The game was provided by Square Enix for review. Thank you!
When I first read about Little Goody Two Shoes, I knew I would be in for a good time. A story-driven horror game with gorgeous yet sometimes unsettling artwork and a focus on the choices you make and how it affects the story was more than enough of a description to get me interested. Now that I have played it, I can safely say that, yes, the game lives up to its summary and makes for an incredible adventure that will keep you coming back to discover everything for yourself.
Little Goody Two Shoes has a simple concept. You are Elise, a young woman who wants to be rich but, unfortunately, hasn't had any luck. As you are on your merry way, trying to make money however possible, you end up taking a risk that could make you rich but comes with a terrible price. With paranormal events now unfolding, you will need to face the horrors to fulfill your wishes and try to survive long enough to see them realized.
The story is extremely captivating, and I loved playing through it and trying to discover the ten different endings the game has, but the variety of gameplay is what kept me coming back. Yes, it is a story game, but it also has elements of puzzle, resource management, a dating simulator, and even some arcade-esque mini-games. Each one of these serves a purpose, though, and they all blend together exceptionally well. The way each of the elements works with each other creates an experience that is hard to not love.
Each day, you will be able to choose how you want to spend your day. Will you work odd jobs to make money? Go on a date? Strengthen bonds with the villagers to avoid being suspected as a witch? The choice is yours! You will also have to manage Elise's health (heart) and food (bread) to make sure she can function and stay sane while she encounters foes as she dives deeper into the woods.
On top of that, we are also treated to some gorgeous and vibrant visuals that shine on the Steam Deck OLED screen. The areas, artwork, and overall design of the world, mixed with a wonderful soundtrack, play together well to create an atmosphere that feels like a fairytale on the surface, with evil lurking underneath. And playing on the Steam Deck makes it even better.
As I expected from seeing the game's visuals, Little Goody Two Shoes runs perfectly on the Steam Deck. Without any setting changes, I was getting a solid 90 or 60 FPS with no slowdowns while actually playing the game. I did notice some slowdown when using the menus in the game, sometimes dropping to 40 FPS for a split second, but it was perfect otherwise.
The game can hit 90 FPS without issue on the Steam Deck OLED, but with this type of game, I felt that this high framerate was unnecessary and just drained extra battery. At 90 FPS, I was getting around 11W - 12W battery drain, but bringing it down to 60 FPS brought me to 8W - 9W, which is significantly better for a portable device and got me around 6 hours of battery life on the OLED, and 4.5 hours on the LCD.
There aren't a ton of different settings to change for Little Goody Two Shoes, but it doesn't need many changes, regardless. There are audio bars, a toggle to turn on/off voice acting, and some text settings where you can change speed and auto wait time. There were a couple of menus where I found text to be a little on the small side, but nothing unreadable.
The game doesn't have 16:10 resolution support, so there will be black bars at the top and bottom, but it does have full controller and cloud save support!
Little Goody Two Shoes is an extremely captivating horror adventure with a fantastic story and a mesh of gameplay elements that work well together. I found myself thinking and planning each in-game day, who I wanted to romance if I would work, and trying to see a different ending. It also plays exceptionally well on the Steam Deck, which is great as I would consider this a perfect portable game rather than one I would play sitting on a desktop. If you are looking for an incredible story-driven horror game that you can really sink your teeth into, don't hesitate to give this one a try!
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Little Goody Two Shoes is a fantastic horror story-driven game that runs exceptionally well on the Steam Deck!
