Grimm’s Hollow is a beautifully crafted little RPG adventure that tells a very touching story as a young girl becomes a reaper and slays spirits in a purgatory between life and the afterlife.
In Grimm’s Hollow you follow the adventure of a girl called Lavender who awakens in a strange bed in a strange place, surrounded by strangers wearing skull masks. It turns out she’s dead, and because she doesn’t have enough spirit energy to pass on to the afterlife, she will have to work as a reaper to make up for the shortfall.
Beside the fact that they all wear creepy looking skull masks, your fellow reapers are actually quite friendly and are happy to see you join their ranks. They’re led by an even more creepy looking being called Grimm, who also seems nice, if a little hard to trust initially.
You and the other reapers are tasked with going out into the Hollow and harvesting spirit energy from ghosts. Apparently the ghosts have too much spirit energy so you need to remove some so they can pass on, but you only have Grimm’s word on this, so it’s a little hard to know if you’re really doing them a favor or not. More of an immediate concern is that the ghost of your brother Timmy seems to be here and you really need to find some way to save him.
Grimm’s Hollow features a fun and easily accessible take on the traditional JRPG style turn-based combat system. It has timing based attack/defense mechanics and a surprisingly large upgrade tree considering it’s a fairly short game. Thankfully there are no random encounters and you can also switch to a casual game mode if you’re just there for the story.
Taking around an hour to play through, the turn-based combat is fun and the artwork is beautiful, but it’s the story where Grimm’s Hollow really comes into its own. It’s incredibly well written, with interesting characters, some great twists and a story that has real heart. You really fall in love with the characters as you play, and although the game is fairly short, they’ll stay with you forever. Highly recommended.
Controls: Arrow Keys – Movement, Mouse – Look, LMB – Shoot
Available On: Windows
Gameplay Video: Here