Thistledown: A Tragedy of Blood

Thistledown is a very serious game, dealing with hard topics such as pain, loss, hopelessness, the need for revenge...it's very dark, and very meaningful. The fantasy world is very extensive, you can tell that the creators put in lots of time with it. This is VERY story-driven. There is some platforming, and a bit of combat (If you want), but mainly this game is just narrating Oni's story with beautiful music and stunning graphics. Great game, worth the money. I was so engrossed in it, I played it through in one session.

It's an imaginative novel that you get to maneuver your way through, exploring a beautiful world and unique lore. A great interactive story you can experience in one or two sittings. It's surprisingly dense with lore and narrative world building and I really liked some of the emotional beats the game managed to hit. Really liked the music as well.

I miss games that have a spirit. Games that ooze character, whose creators have poured their hearts into. Thistledown, however, is one such game. Is it good at being a game, with lots of fun interactive systems and challenge, decisions, replayability? Perhaps not. It more than makes up for that with its unique setting and cosmology, and an intriguing story with dialogue that often goes surprisingly deep as well as a soundtrack, that has a lot of originality and is a very pleasant listen. Thistledown is not for everyone. It knows its limits, it makes economic use of its assets, and it respects your time. It's a rare beast and a very special experience. A short one, but one I'm grateful to have had.

Great touching story. Worth the price.

This is a poetic short story in video game form. It's a world of fairies and anthropomorphic animals, filled with magical contracts that govern what people can and can not do. Each species has their own set of powers (foxes can break contracts, badgers are contract lawyers, etc). It reminds me a lot of the myths from Watership Down. The story itself is about how "hurt people hurt people" and the power of forgiveness. If you explore the world and talk to people you'll find a variety of themes in the subtext of what they say; everything from toxic relationships, to alcoholism, to dealing with loved ones in a coma. There's a lot going on here just below the surface, and the music highlights it beautifully. This isn't a game for everyone. It's for players who like weird little indie games with a unique voice. People who are looking for action packed gameplay that will push their graphics card and 40K monitors to the limit should probably look elsewhere.

Thistledown is as it states, a narrative story about tragedy. The gameplay is relatively meaningless, as it merely serves to push the story further, only going so far as to allow the player to progress from one area to the next, and interacting with a few choice characters and minor lore tidbits. However, I find the story felt inconclusive. It felt anticlimactic just to end so suddenly with such an ambiguous ending. I do hope in the upcoming Thistledown game, a more satisfying story awaits.