Interacting with objects also causes issues, as attempting to will artificially move Roh to a point where she can do so. Entrances have invisible pixel-sized barriers that prevent the player from immediately turning, so you’ve got to move up a couple of spaces before you can walk along the already limited path. That might not sound that bad at first, but when the game is as small as Red Bow that gives you a very small path that you’re able to explore. For example, if you go behind a fence you won’t stand directly behind it but about half a metre from it instead. There are a lot of invisible walls sometimes they make sense, most of the time they’re placed weirdly. There are also plenty of technical issues that could easily be fixed and make the experience more enjoyable. You’d think after 15 the developer would say “yeah, I think that’s plenty” If anything, I found more enjoyment guessing whether or not interacting with an object would grant me an achievement, rather than the satisfaction of receiving it. It’s silly and unnecessary because there’s little to no reward when you receive them. And you get them for stuff like interacting with a sink or simply just progressing through the story. There are 38 achievements, yes 38 achievements in a 20-minute game. Now this one might be personal preference, but there are way too many achievements for this title. You won’t need much time with this one either even though it may market itself as a 1-2 hour game, it takes roughly 20 minutes to finish. And you’ll know when you’ve found a secret because you’ll get an achievement for it. There’s maybe a handful of secrets as well since typically they’re designed to be one of the various endings of each chapter. The gameplay is overall pretty stale since you won’t have much opportunity to explore since the levels are so small and you’ll get direction from NPCs on what you need to be doing. Again, there’s not a lot to interact with, so those puzzles more or less feel like just beats in the story. You’ll find items and solve puzzles, sure, but they’re so linear it’s ridiculous. Also, what it means by “RPG top-down style” is literally just the classic birds-eye-view style that you’ll see incorporated into classic Gameboy games. There are barely any interactable elements, even though the game markets itself on Steam as “RPG top-down style which consists of finding items, secrets and solving puzzles to progress the story”. Unfortunately, that’s about as good as it gets. The art style also really enhanced the atmosphere of each scene: the first taking place in the middle of nowhere, which made the player feel forgotten and isolated the second a small Japanese alley, which made the player feel lost and unwelcome and the third a ship with a handful of souls aboard, which made the player feel unwanted. The atmosphere was creepy, especially in the first chapter where you can tell the developer took some inspiration from Silent Hill and chose to drop the player in heavy fog, along with eerie music. There’s not a lot here for me to praise, so I’ll keep the good stuff short and sweet. Pretty damn creepy guy to meet right off the bat Though, be careful what you choose, as your choices dictate the ending to Roh’s story. Roh’s only goal is to get home, and the ending of each chapter will present to you a limited number of options to decide how it should play out.
Instead, her house is gone, and she’s standing in the middle of an unfamiliar road. The game begins soon after Roh wakes up to take on her day, but the moment she steps out her door the world is not the same as she left it.
Red Bow follows a rather interesting and creepy story of a little girl named Roh. As with those titles, Stranga Games has once again utilised the pixel art style, befitting for a relic of said era. You might be familiar with this single dev team from other games including Mini Thief or My Big Sister. I felt that with Red Bow, the newest title by Stranga Games released on the 14th of January 2020, which is a short, creepy game designed to emulate the aesthetic of the Gameboy era. Few games can achieve an eerie feeling and send chills up your spine within the first 5 minutes.
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