Little Goody Two Shoes – be careful what you wish for (Picture: Square Enix)
A cross between Stardew Valley and Silent Hill is one of the best indie games of the year, in this peculiarly successful mix of genres.
2023 is being lauded as one of the best years for video games in a very long while but there’s a flipside to everything and some are concerned that that the large number of high quality AAA games is making it more difficult than usual for indie games to make an impression. There have been many great indie titles this year, such as Cocoon, Humanity, and Dave The Diver, but they don’t seem to have caught the public’s imagination as much as they might have in a quieter year.
We almost missed Little Goody Two Shoes entirely, but then we didn’t realise that its late October release date was not an accident and that this is a genuinely creepy survival horror. It’s also about a dozen other game genres all rolled into one, from dating sim to farming game, and yet somehow it all blends together remarkably well.
What we also didn’t realise until now is that The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes is a children’s story from the 18th century. Portuguese developer AstralShift seem to be aware though, even if in their version of the story the heroine is not a paradigm of virtue but a selfish brat, that is nevertheless strangely relatable. The game goes to some unexpected places, but its sheer unpredictability is one of its greatest assets.
It might not be a direct adaptation of the original story, but virtuousness and shoes are key to the game’s plot, as you take on the role of Elise, who finds herself frustrated with her lot in life after her grandmother passes away. She realises that she has a chance to change her fate when she discovers a strange girl named Rozenmarine in her shed – who may or may not be a witch – and a suspiciously luxurious pair of red shoes.
Little Goody Two Shoes refers to itself as a horror narrative adventure, but as vague as that might sound it is about as accurate a description as you can get. It soon becomes clear that Elise is getting herself involved in some dark business and that something very evil is lurking in the forest, threatening the nearby village where Elise performs menial tasks to get by, while secretly resenting most of the townsfolk.
Many of the game’s constituent parts are familiar but the way they’re blended together, and the highly variable tone, is constantly surprising. For example, there’s a strong element of Harvest Moon style cosy game, where the day is split up into six sections and for half of them you’re completely free to do whatever you want, wandering into the village to talk to people, do odd jobs for them, and work on Elise’s sapphic love life.
There is a practical concern though, in that you have to stay well fed or you can die of starvation. So doing side quests, including a small number of arcade mini-games, for money is important because you need it to buy food and provisions for further exploration.
You also have to manage your reputation and prevent the townsfolk getting too suspicious over yourself and Rozenmarine. This comes to a head in moments where you have to pick appropriate dialogue options to win over ordinary people or provide requested food stuffs to a nosy neighbour called Muffy, who is blackmailing you to keep her quiet (although Muffy is pretty funny and played largely as comic relief).
At night is when the horror elements come to the fore, with the woods filled with ghosts and goblins, where interacting with them drains your sanity meter rather than your hunger. There’s no combat and instead a series of abstruse puzzles to solve. You do get use to their logic after a few tries but they’re probably a bit too difficult for the role they play in the game and too often you just end up resorting to trial and error.
If you go down in the woods tonight… (Picture: Square Enix)
It’s also frustrating that exploring at night requires a steady supply of matches and yet it’s easy to run out and have no recourse but to retreat to a previous save in order to try again – something which the game actively encourages by advising you to make full use of all the save slots.
AstralShift’s previous game, Pocket Mirror – to which this is a prequel, was built only in RPG Maker but Little Goody Two Shoes uses Unity and it’s a remarkably attractive looking video game, given the obviously low budget and relative inexperience of the developer. The pixel artwork is excellent but there’s also lots of animated flourishes that make it much more than just a faux 16-bit game.
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Saturn classic Princess Crown has obviously been an inspiration but the drawn artwork for human characters is also channelling early 90s anime. Some may find the style rather ugly, particularly the weird eyes, but in the context of a (quasi) horror game it works perfectly, especially given what an odd fish Elise is anyway.
Little Goody Two Shoes is a perfect example of why gaming needs indie titles just as much as big budget blockbusters. It’s a strange and unconventional game, that would in no way be improved by better graphics or a higher budget, and instead works precisely because of those constraints. It’s not perfect but it is unique and unpredictable and there’s very few games, even in this bumper year, that can say that.
Little Goody Two Shoes PS5 review summary
In Short: A highly inventive mix of genres that you’d normally think completely incompatible, but the end result is creepy, charming, and wonderfully unpredictable.
Pros: All the gameplay elements work well, both independently and as part of the whole – including the horror angle. Surprisingly good visuals and soundtrack, with some sharp writing.
Cons: The puzzles are unnecessarily difficult and together with your limited store of matches make nighttime exploration more frustrating than it should be.
Score: 8/10
Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Nintendo Switch, and PC
Price: £14.99
Publisher: Square Enix Collective
Developer: AstralShift
Release Date: 31st October 2023
Age Rating: 12
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A cross between Stardew Valley and Silent Hill is one of the best indie games of the year, in this peculiarly successful mix of genres.