Bonbon

[h3]Bonbon, trauma through a child's eyes[/h3] Bonbon tries to take on a task not many games try to achieve, conveying childhood trauma accurately through a child's eyes. Many games try to display trauma, fear, and anguish in somewhat comprehensible ways that show how the victim felt, but even fewer tackle the topic of children, especially in a stylized way. Bonbon does, and it does it well. This is where, in my opinion, the most important comparison comes in. Bonbon, the rat, is trapped in a cage, being observed by everyone else who is so much bigger than him. Symbolically, that is how our character, the child, feels. This feeling of childlike helplessness gets complemented by the control scheme, a point of contention for many other players, but in my view a must. The movement feels odd and sluggish. You freeze randomly and sometimes cannot move. To me, that doesn't feel like the game is badly coded. It feels intentional, like a representation of how a child suffering from anxiety related trauma acts and goes throughout their day. And it works. You really feel like a small, helpless child struggling with menial tasks because they are scared by their trauma. And that's …

It's short, maybe too short, not just because I felt a little dissapointed at the end but also because I felt there was a lot that could have been explored in this kind of setting and very little time and gameplay is given to that. And then, the gameplay is very very akward. It hinders what you can carry because you're a child, it keeps focusing the camera at things even when I want to look at something else, and then it is just also very dark and confusing to navigate at some points. Sometimes it just plain doesn't let you control anything at all when the agency would make it so much scarier. Also doesn't run well on steam deck, every time the rat is on screen the framerate plunges to hell. So yeah. Not for me.

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Well made, but can't say I loved this one. BonBon the character was good, but the controls were blursed. Made everything slow, finnicky and annoying. Wouldn't recommend buying it tbh. Way too short for a paid game. There are better free games out there,

Not the usual games I play, but it was still a nice experience. If you like short abtract horror stories, this might be enjoyable for you. I love how it shows the trauma of a toddler manifest in such an abstract way. They can't understand what's going on, but they know it's wrong and the fear and discomfort manifests into this terrifying horror. Even playing around with your toys is uncomfortable, it feels tense, as if any moment something's about to go wrong and it does. Well done!

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