This is a slightly edited and updated version of my review I had written in August 2020, but my words still continue to ring ever-true for me. Since then, I've both speedran the game and have watched friends play through this game countless times, and it ranks as one of my favorite games ever. Since beating it, there have been two major content updates (1.1 and 1.2 respectively- which I have also gone back and done the updated content.)

After playing Bug Fables, it became one of my favorite games of all time. I don't say this lightly. This game is just absolutely phenomenal on nearly all fronts.

The gameplay is super awesome and intuitive, and when you get a hang of it, it REALLY rewards you. You really have to think about what you're doing, especially on hard mode (which you can toggle on and off at any time if you desire!) Optimizing your turn order and positioning, in tandem with the medal system, to take on the games' challenges is one of the most satisfying things.

There's also a ton of different medals, which have different beneficial effects on your party, which leads to a bunch of different combinations and synergies which are all SUPER cool. I always loved talking to my friends who also were in the middle of playing it and hearing their strategies. It was never the same, which really goes to show you how much creativity and fun you can have with your team!

Speaking of the team... the characters! The character writing is amazing. You really grow to love the entirety of the main team over the course of the story and see how they change and grow, which is really awesome. The dynamic between the main trio is just super great and leads to a ton of funny and heartwrenching moments throughout. Team Snakemouth truly is the heart of the game, and I love watching them grow together throughout the journey.

And that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface with the huge ensemble cast! There's a ton of characters that you'll meet throughout your journey through Bugaria that you'll see pop up again here and there. It's always an absolute treat.

The world of Bug Fables just has so much love and care put into its world. It really makes you feel like you're a part of a living, tiny bug world, with different cultures and species all over. And a lot of the lore and world building is just super cool, especially with things like lore and bestiary entries.

Bug Fables also really rewards you if you decide to go that extra mile. There are so many memorable and lovely moments off the beaten path if you decide to do stuff aside from just the main story. A ton of the sidequests are super cool and give awesome rewards and interactions. In addition, using the game's spy/gossip feature, the party always has a ton of comments on the various enemies, NPCs and locations you visit. Sometimes this stuff even changes depending on where you are in the story! This game just has so much amazing detail and love put into it, I just absolutely cannot believe the details with context-sensitive things in relation to the world at times.

I love how even the sound design of Bug Fables has that early 2000s midi electro style that most games had for the era of games it's inspired from. But, it's much more than just an imitation. Tristan Alric's work on the soundtrack is absolutely amazing and adds so much to the environments and battle themes. I've relistened to so many tracks and even bought the soundtrack due to how many bangers there are in this game. It's also interesting knowing the context of the games' development as a lot of the songs were made sequentially in relation to the game's story progression- and you can definitely tell there's some stylistic and music evolution with late game tracks compared to early game. That might be off-putting for some, but sheesh. I think the soundtrack is overall just super great, but definitely some of my favorites are in the latter half of the game.

Post-launch content updates have also further embellished the adventure, with extra post-game content and smaller additions throughout. Having played through it back when it was the original base 1.0 version, it's truly the best time to play it with all of the new additions.

It really is just an absolutely phenomenal gem. I recommend this game a ton. Heck, I've gifted it to multiple people because it's just THAT good. Funnily enough, **I** was gifted this game and had put it off for a few months before finally playing it. Gifting it to others, I just find it as a way of paying it forward. I love this game, so so much.

It's not a flawless game, far from it. There's jank with physics at times, some puzzles are rather... strange. As you get more medals, you might find it a hassle to swap between loadouts for standard battles versus bosses- or having to make sure you're well prepped by cooking items before a boss.

However, when it's all said and done, and the Credits track rolls, I hope you find that you've enjoyed your experience with Bug Fables as much as I did. It truly is a game filled with heart, and I'm ever so thankful that I played it at the time that I did.

After reading this lengthy review, I seriously hope you give it a shot. Thank you.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. 100%'d with a final playtime of 18 hours.

This is one of those games that’s filled with SOUL and HEART, with some pretty great gameplay puzzles- though with some kinda glaring lowlights. Chicory feels like a game that absolutely thrives based on how much you put into it, and decide to immerse yourself with the world and play around with it. I think how you end up feeling about this game when you walk away from it is highly based on how much its writing and messaging resonates with you, and how much you’re willing to overlook some of its more apparent flaws.

It’s a 2D Zeldalike- though with a very much lack of combat on the overworld. I think that’s a good thing. You get to intimately become familiar with the map and each of its screens. There are quite a lot of fun sidequests that really test your knowledge and memory of certain places! I really liked that!

Working in tandem with that, it’s extremely freeing and rewarding exploring previous areas with your new movement abilities as you progress through the game. It’s actually pretty wondrous how many hidden secrets there are. Of course, all of the optional collectibles are, well, optional. And they don’t really affect any of the gameplay, but it does scratch that collectathon itch.

This OST has some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ BANGERs in it. Mostly more chill overworld songs and I really enjoy the detail of the layering of songs. There’s variations for being on the edge of an area, which is real neat! Not to say there’s not some good hype moments and aura songs as well. I think an interesting part of a lot of the overworld compositions is that they do have a bit of a slow start, and become pretty beautiful pieces once they get going. Songs like Sips River and Teatime Meadows are perfect songs to just take your time walking through these little transitory aeries, or just take a seat and color in a screen nicely. I legit had a visceral emotional moment when I stumbled upon Hummus’s garden side story, while the music of Teatime Meadows picked up. :(

Now, let’s talk about the bosses. I feel like they’re a pretty great visual and narrative spectacle for the most part. How the bosses work in tandem visually with the phases and the music responding to it, is REALLY cool!

However, I feel like there’s some tonal dissonance on the first two bosses, especially the second one looks kinda really dumb… And the gameplay of the bosses is where it really falls flat, which kinda sucks. The game’s systems aren’t really built for combat, which makes the bosses stick out like a sore thumb. This is kinda band-aid fixed by the fact that you can’t really fail the bosses, you’re given a pretty generous check points and infinite retry window. But, with how the boss attacks look visually, while very pretty as a spectacle, are extremely visually unclear in terms of hitboxes on when they’re active or not. It’s pretty much due to how the paint works, fading after some time. It’s hard to tell when paint strokes are active hitboxes still, or not. UNFORTUNATELY the final boss is kinda the worse with this, which is a pretty big damper. With how the final boss depended on Chicory hitting the boss with her own paint strokes to open up weak spots, I actually genuinely also was confused when I was playing and I couldn't tell if she was missing or like it’s not actually doing anything and there’s just a hidden timer on when the boss became vulnerable. Obviously the bosses are not the main focus of the game, but the fact they have such important narrative importance and that the game ends on a BOSS makes me really wish they were just a bit better.

For some more criticisms, sometimes the perspective with depth perception could get real weird and unclear. Especially with some of the late game puzzles. Paint bomb pushing always had a little degree of jank to it. I also had a little bit of frustration with the wind and cloud cycles during the late-game mountain climb just not lining up.

And this might be nit-picky, but man I really wish that NPC dialogue just didn’t stop with the NPCs becoming un-interactable. It’s a little immersion breaking, given the world feels super fleshed out and alive with the NPCs often visiting and appearing in different places. Just wish once you exhausted their dialogue that they had a repeating filler line, at least, instead of becoming cardboard cutouts.

But to end it on a more positive note, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. The writing and messaging of this game is a really intricately woven and beautiful story on the actual examination of creative drive and the joy in that, whilst juggling unhealthy expectations, setting self-boundaries and imposter syndrome, burnout, and even mental abuse/trauma. The worldbuilding of a society that’s so highly-dependent on the Wielder, and the burden that comes with that, is not shied away from. It’s got some real down-to-earth depictions and extremely touching conversations throughout. The story is pretty deep in showing how it affects Pizza (the protagonist) and Chicory in different ways. Chicory is held up to these extremely high regards by everyone, and decoupling that mask of a savior, and being able to just Be, is some ♥♥♥♥♥♥’ real ♥♥♥♥.

Pizza being an accidental wielder and breaking societal standard- with seeds of doubt on if they deserved to be one. Throughout the entire game, they have this feeling of anxiousness, of rambunctiousness to prove themselves, and of amateur ambition. These feelings persist even up until the finale. All the NPCs gathering around to encourage them, and that extreme pressure, while still feeling unworthy… coalescing into defeat. The pre-final boss conversation has them ask for the confirmation that Chicory DIDN’T choose them, and they initially come to the conclusion that Chicory chose them because (in Pizza’s eyes) they were a bad choice.

Chicory rebuffing that conclusion as a capstone to the friendship they built up, and whilst admitting that she didn’t CHOOSE Pizza, Pizza shows how you don’t HAVE to be chosen to be capable. And so in the finale, with how it concludes with how powerful it is to be unique and different, lets them defy tradition and find a new way forward- that nobody had thought about, is gratifying as all hell.

With the realization that anyone can form their own brush and color being free, is like, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥… Anyone can draw or be creative. You don’t need to be a professional, you don’t need to PROVE anything.

I feel like so much of the side cast has things relevant to the writing and themes of the story as well, with SO many small things and details, where not every feeling is neatly resolved. Not everyone is completely and perfectly happy, yet people continue to strive on and grow, figuring themselves out. It’s so surprisingly mature, for such a cutesy looking game on the outside. There also are some pretty damn witty and funny jokes. It’s a great balance for the writing!

I think the ending credits sequence showing timelapses of multiple different screens you drew, as well as the ending map, is so ♥♥♥♥♥♥’ cool. Not just those, but the paintings showing up around the world, the decor placement sidequests, and more… I personally tried to at neatly colorize pretty much every screen, and the ending capstones a showcase of how personalized the world of Picnic becomes based on You, the player, and I think it really hit me when the credits theme picked up whilst showing a timelapse as a screen filled up with color.

♥♥♥♥♥♥ man, I don’t know. Myself, as a critic, finds some issues with the game (it’s still largely great), but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, that story and writing hit me so hard, as someone who’s constantly wished they were “creative” or could “do it” in terms of art. Maybe I can do it. Thank you, Chicory, for giving me the encouragement to try again.