Chicory is a unique feel-good puzzle platformer about bringing color to a black-and-white world. Playing this game with a controller is a significant handicap, but the overall difficulty is so low it didn't matter. Coloring in the world is immensely satisfying, and almost all of the finicky drawing sections are optional. I do not have the gene for visual art, but the game makes coloring very accessible while still allowing for higher-order art if that's something you enjoy.

Unlocking new abilities and exploring the world was great fun, and most of the puzzles were engaging. Boss fights are really creative and visually stunning, although a couple of them are so gruesome and nightmarish that I can't imagine a child playing them. It's a real shame, because otherwise this is very much a sophisticated game for modern children, with a lot of room for player expression and optional secrets.

The game is well-written, but I would have liked a few more "quirky" characters (Pickle is the MVP). The message of the game is beautiful and heartwarming, but it misses the mark a bit by over-indulging in dialogue. For a game that is so diagetically unique and compelling, you really don't need to underline every theme over and over again. If a picture is worth a thousand words, you don't also need a thousand words to explain it.

This game is a cumbersome mess. The opening is excruciating, with tons of slow, repetitive animations. The world is rife with invisible walls and dumb plot obstacles. Dialogue often gives the player multiple options that make no difference. Running consumes stamina even when not in combat (imagine always walking everywhere in Harvest Moon). Combat offers no defensive movement options, making every encounter a DPS grind. The story and setting are interesting, but the visuals are awful and frequently stutter. Basically this game is a collection of many of my gaming bugbears, with very little to redeem it.

Spiritfarer is a cozy resource management/base building game. The animations are gorgeous and the music is calming, if a bit banal. The game centers primarily around the characters, all of whom are well-written but forgettably inoffensive. Maintaining good relationships and progressing the character arcs requires numerous resources, which are gathered and processed by completing mediocre minigames. Traveling while balancing these tasks is initially a fun juggling act, but it's easy to get stuck with grinding for a particular resource or traveling to a distant location without being able to progress other goals. Depending on the level of complexity or difficulty a player is looking for this could be worthwhile, but I found myself hitting too many tedious road bumps.