Eternal Hope

This one's a toughie....I'm ultimately going to recommend it, and it's a solid puzzle platformer, but there are some real flaws, particularly in the latter half of the game.

You play as a lovelorn fella trying to rescue the soul of his true love from the grasping claws of death. Along the way you'll have to float across pits, maneuver objects to solve puzzles and reach other areas, and occasionally avoid ferocious spirit monsters.

Positives:

Gameplay - This is going under positives and negatives......it's largely quite enjoyable with just enough environmental hints to let you know what you have to do next to solve a puzzle/progress further in the game. Really, it's mostly quite good......in the first half.....

Graphics/Visuals - Nothing special (and owes more than a little to Limbo), but pleasing to the eye and generally solid.

Music - Lovely....a little hokey and trite, but generally quite lovely.

Story - Well, it's mostly okay, but it needs a little more fleshing out; even with stone markers displaying the lithic equivalent of journal entries, it still needs more detail to provide background for the protagonist's journey. The basic plot (supernatural being kidnaps spirit of the protagonist's beloved) is solid, but the world he's travelling through and the monsters he encounters, and the ruined civilizations he ends up in? Needs more sauce/more time in the oven.


Negatives:

Gameplay part 2 - So, most of the game is fine, but due to the art style there are several occasions where some black silhouette turns out to be a critical puzzle element and there's ZERO to distinguish it from all the other black silhouette vases and urns and whatever that populate the levels. Also, in the final act, there are some frustrating sorta-stealth sections where not nearly enough environmental clues are provided to explain what you're supposed to do to avoid dying over and over and over again (thank goodness for walkthroughs).
Now, to the game's credit, when you resort to a walkthrough/playthrough video, the correct courses of action will largely be head-slappers of the "Why didn't I think of that, it's obvious in hindsight!" variety rather than galaxy-brain solutions. But more clues would have been better.

To sum up, I'm recommending the game, because it's fun and short and sweet, but absolutely are some frustrations in gameplay in the second half.

While I would recommend this game its conditional on getting it for a discount as while the art style and music are excellent the game is very short the controls feel to delayed for a platformer and some of the puzzles are pure guess work instead of building on prior knowledge.
The most obvious pure guess work puzzle involved moving a vase onto a switch but there is no indication the vase can be moved and the switch itself is invisible.

I haven't finished this game but wanted to write out a review for it since it gave me a glimmer of hope in a very dark time in my life.

I felt like I was, for a time left without any friends and reached rock bottom. Like I had lost everything because I messed up. Throughout playing this game, it gave me a glimmer of hope, witnessing the story of someone who's broken and lost everything.

But piece by piece, they're learning to fix their life and achieve the one thing that made them truly happy in this life, while this is a story focused on love and soulmates. I like to view it as a message that no matter where you are at life, by soul fragment and soul fragment you can pick up all the pieces and restore your life to the point where you're happy to be alive again <3

I feel like I'm at that point and this game gave me the hope I needed to hold on until I made the life I've started being happy with.

Remember to never give up and remember Eternal Hope is always with you, just focus on finding a soul fragment a piece at a time and you'll be happy again I promise <3

This is a "fine" review. I liked it well enough but it wasn't anything special. The gameplay is the bigger appeal. The controls are decent and the puzzles are challenging enough to be interesting, but almost never really get frustrating. This is definitely on the easier side of things, but if you're looking for something short and chill this will meet that need.

i think the game it alright but if you skip cutscenes the achievements dont pop which can not be as intended

I received a key after donating to the 2022 Yogscast Jingle Jam charity fundraiser, thank you for working with such a great group and supporting a number of wonderful causes.

I enjoyed the game play and atmosphere. The puzzles were pretty straight forward. Like other reviews say though, they don't really build on your skills. They just expect you to guess and eventually get through a level. You will die quite a bit, which can be frustrating. I got annoyed with the inability to turn while jumping. Also, the ending was T_T Yes I recommend this game, but I also recommend waiting for it to be on sale.