The first thing you might notice about Little Goody Two-Shoes is the name and its obvious association with the character Elise. Today, we use the phrase “goody shoes” to describe someone who is religiously perfect, which comes from the 18th century children’s book Little Goody Two-Shoes, which, to put it mildly, ethical. Anonymous text (sometimes attributed to Oliver Goldsmith, although that is unlikely to be true) tells of a girl who has only one shoe to her name and receives a second shoe as a reward for her goodness and kindness.”Goody” in the 18th century context was simply a contraction of “goodwife”, which itself was used more or less interchangeably with Mrs./Miss at the time. This is something the game’s creators are very aware of, and the title is a bit of a reference to the children’s book because Elise isn’t any good at all—she really just wants to make her rich dreams come true. become reality.
It’s worth noting that the title isn’t the only literary reference lurking in this game, and an understanding of that will enhance the gameplay experience. Elise’s shoes, which set off the whole adventure, are bright red, a reference to Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes, in which a girl named Karen (who also dreams of the wealth symbolized by the shoes) red) becomes so proud of her shoes that she is cursed to dance until the only way to make it stop is to cut off her feet. Elise is a lot more like Karen than Two-Shoes, although it must be said that she hides her ambitions a little better. That’s important because her adoptive grandmother’s name is Holle, like the main character in the fairy tale Frau Holle, part of a genre of stories called “Kind and Unkind Girls,” in which a was rewarded for her care, while the other was punished. because of her shortcomings. It’s in Elise’s best interest—and the player’s—to be a nicer girl rather than Karen. (Holle is also a version of an ancient Germanic goddess, who may or may not have a role here.)
The game is a narrative role-playing adventure, incorporating a story influenced by the player’s choices in a series of dialogue options and with helping one, the need to manage Muffy, the the town gossip who can make or break Elise’s reputation and explore with mini-games. The narrative also includes a yuri dating sim element, in which Elise can choose between three romantic women, two in town and the mysterious “Selenic wanderer” Rozenmarine. Regardless of who you choose, conversations with all three will provide important and sometimes useful information. The game is divided into day and night, day is the basic style of the Stardew Valley game. Elise wanders around the town and surrounding areas, gathering clues at night, building trust and love with other characters, and making money. Then, at midnight, the game shifts into horror mode, with Elise exploring various fantasy locations in pursuit of the Mysterious One, who grants wishes for what is clearly a terrible price. terrible. (That’s easy for us.)
Of the two modes, night is much more challenging and most of the gameplay issues arise from there. The review copy I received was for PC, and the controls were clearly clunky. While you’re given a choice between modern (WASD) and classic (arrow keys) controls, both have some significant feedback issues, and the lack of a jump feature really hinders some. rambling passage in the forest. Checking items requires an annoying clicking pattern, and even the running feature (by holding down the shift key, but only the left button; the right side doesn’t work) doesn’t help in some cases. Fast response part. While death is a regular feature of this type of game (thanks, early King’s Quest games), it almost feels too easy to die here, especially in the sections dealing with killer caterpillars. It’s more frustrating than fun. That’s most likely a direct result of the game’s PC port; it’s also available for consoles, and I have to say that I doubt this would be a better experience on a console. However, the midnight segments offer healing items for you to find through exploration, so this may be less of a problem for those who are more coordinated or less prone to more discouraged among us. It’s worth noting that while there are plenty of save points and locations available, the “continue” option after death will automatically load the most recent save file, so if you’re playing multiple times at once, save mean that. The game’s ten endings were determined in part by which woman you chose to romance, which worked. All of the main characters have some dialogue in both Japanese and English, but the music is the prominent auditory feature here. (Steam pre-orders of the game include a soundtrack, which is a plus.) The art is also fantastical, incorporating the cutesy aesthetic of the 90s anime version – much edgier than what is considered cute today – with bright, sophisticated colors. Interesting costumes and backgrounds. The sprites and other animations are also very nice, and the game looks really nice, which adds a lot to the creepier parts. While I wouldn’t say the horror is scary, it is disturbing, which is almost more important.
Little Goody Two-Shoes is not a perfect game. It has a lot of striking and interesting elements throughout. However, the frustration factor of the responsive mini-games that make up the chores and the difficulties of navigating midnight scenes without constantly dying detract from the overall fun. I’d love to try this on console before PC, but it’s at least worth a try because the combination of themes is aesthetically pleasing and interesting.