Video Game Blog 055: SoraRabbit's Review Corner #2
I’m back with another review corner, as my first post of 2026! This is a shorter form blog post where I play four games and talk about them, giving them scores from 1 to 7 Gamer Bunnies. Here is the first post in this series:
Memories. (Credit: Mountains, Annapurna Interactive)
Last time I covered four indie games that I had been playing with no real theme between them. This time I have four more, but the theme connecting them is shorter games. These are all games that can be completed in 2-3 hours. The idea came to me when I was cleaning off my old Switch to make space on my entertainment center for my new Steam Deck. Yes, it was finally time to fully retire my original Switch. Most of the Switch games I hadn’t beaten yet had been moved to my Switch 2 the day I got it. All that was left were games I’d already finished and a couple of smaller games. I knew I had a couple on PS4 and sitting around in my Steam library also.
Seeing some of these games that I had been hoarding for so many years made me decide to start my year of gaming off right by clearing a few short games. Only one of the games is officially on my 2026 Game List, but since they’re all short, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to complete them and make two Review Corners out of them. In these two posts, we will cover three Switch games, three PS4 games, and two Steam games. We’ll have a bit of variety. This one will cover four short indie games, but with another theme connecting them all, which we’ll cover at the end of the post.
Needless to say, spoilers for these games follow, while I don’t go into detail with the endings or the full plot. So, with all that explained, let’s get going!
Title (Credit: Mountains, Annapurna Interactive)
Florence was originally released in 2018 for iOS by developer Mountains. For this, I played the Switch port from 2020. I’m not sure where I heard about it, but it’s been on my Switch for ages. (I may have bought it at the same time as the next game in the list, but I’m not sure.)
A quick side note that I discovered while researching this post… I actually have a ton of games published by Annapurna Interactive— this one, Unfinished Swan, Donut County, Telling Lies, Stray, and the excellent game Gone Home.
I like this. (Credit: Mountains, Annapurna Interactive)
Florence tells the story of a young woman trying to get through her day-to-day life and finding new meaning and direction from a romantic relationship. It’s told in a cute manga style, with panels going side to side or up and down in chapters. Each chapter has little tasks like brushing your teeth, scrolling through social media posts, eating sushi, and more.
Clever gameplay. (Credit: Mountains, Annapurna Interactive)
The game play is really simple and creative. A good example is the screenshot above, where you solve a jigsaw puzzle to represent a first date conversation. The more you get to know each other, the easier the conversation puzzles get, representing the growing familiarity between them. Later on is a fight to put your puzzles together before the other person does, knocking them off balance. Another clever use of the controls was turning a radio dial to regain your focus after a bike crash.
As for the story, the relationship ultimately doesn’t work out, but the things Florence learned about life and herself during that time changed her for the better, and she presumably did the same for her former partner. So while the story sinks into sadness, it ends on a hopeful note.
Score: Four Gamer Bunnies
After some thought, I decided to give this game a solid 4 out of 7 Gamer Bunnies. This is an average score. I enjoyed the game, I thought it had a good story and creative execution, but it just didn’t jump out to achieve a higher rating. This is the kind of game that sticks with you for a few days, but after that if you see it in your game library, you just think, “Oh yeah. That was a cool game.“ Not much replay value or lasting power. But still, it was fun and I liked it for what it was. It makes good use of the controls, the visuals, color, and music to tell the story. It’s cute, sweet, sad, and hopeful. Definitely worth a look.
Title (Credit: Lambic Studios, Fellow Traveler)
The Stillness of the Wind was released in 2019 by Lambic Studios and Fellow Traveler. I played the Switch version for this. This one I recall learning about from Cocoashade, from one of her endless TikToks. It sounded like an interesting concept, so I downloaded it and promptly forgot about it until now.
Cozy farm simulator. (Credit: Lambic Studios, Fellow Traveler)
In this game, you follow an aging farmer named Talma, who lives alone on a desolate farm in the middle of a wasteland. You have nothing but two goats, a few chickens, and a semi-daily visit from a travelling peddler who trades goods and brings letters for you. He also has animals and some luxuries you can’t afford.
Churning goat butter. (Credit: Lambic Studios, Fellow Traveler)
The days go by incredibly fast and you can spend them gathering eggs, milking the goats to make cheese, and planting crops. As the game proceeds, you get some of the lore in the form of letters from Talma’s family, and strange books she collects. No matter how much you stay on top of trading your goods, it’s impossible to get ahead as the days speed by and your supplies dwindle. Not helping matters along, your character moves unbearably slowly, reflecting her advancing age.
Relaxing with a book. (Credit: Lambic Studios, Fellow Traveler)
This game is DARK. There are terrible things happening in the more civilized area of their world, literal wolves outside the door keeping you awake and preying on the animals, and melancholy memories when you examine the objects on the farm. Talma occasionally has dark dreams and hallucinates sounds that can’t possibly be there. While the actual plot is a little hard to parse from the morsels you get, the game is all about aging, change, and non-permanence. As you go on, you lose animals to the wolves, eventually not having anything to trade to the peddler. Talma stops eating, the letters stop coming, and there is nothing left to do but visit the grave of Talma’s long-passed husband, ending the game on an altogether-expected dark note.
Score: Three Gamer Bunnies
The Stillness of the Wind got a score of 3 Gamer Bunnies from me. While I like the concept and had fun with the game, it was unbearably slow and a bit confusing. I think the concept of not knowing what to do is part of the game, making you try different things until you find out how to proceed, but it made the game a bit frustrating. Especially once I realized the futility of trying… which, I think, is also part of the game. It’s possible you can accomplish more with the game than I did, but I never looked up anything to know for sure.
The slowness of your character and the pacing of the game were a bit much for my patience. I probably would have given it a score of two from those factors alone, but the story and the pervading bleakness of the whole experience raised it up a point. This game was very bleak, but there’s a kind of comfort in the sameness, while at the same time a growing foreboding as you anticipate the end. I can describe it as a dark version of Harvest Moon. It was unique, I can say that. It will certainly stick in my memory a bit more than Florence did.
Title (Credit: Tiger and Squid, Team17)
Beyond Eyes was released by Tiger and Squid and Team17 for various platforms in 2015. I played the PS4 version for this review. This is one that I think I randomly came across on my periodic browsings of the PlayStation store. On this particular night, Cocoa was watching me browse and this one caught her eye. (I believe we also got Telling Lies that night.) She never finished this game, but I decided to give it a shot.
Out for a stroll. (Credit: Tiger and Squid, Team17)
This is the story of a young blind girl named Rae, searching for her cat Nani as she explores her world. Rae moves just as slowly as Talma did in the previous game, but here the world is full of color and life. The blank white background fills with scenery to depict Rae’s other senses as she slowly walks through the world in search of Nani.
Fetch quest. (Credit: Tiger and Squid, Team17)
The scenery and color are used to great effect, filling in and changing as you explore. At various times, Rae will think she hears one thing but it turns out to be something else, like when she hears an oncoming car and shrinks back in fear, only to find it’s a lawnmower a distance away. The visuals in the game morph as her perception of the objects change.
Scary doggy. (Credit: Tiger and Squid, Team17)
Along the way, Rae has to deal with a scary barking dog, menacing strangers, startling birds, and even the rain, which shrinks her area of perception. There are various things to do to unlock trophies, such as find the true nature of things, collecting butterflies, helping animals, and more.
At the end you get a shocking twist that some may see coming, but I certainly did not. However, after the credits, a sad Rae is visited by the girl she helped earlier in the game, so it appears she has found a new friend through her adventure.
Score: Four Gamer Bunnies
I give this one another solid 4 out of 7 Gamer Bunnies. This is a lovely game. The graphics and colors are very pretty and moving. The use of sound and music is fantastic. I love the concept, but the slow movement got a bit old, especially in the later areas where there was a lot of backtracking. While there are trophies to earn, and I wouldn’t mind uncovering all the secrets in the game, I’m honestly not sure I will play it again. We’ll see.
The use of music, color, sound, and minimal voice acting gave it more of an impact than Florence had. The sad twist near the end was heart-wrenching and unexpected. That alone makes it a memorable game. The best kinds of games make you feel, and Beyond Eyes makes you feel all sorts of things.
Title (Credit: Giant Sparrow, Sony)
The Unfinished Swan was released for PS3 in 2012 by Giant Sparrow. I played the PS4 port. This one may have been the result of another of my PS Store wanderings, but I couldn’t tell you for sure. Terry Gilliam plays the role of the king.
Prologue. (Credit: Giant Sparrow, Sony)
After losing his mother, a boy named Monroe is sent to live at an orphanage. He takes with him an unfinished painting of a swan that his mother had started. (She had a tendency to start paintings but never finish them.) The boy follows the swan into a fairy tale world that starts out as a plain, blank white landscape.
I made a mess. (Credit: Giant Sparrow, Sony)
The game plays out in first person POV as Monroe uses a magic paintbrush to throw around ink or water to change the surroundings and solve puzzles to proceed. As you go, you uncover more pages of a story about the king who created this world, lost all his subjects, fell in love, and ultimately lost his wife and child due to his neglect.
Just a little maze. (Credit: Giant Sparrow, Sony)
The game is littered with balloons you can collect, which give you access to minigames and extras in the Toys menu. The game mechanics change throughout, adding different methods to proceed. In one area you water vines to give you things to climb on, and in another you create platforms to cross and climb. I certainly didn’t find everything in the game, as I was focused on getting to the end, but I ended up with a few trophies and 31 out of the 64 balloons.
Score: Four Gamer Bunnies
I give Unfinished Swan a 4 out of 7 Gamer Bunnies also. Just like with Florence, it was an enjoyable experience with a good story, but I likely won’t replay it. However, this one did have a bit more replay value, with the balloons and toys you can earn, along with the fairy tale pages and trophies. Some of the jumps were frustrating and it wasn’t always clear how to proceed. This game tells a story that serves as an allegory for a broken home, regret, and unfulfilled purpose. It was quirky and emotional, but didn’t feel as personal as Florence. I liked its style, and it worked well as a shorter game.
Yeah, that’s a grave. (Credit: Lambic Studios, Fellow Traveler)
As stated earlier, these were all short indie games, but there was another theme connecting them, which was discovered entirely by accident. Somehow I randomly picked the four saddest games from my library! Sure, Florence and The Unfinished Swan were more bittersweet than sad, and they all had hope underlying the stories— except maybe for Stillness of the Wind— but yeah, they were all built on sadness to one degree or another.
The Unfinished Swan dealt with the loss of the main characters mother, unresolved issues with his father, the burden of creativity, the inability to complete projects, and the things we leave to our children. Florence dealt with the impact of loneliness and close relationships and how to deal with the loss of said relationship, as well as how to acknowledge the good that came of an ultimately unfulfilling situation. Beyond Eyes dealt with the loss of a beloved pet, overcoming a disability, and learning the truth behind the unknown and those things we fear. The Stillness of the Wind was all about loss, aging, the inevitability of time, and death. Bleak, dark stuff.
Paintception. (Credit: Giant Sparrow, Sony)
I had no idea these would all be sad games when I sat down to play them, so that’s my bad there. Like I said, they all had hope underneath, aside from Stillness of the Wind… that one only ended when you acknowledged the inevitability and inescapability of the end. Which is brilliant, in its way. The other three ended on hopeful notes, the journey transforming the character in ways that will bring them greater happiness and fulfillment in the future. And that’s a great message to get from a game. The journey changes you, and all these games changed me in minute ways.
Games can make you feel all sorts of things, and you never know what you’re going to be in for when you fire up a new game you know little about. All of these games took me on a different journey and it was quite an experience playing through them all in the course of one weekend.
Floating. (Credit: Mountains, Annapurna Interactive)
Thank you for reading the latest installment of Review Corner. Join me next time for four more journeys, composed of mostly lighter fare. I appreciate you all and hope you have meaningful journeys of your own!
Later! (Credit: Tiger and Squid, Team17)
