughs, and you really don't need any knowledge of them to enjoy this.
A very funny thing I quickly noticed is that this feels like someone playing one of the games for the first time: responding with a lot of confused swearing at strange new weird scenarios and fumbling around in horror. This greatly enhanced the viewing experience, as the film really doesn't take itself too seriously and prioritizes maximum fun and horror over story.
I wouldn't be surprised if it later came out that the script was written after the director recorded himself playing the game.
The snow scenes at the beginning looked amazing, and the splattering zombies scene are a standout.
Super fun!
While quite scary at first, it doesn't stay too mean with jumpscares, opting for a healthy balance of eerie atmospheres and encounters.
While I haven't played the games, only watched playthroughs, and you really don't need any knowledge of them to enjoy this.
A very funny thing I quickly noticed is that this feels like someone playing one of the games for the first time: responding with a lot of confused swearing at strange new weird scenarios and fumbling around in horror. This greatly enhanced the viewing experience, as the film really doesn't take itself too seriously and prioritizes maximum fun and horror over story.
I wouldn't be surprised if it later came out that the script was written after the director recorded himself playing the game.
The snow scenes at the beginning looked amazing, and the splattering zombies scene are a standout.
Very cute and impressive animation work!
A surprisingly cozy adventure when contrasted with the extremely high-octane fight scenes. I would recommend this to any animator as an incredible example of weighty, lightning-fast combat. Everything feels like actual deities fighting while keeping the action readable, truly impressive!
Pacing is a smidge of an issue, as it takes a little while to get the ship sailing, but once it does, it remains very entertaining throughout.
I'd also recommend watching it in Chinese, the original language.
Very cute and impressive animation work!
A surprisingly cozy adventure when contrasted with the extremely high-octane fight scenes. I would recommend this to any animator as an incredible example of weighty, lightning-fast combat. Everything feels like actual deities fighting while keeping the action readable, truly impressive!
Pacing is a smidge of an issue, as it takes a little while to get the ship sailing, but once it does, it remains very entertaining throughout.
I'd also recommend watching it in Chinese, the original language.
Pretty good roguelike; it hits the fun, arcade-y buttons in my brain, with big crazy powers that you can build up to with the right combinations.
Unfortunately, it runs out of steam once you figure out which combinations work and start defaulting to those. Some combinations also seem very underpowered and sometimes don't even move the needle, even though they sound fun.
Regardless, it's a fun time for a pretty low price.
Pretty good roguelike; it hits the fun, arcade-y buttons in my brain, with big crazy powers that you can build up to with the right combinations.
Unfortunately, it runs out of steam once you figure out which combinations work and start defaulting to those. Some combinations also seem very underpowered and sometimes don't even move the needle, even though they sound fun.
Regardless, it's a fun time for a pretty low price.
Game of the year, if not the decade. Absolutely incredible.
It seems to really know what makes walking simulators and puzzle games so appealing, and this is then being further amplified by the multiplayer aspect.
The devs explicitly stated that getting lost and finding your way back is an integral part of the experience. The in-game proximity chat has a fairly short range, so you can very easily find yourself out of earshot of others. And when you do inevitably get lost, the game provides some neat ways to signal to your companions and work out a primitive form of communication.
The atmosphere is always slightly worrying as the night creeps in, but it never feels very scary. That unease is balanced out by the daytime giving way to the most beautiful scenes.
Being able to sit on the ground or on chairs shows that the team has an intimate understanding of what elevates an immersion-based game.
Let's go for a big walk.
Game of the year, if not the decade. Absolutely incredible.
It seems to really know what makes walking simulators and puzzle games so appealing, and this is then being further amplified by the multiplayer aspect.
The devs explicitly stated that getting lost and finding your way back is an integral part of the experience. The in-game proximity chat has a fairly short range, so you can very easily find yourself out of earshot of others. And when you do inevitably get lost, the game provides some neat ways to signal to your companions and work out a primitive form of communication.
The atmosphere is always slightly worrying as the night creeps in, but it never feels very scary. That unease is balanced out by the daytime giving way to the most beautiful scenes.
Being able to sit on the ground or on chairs shows that the team has an intimate understanding of what elevates an immersion-based game.
Let's go for a big walk.
August 2026
Painfully boring.
I got tricked by the trailer, showing essentially the only interesting part of the movie.
This movie is 1h40 and it feels like 3 hours — IT'S SO SLOW! It categorically refuses to do anything entertaining until the midpoint, where you get a little bit of conflict before returning to nothing happening.
I was so confused by what it was even trying to communicate. The main character, Tony, seems to very poorly lie his way through everything and get rewarded anyway. Said lying is even more insulting when every other character is revealed to have uncritically believed his extravagant, poorly constructed stories. The whole time, the movie seems to communicate that he's a bad liar who simply gets a pass, but that's not the case: the other characters are genuinely devastated when they're told the obvious truth. The love interest is equally unbelievable, as she agrees to hang out with Tony after his cook friend cracks her boyfriend's skull on the pavement. This hilariously causes them to break up, since the boyfriend gets pissed that she would even entertain the idea, conveniently freeing her up to date our protagonist. Baffling.
The movie loves to meander through slow, pointless scenes, but in the last 20 minutes the writers remember they need to tie everything up and have to speedrun a forced conflict, the usual third-act low point and a redemption, in 10 minutes flat.
I was relieved to leave my seat when it was over.
Painfully boring.
I got tricked by the trailer, showing essentially the only interesting part of the movie.
This movie is 1h40 and it feels like 3 hours — IT'S SO SLOW! It categorically refuses to do anything entertaining until the midpoint, where you get a little bit of conflict before returning to nothing happening.
I was so confused by what it was even trying to communicate. The main character, Tony, seems to very poorly lie his way through everything and get rewarded anyway. Said lying is even more insulting when every other character is revealed to have uncritically believed his extravagant, poorly constructed stories. The whole time, the movie seems to communicate that he's a bad liar who simply gets a pass, but that's not the case: the other characters are genuinely devastated when they're told the obvious truth. The love interest is equally unbelievable, as she agrees to hang out with Tony after his cook friend cracks her boyfriend's skull on the pavement. This hilariously causes them to break up, since the boyfriend gets pissed that she would even entertain the idea, conveniently freeing her up to date our protagonist. Baffling.
The movie loves to meander through slow, pointless scenes, but in the last 20 minutes the writers remember they need to tie everything up and have to speedrun a forced conflict, the usual third-act low point and a redemption, in 10 minutes flat.
I was relieved to leave my seat when it was over.