My favourite way to play cozy style games it to make the audio very quiet and play an audiobook. This game basically offers that experience. As you solve the puzzle and traverse the world, narration plays. I appreciate that you can cancel the dialogue/text freeze and still have the narration continue to play as you run around, instead of having to stand in place and wait for it to end.

The puzzles aren't incredibly difficult. I found most of them fun and I liked the way the mechanics built on each other. There were a couple that you can soft lock yourself in and that needed to be reset, but overall, no major issues with them. I do wish that the dashing was a bit faster for the ones that require a lot of running back and forth. There's little details like rotating/moving the joystick when interracting with keys and levers that make the game feel immersive but not annoying.

The art direction and story are inspired. This game does have a heavier tone. You follow an Ember who got lost on their journey and are now stuck in a dying world where the other lost Embers go. A lot of them have given up hope and you need to restore their hope in order to progress, creating pathways for them to follow you to your final destination. I do wonder if a mechanic that tracks your character’s "hope" might have been interesting, adding a bit of pressure to get things right, but without it the game is more relaxed and lets your work things out at your own pace. All the little mysteries that you encounter while on the journey pay off in a satisfying way.

I think the game is a bit expensive for what it is at full price - I beat in under 4.5 hours. 100% recommend getting it once it's on sale!