"Yes, truly the stars lay out winding paths before us. It seems I am too young to understand their true intent (...) Just as you are too young. And even your sisters who have survived the sunset. We're all too young here." - Ooklet

Have you ever wondered what would truly happen if we never grew up? Or rather, if we weren't ever allowed to grow up? What if our innocence became the root of a despair that we can't escape because we are at the mercy of forces we cannot begin to understand?

 "The Mildew Children" explores those questions in detail with an artistic outtake that has seriously blown my mind. This is the project of a single developer, "The Growing Stones", their work and dedication show through every detail, and for a first project, I can say it calls for a marvelous start. Released on April 17th, 2024, the game has a good amount of acceptance in the community. 

You are a young witch, Kyrphel, and later in the story, you will share the perspective with a second protagonist that will be revealed in a turn of events. You are part of a covenant of Witches holding a terrible ritual unbeknownst to the rest of the villagers that will decide the demise of them all or their salvation. Even if they are highly discriminated by the same society they are trying to save. Right from the beginning Littlegrave a lovely, charismatic girl, the most dear friend of our protagonist, will tell you about how her promised husband died mauled by the wolves and that she herself carried him to his grave without losing her bright smile. We accompany Littlegrave to do her duty as a priestess from the Goddess of Earth, the one that most guarantee "The Circle" continues by her scythe. No child is allowed to grow older than 19 and they had followed the same tradition since they can remember. This world is also haunted by spirits in every corner, and if you decide to engage with them, well something interesting might happen. But as the spectator you start wondering when the lines between the children's innocence, crude reality, strange concoctions that might have dubious effects and magic start to blur... What could be the outcome? The process of discovering it drew me in.

The narrative carries on with crude realism that will keep you on your chair for hours, and will blend with a supernatural element that will make you wonder what the truth is. The characters are hand-drawn and painted in beautiful portraits, the background looks like a painting in which secondary characters blend into the canvas to highlight the main ones, graphics tell a story as much as the dialogue, the music is amazing appearing exactly when it has to, not always... many scenes are silent, and the sounds of children's conversation, crows, the rustle of leaves blown away by the wind finish etching the whole image into your mind. To me, even if it's the odd lovechild between a Visual Novel and a 2D side-scroller, my experience finds more resemblance to the visual novel side, as the sidescroller part is not really dynamic and it's mainly narrative centered, As I tend to enjoy a heavy narrative, I can say I absolutely loved it and I dragged it as much as I could so that it wouldn't end soon.

But how about the details? Sit tight, go get some snacks, and I'll give you the tea.

THUMBS UP

In my opinion, what I liked the most about "The Mildew Children" is how thought provoking it can be, the cruelty children can have sometimes is reflected in more serious matters. There are some dialogues and scenes that will make your hairs stand on end, I won't spoil but when one of the protagonists talks to Mistress Death herself it is a masterpiece. Also, the scene where Kyrphel fights a wolf is a challenge and not only you need to play minigames, but also the decisions you take during this fight will determine the outcome. Scenes like this become incredibly fascinating. The project still keeps the uniqueness of an Indie but it has everything to stand out. As in most visual novels, you can choose between Kyrphel's dialogues to reflect the kind of personality you want her to have and how she will be treated by people but being always truthful could help more than being deceiving. Just saying.

One of the things that helped me get immersed the most into the story was the superb voice acting. It was really fantastic, and I didn't feel like it was bland or over acted. It felt natural but gut wrenching when it had to be. The protagonists voices are memorable, and even when I ended this game a while ago, I can still hear them at times. This is the kind of engagement a narrative centered game needs to keep relevant.

About the gameplay it is simple and straight forward, keep in mind this is a narrative centered game, so this is not exactly a game to hone your skills. You will be challenged in a visual novel style in which answers and choices will take a great part of the final ending. It supports both keyboard and mouse, and also controller in both Steam and Nintendo Switch. The UI is really easy to follow, if you press ESC or Menu it will give you the opening screen, with options to save and continue--The important thing here is the map, which you wiil have to get used to follow, it will be really important and vital part of your gameplay. Also the missions during the level will be displayed as the protagonist's thoughts above.

THUMBS DOWN

Personally, I would like to have more minigames. The only minigame that you will find from the start will be keeping the girls alive or reciting incantations and it gets old and annoying at times because I had to focus on either clicking or reading the dialogues and story. In that matter, having to handle the life bar and the "magic bar" at the same time at once became a hassle with keyboard and mouse. Then you have some others that are great, don't misunderstand me, like "The Bull's Festival" or hide and seek with the children but there is also an opportunity in a conversation Oklett and Kyrphel have, to have another minigame that could come out of a meeting that we never have the chance to concrete and other more opportunities I can mention. 

Another thing that made me frown was that in spite of having multiple scenarios to develop multiple different endings, we only have two of them available. I read the comments the developer made about how the best ending was supposed to be an easter egg and I like the idea, but there were opportunities to end the story before like in the infamous conversation with Mistress Death, the wolf scene, the awakening as a Witch or if a certain ritual involving the other protagonist and Lyrida goes wrong (like a bad ending of a visual novel that prompts a gruesome scene instead of just a bland 'game over' over a bad decision) and I felt those opportunities were wasted in a way. 

At last, I would like to emphasize that while the voice actors were amazing, in subtitles (given that probably making a dubbing would be too expensive) there's only English and Russian available. I would love to recommend this game to friends but the language barrier doesn't let me do it, having Spanish subtitles and other languages like Portuguese, Polish, Italian, French, German, Mandarin, Japanese, etc. would open the market for such a well made game like this.

MY JUDGEMENT

I give "The Mildew Children" an 8 out of 10. I loved it honestly. But as contradicting as it may sound, I would not be keen on recommending it to everyone. In my opinion, it deserves all the credits and a Mostly Positive score in Steam supports my statement. However, it is only for a certain kind of public. If you seek adventure, a fast paced gameplay, complex bosses and mazes that will challenge your skills or a light-hearted fun on the cozy side... this is not your game at all. The pace can turn slow at some parts and if it is classified as psychological horror where children are protagonists, well make your conclusion. Things can get really hard to stomach in this universe.

But to those who enjoy an amazing psychological horror with a highly artistic aesthetic, and a good story that makes you think in and out of the game, don't think twice and please download it if you can!