FoxTail

The Good
As I'm writing this review (in May 2020), the game is yet unfinished. It is available on GOG and Steam as a game in progress and, so far, three chapters out of planned eight have been released. Despite this, I decided to review the game now, despite obviously only having a part of the data - the three chapters available at the moment.
An aspect of "FoxTail" which is immediately visible, even without having played the game, is the game's retro graphics. It is closest in style to hand-painted VGA graphics from the early 1990s. Just today I have heard another indie game developer, Julia Minamata, say in an interview that her admiration for early EGA graphics also stems from the fact that VGA graphics, while beautiful, are often a little blurry. I have to agree that it's sometimes the case. "FoxTail", generally, manages to avoid such traps - everything is usually clearly visible and the protagonist's fox muzzle looks sharper than a human face of protagonists such as prince Alexander of Daventry or Zanthia the royal mystic. The graphics are very atmospheric. Myself, I would say that while I prefer VGA graphics (with EGA, though, following quite close), my dislike for, in turn, at least some types of 3D graphics is because of them looking too realistic. One of the things I enjoy in adventure games is that bit of conventionality, fairy-tale-ness and very polished 3D takes this aspect away. In "FoxTail", so far, we can look at lush forests, cottages inspired by Slavic folklore (in some areas, from Poland to Russia, there is indeed a custom of decorating outer walls of a cottage with painted flowers), a beautiful sunset at a lake or a slightly eerie mansion with musical instruments and decorative items such as vases or firefly lamps. According to what is already known about subsequent chapters, among other places to visit there will be mines illuminated by luminous mushrooms and crystals or a mysterious temple in the mountains.
The developers openly admit being inspired by classic adventure games of the "quest" type and it can be clearly seen in the puzzle design. A common method in designing adventure games is the "puzzle dependency chart", believed to be created by Ron Gilbert when working on "Maniac Mansion". It works like this: imagine that you are developing a game. Think of a task - and now plan it backwards, thinking of as many obstacles on the way to completing this task, as you can imagine. One could say that, as a whole, "FoxTail" is designed this way (and what follows will be really, very basic spoilers which don't reveal anything truly unexpected): in chapter 1 Leah learns that she has to find the titular "foxtail" mushroom. In chapter 2 she can't find any mature specimens, but is told that moles who work in mines on the other side of the lake have picked them up. In chapter 3 she discovers that the way to the mines is not so obvious, particularly in the dark... And so on. It often leaves me wondering: what exactly will go wrong in chapter 4, after Leah gets to the mines?...
Puzzle design seems also based on these classic principles, but the puzzles never get too hard. Designers of some classic games had the habit of introducing very complex elements for which they knew the solution - but the players, obviously, didn't! Think of whole areas such as mazes in "Legend of Kyrandia 1" or "King's Quest 6". Puzzles in "FoxTail" aren't this hard, are forgiving - there are no dead ends - and are still quite varied. In chapter 1, Leah arrives at the village believing that she will just begin a nice summer holiday with her granny, not yet knowing about her illness. Therefore, the first chapter is comprised of a series of small tasks. In chapter 2, all tasks already have a common goal: after Leah realises that there are no mature foxtails in the woods, she has to resort to plan B and cross the lake. Chapter 3 takes a similar approach and, on top of that, all tasks culminate in getting a single item which is needed to progress further.
It could be said that of the classic games cited by the game's developers as inspiration, "FoxTail" most closely resembles, in its structure, "Legend of Kyrandia" - and, more precisely, part two, "Hand of Fate". That game, too, has an "episodic" structure (getting to Morningmist Valley, boarding a ship to Volcania, getting underground, realising that the anchor stone is not the real solution... and so on). However, what keeps "FoxTail" so captivating is clever introduction of a background story. Early in the first chapter, Leah finds her grandfather's old diary (she will also use it to make her own notes, which are often very helpful in solving puzzles). At that point, the notes seem very mysterious - Leah (or the player) has no idea why and where did her grandfather travel or what is the "solution" referenced in the diary (to complicate it further, when first playing the game in the Ukrainian version, I misunderstood the word used, rishennia, which can also mean "decision"). We can only assume that the story will be developed and explained in further parts of the game. At this point, as three chapters have been released, I still obviously don't and can't know the whole story.
The game has the characteristics of a Bildungsroman: Leah will keep learning new things during her quest. A common motif of chapter 1 seems to be herbalism, in chapter 2 - sailing (when exploring the laboratory, Leah will also make a detour towards chemistry), in chapter 3 - music. I can also see an interesting similarity between "FoxTail" and the classic model of archaic matriarchal fairy-tales according to Marisa Rey-Henningsen. In such a story, the protagonist (usually daughter, although sometimes son) is sent by their mother on a quest, often to get a magic item. The protagonist completes the quest out of love for their mother and their prize is inheritance of her status. In "FoxTail", instead of a mother, we have the grandmother (although, technically, Leah is sent on her journey by Corsak, but in order to help her granny - and it can also be said that she is following in her grandfather's footsteps...), but the similarity seems very interesting.

The Bad
Despite the best sceneries in the game being absolutely gorgeous, I would still say that the quality of graphics is a little uneven. Some forest screens are rather boring, repetitive, and mostly seem to serve to expand the area. But it is, still, rather nitpicking - the graphics are, on average, even better than in classics from the early 1990s.
Some of the music in the game is too sweet for my taste. However, music plays an important role in the game - at least in some scenes it is more than just an auditory background. Music is the overarching topic of chapter 3 (and a good thing is that music puzzles are built in a way which makes them completely solvable for tone-deaf people - colour clues are used and even if the player doesn't notice something, Leah will write it down in her notebook... ;)). There is also a recurring musical motif known as "Spread Your Wings and Fly" - for example, it's used in a tiny optional sidequest where Leah finds an old swing, later it can be played on the recording and playing device found in the mansion in chapter 3, and something said by the fortuneteller at the end of that chapter allows assuming that even just the title of this melody will be important at a further point - that Leah, despite being an anthropomorphic land mammal, will in some way get wings.
Quality of language versions is too rather uneven. Currently, the game has five versions (text only, it has no spoken dialogue): English, German, Russian, Ukrainian and Polish. All of these languages are at least comprehensible for me (in a sequence of: P, E, G, U, R) and I have to say that I didn't like the Polish version at all. Too stiff language, too little use of synonyms, and a bad decision to leave names as they are spelled in the English version. Due to Polish using a variant of Latin alphabet, transcription of, for example, English or French names is not required and rather not used nowadays (however, until around mid 20th century polonisation of foreign names was common - Charles Dickens is still usually known in Poland as "Karol Dickens" and George Washington - as "Jerzy Waszyngton"). But "FoxTail" has nothing to do with Anglo-American culture, it is immersed in cultures of fictional anthropomorphic animals! Using the spelling "Leah" in Polish makes it look "American", foreign, alien - a much better idea would have been to use Polish spelling ("Lija"), just like in the Russian and Ukrainian version, which have to use a different spelling because of using a different alphabet.

The Bottom Line
As I already wrote, "FoxTail" is not yet finished. According to declarations by the game's main author and artist, Artem Vodoriz, in an interview for a Russian website, which I have recently read: the fourth chapter will be available, like the previous ones, as a patch/update. Later a bit more patience will be required because the second half of the story will be released as a whole, thus completing the game. However, according to what Artem told me himself in a message - preparing a chapter for a separate release, as an update to the previously ready part of the game, takes much more time than it would have taken to work on the same chapter as part of the whole game, to be released once all chapters are finished and tested. Currently, the team also has a second graphic artist, so we can hope that the waiting won't take very long. Certainly, the developers are trying to prevent fans from waiting too long...
The game is simply beautiful and can be recommended to anyone who enjoys adventure games, particularly those on the more retro / "oldschool" / classic side. It looks like a lost classic from the early 1990s, but has all the convenience of modern games: compatibility with Windows, Macintosh and Linux (unlike actual games from that period, which nowadays require emulators). In several ways it is even better, first of all in taking care to make the puzzles logical. To me this kind of games is the best and I'm happy that there are still people who share my view and develop games in this style.