Nevaeh

Short yet engaging, Nevaeh creates quite the mystery by omitting any narration, which occasionally can be confusing when trying to work out what's going on, particularly when helping townspeople with their individual requests, and figuring out the finale. Shadows are a strong element here for both puzzle-solving and boss battles. There's a range of power-ups that can be chosen once enough of an item is collected, and these can extend how long the butterfly stays activated or improve the girl's defences. Replaying may help better understand the story, and there is a harder setting to use, but there is no obvious benefit or incentive to do so. That aside, overall Nevaeh is a sound game to test the mind and imagination.

Nevaeh is a fast and fun puzzle platformer that doesn’t bite off more than it can chew. However, its lack of direction makes the adventure feel soulless. Nothing challenges the player, not even the boss encounters, making this more of a comfortable and cute indie puzzle experience to play in short bursts.

Nevaeh is easy-playing stuff. It takes familiar, comfortable genre conventions and splices them together in a way that is imminently playable. With such a strong, compelling art style it would have been nice to see the developers push the artistry a little further, either to subvert or confirm the fairytale themes in a compelling way, but you're not going to regret your time playing this one. Not by a long shot.

Nevaeh's challenge relies on your ability to consistently think outside the box and its resulting gameplay is impressively rewarding.