I realized that I haven't written about Little Nightmares after playing it on stream some time ago, so here we go. I think it slipped my mind because it's kind of difficult to describe a game like this to me. Perhaps it is because of the aesthetic direction the game took.

Anyway, I think the game is an amazing game which I would recommend to anyone playing. As a gamedev student back in the day, I have led a team to create a game of a similar direction where we have minimal UI and place emphasis on atmosphere and aesthetics in a horror-like theme. While I wish the game went all out in showing me how they can do everything without any form of screen-space explicit UI, I understand that there are things you can't avoid especially when you actually want to make sales from impatient players.

As far as creating an atmospheric implicit storytelling experience, the game got almost everything right. The environment, animations, sound and music were done immaculately. Yes, they do prioritize how good the animations look over snappy controls, which causes some frustration in platforming, but I do understand their decisions made.

Speaking of platforming, I feel that for games like this, the real difficulty is to balance the gameplay and storytelling. The developers at the end of the day do not have much control of the story's pacing to the player; it's up to how skillful the player is. If the gameplay is too difficult, frustration will break the suspense of disbelief. If the gameplay is too easy, players will think that each level is a chore and that will, too, break the suspense of disbelief. The developer also have to consider where to place checkpoints should the player fail a part of the level, which will dictate the 'pacing' of the level itself.

It's hard to balance, but we can reason with the player. For example, in Celeste, a player might feel that it is okay to fail because the control are as snappy as they can be and it's only the matter of learning to be better. In Little Nightmares, the controls are purposefully sluggish to ensure smooth animations. There are a handful of levels which I failed because of this which can be frustrating. There is one level which was especially frustrating in Little Nightmares II where you need to shine a torch to stop enemies, because turning does take time and it was hard to aim because the camer prioritizes certain camera angles.

Generally, I think that's the biggest complaint people would have with the games. I'm quite a seasoned platformer and I already found some levels pinching my nerves. It is probably much harder to tolerate if you are not used to platformeres. It is a shame because the game seems to have a lot to offer in terms of story and experience and it would be unfortunate if someone would drop the game because of the platforming.