Phrasemaker

As long as I can remember, both Coraline and Alice in Wonderland have been two of my favorite stories. They both manage to blend the beauty of magic and child-like wonder with dire elements such as subtle horror aspects, dark fantasy, illusion, and warped realities, to a certain degree.

Bye Sweet Carole is a game that captured my interest for these same reasons . It’s a narrative puzzle game with a gorgeous, dainty cinematic-like graphic style that can be compared to that of old Disney films. Even so, I did not expect to fall as in love with this game as I did – and boy did it happen fast. There’s many reasons for this, so without further ado, let’s take a deeper dive into the game.

An Absolutely Beautiful Opening

Bye Sweet Carole pulled me in with a mesmorizing spell within the first few minutes. The gorgeous hand-drawn animated cutscenes and gameplay graphics are nothing short of breathtaking, with every frame radiating a deep love, care and artistry. Combined with sound effects and instrumentals akin to an old Disney Film, Bye Sweet Carole grabs your attention with wonder, whimsy, and just a little bit of nostalgia at first glimpse…and then slowly introduces a trickle of much darker horror-like influences.

Between the expressive character movement, storybook-like narration and soft lighting, booting up Bye Sweet Carole feels less like starting a game and more like stepping into a long-lost animated film. There’s a real sense of cinematic wonder and mystery before the gameplay even begins, and the writing is set to grip you immediately with a dark tale of disappearance told through an enchanting lens.

Even before protagonist Lana makes her first appearance, her empty dress drifts down like a ghost, before she appears within it. It was certainly the little artistic details such as this that got me immensely curious for potential symbolism or foreshadowing in the story to come. To say the least, by the time the gameplay kicked in, I was absolutely obsessed.

Quirky Characters Keep Bring a Sense of Both Magic and Terror

Bye Sweet Carole has a lot of charm in its cast of characters. At first glance, Lana seems like just a regular young orphaned girl struggling to find her place. She deals with falling asleep in boarding classes about being a lady, struggling with many of her peers, and being punished with cruel chores in oh-so-Disney-Princess fashion. However, among these realistic, almost ‘dull’ settings, there are creative characters that clash with this reality, creating quite a fascinating contrast.

The owl is an absolutely little pest, showing up like a bad omen before trouble appears. She gets in Lana’s way in a very aggressive manner, her glowing red eyes often hinting at trouble to come. There’s also Mr. Kyn, the mysterious big bad that oozes darkness with every manifestation, spreading corruption wherever he goes – and all whilst wearing a tophat!. However, my personal favorite would have to be Mr. Baesie. He’s such an eccentric, quirky goofball that it’s almost impossible not to love him. Heck, when he loses his head, he starts talking through his hands as puppets – perfectly reminding me of a wacky Wonderland toon.

Little details like this make the characters much more interesting, likable, and help make the game feel so much more alive. They’re full of personality and just enough unpredictability to carry that storybook-like charm in every interaction, and this makes me excited to move forward with each and every chapter.

A Storybook-like Narrative With a Fond Sense of Nostalgia

I’ve mentioned several times now how the game utilizes beautiful hand-rendered graphics with an art style that mirrors that of old Disney films, thus creating that nostalgic ‘storybook’ feeling. However, what really sells this is the narration. With each step you take to solve a puzzle, the environment around you will change, and scenes are seamlessly blended together for continuity with perfect snippets of narration.

There’s just enough to keep that storybook feeling in check whilst also giving the player room to breathe, and honestly? It feels like every new chapter is turning a new page, just waiting for the inks of darkness to seep in it as you progress. The art, music, and sound effects do a great job of backing up these feelings of gnawing dread, with dramatic pivots between subtle atmospheric harmonies to daunting, eerie chase music.

There’s always just a sliver of unease to be found around every corner in the game’s storytelling, keeping the feeling that Kyn is on your trail as you get closer to uncovering the mysteries of Carol’s disappearance.

Relaxing Puzzle Whimsy With a Fun Clash of Light and Dark

Let’s be clear about what to expect from the gameplay. First of all, there’s nothing that screams incredibly challenging or tricky. For the most part, players will work through stages in each level by solving various puzzles. This is done by discovering, utilizing, and combining items to solve your issues, thus unlocking the next step in progression.

Along the way, you’ll face interruptions from the Owl and Mr. Kyn, with moments of darkness bleeding into the peaceful puzzle aspect. However, the game is fairly forgiving with deaths, checkpoints, and even enemy threat levels, as your HP regeneration is pretty generous. In short, if you like cozy puzzle games and elements of darkness/horror influences, this one is for you. If you’re expecting something big and flashy, or bloody and gory, then this is probably a miss.

There are interactive sections between all of the puzzles that add a nice touch, too. Honestly, these elements remind me much of the Telltale game style, letting narrative take the lead and having the player respond by timing button inputs, mashing buttons, or using thumbsticks to balance their character. These input sections tie in flawlessly to each scene, thanks to the fluid hand-drawn graphics, so you don’t need to worry about breaking up the flow of the story.

The greatest strength of the game is, without a doubt, the fact that it plays more like a narrative experience with interactive functions between each animated scene than a fully hands-on title. If that’s not your cup of tea, then you may find yourself bored with the gameplay loop, in case the animation itself doesn’t do enough for you. Me, on the other hand? That cup of tea is already long down the hatch.

The one big red flag is with controls. They can sometimes feel quite clunky, and there are instances of a few bugs popping up here and there that need to be ironed out. The game itself did appear to crash for me on more than one occasion without any indication as to why, and there have been a couple of hiccups with glitches causing Lana to get stuck or soft-locked. Should these be fixed, the game will play a lot more seamlessly and cut out some of that frustration that can get in the way of enjoying the experience for what it is.

Final Thoughts – A Living Fairytale

Bye Sweet Carole is nothing short of an indie gem. A gorgeously gloomy, twisted tale that will have you feeling as if you’ve stepped foot inside an animated film from years ago. Hand-drawn animations bloom life and personality around every character and puzzle-based environment, and the narration adds storybook charm as the light and beauty clash against darker gothic aesthetics.

It captures absolutely everything that I adore about stories that embrace darkness and light – Coraline and Alice in Wonderland are full of similar childlike playfulness, whimsy, and fantasy, whilst also taking turns into spooky, uncanny, or plain dark and horror-like territory at certain intervals.

From enchanting visuals to a soothing yet haunting setting, every single aspect of Bye Sweet Carol feels as if it were crafted with love. There’s only one other game I’ve played so far this year that has managed to nail this spooky/cozy clash – Gloomy Eyes, which follows a similar storybook/narrative gameplay experience. Much like Gloomy Eyes, I wouldn’t call Bye Sweet Carole anything of a straight up horror experience, though. It’s more an artistic blend of influences thsat takes something cute and whimsical like that Disney-like style, putting a much darker, gloomy spin on it.

If you’re drawn to gentle puzzle gameplay, gorgeous hand-drawn art styles /cinematic cutscenes, or dark fairytales, then Bye Sweet Carole is more than worth your time stepping into. It’s also not too long with only a few chapters of content spanning just 4-5 hours or so of playtime, if that. What does that mean? It’s the perfect game to get all cozy and play across a rainy weekend, or even in celebration of the spooky season.

To raise a fair point that is in discussion with the community right now, perhaps Bye Sweet Carole would have worked even better in the medium of an animated film as others have stated. This is largely due to the cinematic nature and weaker gameplay in comparison to the visuals and soundtrack.

In addition to this, some characters feel like they could have done with a little bit more substance or development in their interactions with Lana – particularly those from the mortal realm. Maybe this could have better been explored or illustrated in a fully animated film? It’s hard to say for sure, but I for one enjoyed the collaboration of mediums, and would love to see more games take this approach in the future.

Like all great fairytales, Bye Sweet Carole comes to an end, but the magic lingers much longer. Regardless, feelings of artistic beauty and melancholy, light and gloom, wonder and horror, all remain long after completion – a shadow of a reminder for the love poured into this tale.