Cairn: Mathair’s Curse

One of the best games I played recently.
Reminds so much of Earthbound, great story!
Got me caring for the characters and the story, some really emotional parts.
If you like story and turn based Rpgs this is a must.
Usually I don't care about the ''Nerdy'' characters a lot, and yet, the characters are so well written that the Nerdy one is my favorite.
The game has the right amount of difficulty for it not be a ''Mash A button'' game.
I really loved it!

Amazing story. There's more to this RPG than just "Earthbound-like".
Besides the charming cast of primary and secondary characters, and the 10/10 music, I'll also recommend this game if you like:
• Good pixel art with A LOT of variety, and not just a couple of nice sprites repeated all over.
• RPGs where you play as different characters on different chapters, with stories that intertwine (won't spoil but it's really well written).
• Fine-tuned difficulty.
• RPGs with lots of optional flavor text on every corner, to immerse yourself in the setting.

Similar style to Earthbound, but also unique. A lovely game that was obviously created with care.

First of all... I dont usually leave reviews on games but this one was a HUGE EXCEPTION.
I don’t even know where to begin. THIS GAME, was a massive experience. It’s heartfelt, quiet, and deeply emotional in a way that sneaks up on you. The story, the people, and the atmosphere of it feels alive, I can tell that the developer really put as much care into the game as possible. This is the 2nd game in all history of games that I have played that have made me cry so much (first one being Mother 3) and that says something. At first the game does start slow but I think that's something so charming about it. It lets you take time to wander around and talk to the people of the island there. I must ask that people should be patient with it if it feels "boring" when you start the game.
There were so many little details that reminded me of things I used to do as a kid and well in general. It’s rare for a game to capture that kind of nostalgia and make it rather wholesome.
As someone who grew up with a lot of RPG games (especially loving earthbound), this game hit me in the same place those did. That strange mix of magic spells, skills... Including those moments where every smile hides a little sadness, and every quiet moment feels important. Cairn gave me that same feeling again, and I honestly wasn’t expecting it.
I cried during a few moments. Not because the game forced me to but because it felt real to me.
SPOILERS
From Alex' friend... Andy turning into a half robot half human and slowly remembering his memories... Alex' grandmother sacrificing herself inside the facility core and saving the people there to sealing each and every cairn until the end where the mother sacrificed herself to give Alex and everyone she knew another chance to see the world be in peace again. It broke me. It broke me more than anything I could have ever imagined.
The music, the atmosphere, and the writing fits perfectly into the games theme. Even the smallest interactions felt intentional, like each one carried a piece of the story’s soul.
It’s beautiful, haunting, and unforgettable.
If you’ve ever loved the earthbound series, If you want to fight weird enemies, listen to nice music all while doing it PLEASE take the time to play this game. I cannot recommend it enough.
Ross, Thank you for creating something so special. For yourself. For me. For Everyone.

I don't normally leave reviews on games, but I feel compelled to for this one. Cairn definitely felt like a love letter to Earthbound and (especially) Mother 3, while still very much standing on its own two feet.
To get my one point of criticism out of the way, I'll echo some of the other reviews and agree that the difficulty curve could use some small adjustments. The early game felt rough until I felt like I had a decent amount of healing items and got the hang of defending a bit more. This did even out once the party started to assemble and things felt smoother for the rest of the game. Hopefully, with the healing points that were added after I played through the early game, the difficulty should feel a bit less daunting.
Everything else about Cairn, I loved: the story and writing, the characters, the setting, the pixel art, and the soundtrack. This game had a charm that I find difficult to put into words. Cairn is in turns funny, warm, contemplative, but also sad. The ending hit really hard for me, it was beautiful and very cathartic.
Props to you Ross McRitchie for all the work you put into this project, and to your partner Christine for composing the wonderful soundtrack! I hope more players get to experience this game. To me, it was something special.

When I started playing Cairn, I thought I knew what to expect based on the trailer: an Earthbound-like game with kooky self-referential humor in a modern setting (and also Scottish). You fight sentient stop signs? I’m in! As the game progressed, however, it slowly dawned on me that that was not exactly what I’d be getting. Let me explain.

As far as story and tone goes, this is more like Mother 3 than Earthbound and even then, not quite. Though there are humorous and light moments, it tends to take itself very seriously. This isn’t a bad thing, just not what I was expecting. I think the game does a fairly good job of straddling the line between showing reverence to Earthbound/Mother 3 without trying to be those games. Cairn visually looks like them, but is very much its own thing. While I thought the story was generally quite good, it did have some pacing issues brought about by structure of the story and exacerbated by some issues with combat in the early launch version I played.

Without going into spoilers, the story bounces around a lot, and chapters often end on a cliffhanger with the following chapter slamming on the brakes and beginning with tons of exposition. Storywise it works to create depth and build the world, but gameplaywise it feels like whiplash. It’s not helped in the early hours by the difficult battles and minimal resources. There are no trash mobs in this game, every enemy encounter is a battle to the death and I was constantly low on spirit (mana, MP, SP, whatever you like). I found myself often having to leverage the defend function which restores a small amount of HP and spirit every time you use it, but in these early hours you often have a party of only one or two, so the mobs will easily gang up on you. Often what I had to do was whittle them down to the weakest enemy, leave him alive, and then defend over and over to build my spirit back up while taking as little damage as possible. This method worked, I don’t recall ever getting a game over, but it further disrupted the pacing. Alternatively, you can use items liberally after battle to restore your HP/Spirit, but early on they are not as plentiful, and it is still disruptive to have to go into the menu after every battle to do this. I know since I played, an update added a mechanic that restores your HP/Spirit one time in a dungeon (similar to butterflies in Earthbound), but unfortunately for me I completed the game before I could benefit from this. I expect it helps the pacing somewhat, but I was having to rely on defend and items so much that I can’t see a one time restoration doing much heavy lifting in that regard because the very next battle could easily deplete your reserves. That all sounds very negative, but it eases up significantly around the halfway point, and I never was not enjoying the game. I also understand that they have updated the balance to make the beginning of the game less difficult, so although I did not go back to experience this, I know the dev has been very receptive to feedback and none of what I’m saying is particularly novel, so I expect a lot of this has been resolved at this point.

The benefit of the story bouncing around between chapters a lot is that you get to see a lot of unique environments and meet many different characters. The environments have a lot of character themselves, I particularly enjoyed the movie theater which I thought was a high point. When the story starts to coalesce as characters finally meet each other and the plot is tied together, all the pacing issues I mentioned earlier melt away and the drive to continue the adventure is at its best.

I think it’s important to go into this game understanding that it looks like Earthbound, but it doesn’t feel like Earthbound, and again that’s not a negative. Cairn is its own thing; it’s quirky in a serious way whereas Earthbound is quirky in a humorous way if that makes sense. But you can see the developers’ love of video games throughout, and obviously their love of their home. It shines through in a way that absolves any negatives I’ve spoken about here. There’s something special about a game made with this much love and reverence for the medium. I think if you go into it with an open mind and temper your expectations about it being an Earthbound-like, you’ll find a very heartfelt game with a compelling story that actually earns the tears it might get out of you by the end.

If you are a Mother fan, you owe it to yourself to play this game.
What a marvelous unique gem Ross made here. The game is extremely well paced and brimming with content, and the story is incredibly heartfelt.
Please play this game!