As I traipse through the forest, exploring the magical wood filled with many-a-curious creature, I can’t help but be overwhelmed by a feeling of curiosity. The first thing I notice about Key Fairy is its stark, monochromatic colour palette. The second thing is a beautifully enigmatic and haunting world. Owl Machine’s pacifistic bullet-hell is full of whimsy and exploration, telling an endearing tale of bravery, spiritual healing, and the cycles of life that we find ourselves in.
The eponymous sprite never stills, whirling around and ripping through the labyrinthine land, throwing their grappling hook out with abandon. On this journey of key-collecting and self-discovering, I came across a slew of denizens that had been corrupted. Encountering these disturbed creatures turned this bespoke, fanciful experience into a frantic ballet of danger, in which I used my uncanny ability to collect stray stars to calm their spirit. Learning to dance with each denizen was a straightforward task, but the cramped and often crowded landscape on which these bouts took place meant that failure was always an easy mistake away.
Deploying a contrast between the hyper-detailed edges of the screen and the bare play area, Key Fairy manages to have its cake and eat it too; prioritising the visual clarity that’s needed with its frantic dance of battle while remaining (sometimes distractingly) gorgeous to gander at. The muted palette gives this unnerving sense of alienation that accompanies the exploration-centric nature of the game, and doubles as a fantastic compliment to the minute detail of the characters and environments you find yourself in.
Many of these monsters you stumble across along your journey talk in parables, and some simply mutter nonsense at you. Key Fairy relishes in the strange and fantastical, weaving little nuggets of wisdom into its many sidequests and endings. You’ll encounter anything from philosophical debates with mysterious figures to nonsensical grunting with a Gnome.
Ambient noise, such as bird calls and ruffling leaves, switches into more robust tracks when entering conflict. I was enamoured by the evolution of themes that Key Fairy showed through its music. The further from nature I travelled, the less natural the music sounded; with understated, percussive tracks in the forest juxtaposed against a heavy-set techno sound later in the story.
KEY FAIRY REVIEW
Key Fairy is a meticulous experience that feels like pure magic from start to finish. Despite not understanding a single thing that goes on in the Key Fairy’s little fantastical world, I have this compulsion to immerse myself in it evermore.
PROS
- Simply Gorgeous
- Challenging encounters
- Often nonsensically funny
CONS
- Easy to get lost
- Death screens linger a little too long
Reviewed on PC. A review code was provided by the Publisher for purposes of this review.
