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Curse of the Juniper Tree's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Character Designs | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Music | #9 | 4.706 | 4.706 |
| Game Graphic & Logo Design | #13 | 4.824 | 4.824 |
| Overall | #16 | 4.706 | 4.706 |
| Accessibility | #16 | 4.529 | 4.529 |
| Story | #19 | 4.706 | 4.706 |
| User Interface Design | #33 | 4.471 | 4.471 |
| Sound Effects | #34 | 4.176 | 4.176 |
| Game Page Design | #38 | 4.471 | 4.471 |
| Log Line | #73 | 4.059 | 4.059 |
| Voice Acting | #96 | 2.176 | 2.176 |
| Halloween Themed | #126 | 3.176 | 3.176 |
Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
You know, this game is somehow both extremely expected, but yet, even when it got finally revealed, I was just quite sad at what was happening in the end, and in a way, I think Esfric did get his wish, where he got to travel as a bird, out of there. The exploration was a ton of fun, and the setup was genuinely creepy, terrifying.
The art style is nothing short of gorgeous, and the music being so soothing and calming, contrasted with the rather dark, almost grim. It's a dark mythic story in my opinion, although I'm quite happy that Leyna and the husband did get what they deserve in the end.
I had a playthrough of this too, on my youtube channel:
Ahhh this game is so beautiful in so many ways!
All of the art is stunning, I love the character art (and would love to know how you came up with the character designs!), the background and the walking characters too. The colours made me feel very cold and the tones were just right.
The written story was superb and kept my hooked throughout. I absolutely loved the writing of the characters.
The crawling part was wonderfully designed, I loved how the text appeared.
What an excellently crafted game. Amazing. I can only sing its praises!
All the best,
Ocelot
Such a beautiful game!! I've been following your art and game development for a while on twitter, Tanaw, so it's amazing to see it all come together! I played it on stream and gave some feedback there, but I'll add my two cents here too! https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1960479877
Overall it was beautifully done-the environments were so lovely, the scenes and character dialogues played so nicely with one-another, and the designs?? Do I need to say how much I love Esfir? It makes me so curious about the hidden story within the story and I want more adventures in this world!!
The only issue I saw is in the UI-when certain characters would talk but it wouldn't switch to the correct name saying it-or characters would be highlighted that weren't the ones talking-and there were a few moments would it would have been nice to have additional music/a more drastic change than the atmospheric base (though it is super lovely!)
**SPOILER**
I also wasn't certain if I could actually run away or not successfully?? I figured not after the third try, but I wanted to see if there were branching storylines! Also the scene at the end, where they're crawling through the tree was a little confusing to navigate-and at one point, one of the elements went over the textbox so I couldn't read what was being said. Not sure if that was intentional or not! Still one of my favorites I've played so far!
Thank you so so much!!! I'm excited to watch your playthrough soon! <33 and thank you so much for the feedback and the bugs mentioned, will definitely watch out for those next time and see if I can get those updated! Really appreciate all your kind words and it really makes me excited to work on the next game soon!
And aa yeah, there's only one outcome for the chase scene!
Of course!! I've loved your work for ages and I'm excited to see how it progress! Congrats on getting honorable mention-well deserved!
Absolutely lovely in every way, with a beautiful story, graphics, and music! 💕
I wanna cry, this was beautiful!
The game's just outstanding, the added 2D exploration just adds a big layer of playability to it, heck, I didn't run in time when it said I had to! :(
The art is gorgeous, so is the music. And the programming, I mean, the constantly moving characters was such a great touch!
Loved the plot, the lore, and how it unfolded. Saw it coming, yet it didn't change a single bit of how I felt about it. Sad, but hopeful in the end :')
I very much approve of being able to pet sheep x3 They're adorable! Much like this entire game! I'm completely blown away by the visuals. They're absolutely gorgeous, and the atmosphere in general is very calming and quite cosy despite the frozen setting.
I'm normally not the type to enjoy different gameplay elements in VNs, especially not exploring and stuff because I like to just be able to relax and read, but with this, I didn't mind it at all! In fact, I really enjoyed being able to move around and interact with stuff throughout since it was all so stunning :3
The story was a delight too! Sweet but with some beautiful darker moments <3
I have to admit, I'm a sucker for snowy environments in games in general, so just seeing the cover image and screenshots drew me in x3
stunning storybook art, loyal to european art and story style