Have you played...? Grimm's Hollow
I think I’ve already said that, but I love short games with a nice narrative. Grimm’s Hollow is a small RPG Maker game that tells a simple and touching story about grief and loss. We follow Lavender, a young girl, as she wakes up in a strange place called Grimm’s Hollow. That’s the place where spirits go when they die and still can’t move on to the final afterlife. Lavender involuntarily becomes a reaper, which are people that help other spirits move on, while working to move on to afterlife themselves. However, she just wants to find her brother and escape from that weird place.
Mechanically, Grimm’s Hollow is a traditional RPG with an active time battle system. Veterans of the genre won’t have problems and it’s not a difficult game. Even so, it’s nice that there’s an easy mode for people who just want to enjoy the story (which is the game’s strong point). There’s no leveling: a simple experience assignemnt system is used to increase stats and learn new abilities. I found some small bugs in the battle system and I don’t think most abilities are all equally useful, but that doesn’t diminish the enjoyment.
The art is spooky, cute, pleasant and enhances the gloomy and spooky atmosphere, with a lot of purple tones all over. There are some nice tunes, but nothing too memorable. The writing is well done, with some funny lines and some somber ones that make you think about life, death and beyond. There are even multiple endings depending on some actions throughout the game.
Grimm’s Hollow is a short and sweet experience - I finished everything (I think) in around 2 hours and a half. In addition to all of that, it’s free! Definitely recommended.
Edit 2024-06-29: I hadn’t done everything yet, I was missing the best ending! With an additional 10 minutes I was able to see it.