Little Misfortune | PS4 Review.

 

Publisher: Killmonday Games
Developer: Killmonday Games
PS4 Review

I have finally started off the year on a good note, I pushed myself to try and get games and books finished for once and so far I'm doing well, although Little Ramirez Misfortune was a recent purchase I wanted to actually play and finish games rather than moan about not having anything to play. I knew instantly this would be my kind of game just from the artwork and the characters voice, I watched the trailer a few times before commiting to the game and when I saw it was on sale it was an instant want for me. I had the choice of getting it for Nintendo Switch or PS4 and decided on the latter, I wasn't disappointed that's for sure.

Little Misfortune is about a little girl who lives her life dismissing all the bad events going on around her and goes on with her life with a relaxed attitude, her father is far from nice and it's clear he can be violent but she reasures herself that he loves her and her mummy. Little Misfortune is 8 and her imagination is still running wild, she can escape her homelife whenever she wants thanks to it, one day she hears a voice in her head, thinking it's just her imagination she goes along with it. The voice tells her he wants to play a game and if she wins she could get Eternal Happiness, the little girl thinks about just how happy it would make her mummy if she was to win her this gift she agrees to play the game. 

I knew from the start that this voice which Little Misfortune renamed Mr Voice was more sinister then she realised even before he lets the player know that the little girl would die today, some may think that perhaps this is a cute game just showcasing her final day but it's far from that and if you're not a fan of dark humour you won't particularly like Little Misfortune, especially because the girl is so young and people may find it bad taste but I assure you it's worth a play and the dark humour helps you understand what's going on in the story. The voice interacts with both Misfortune and the player which draws you into the game a little more, the player is the one who makes the choice for misfortune so even though the game feels a like a walking simulator it's more of a telltale game in my eyes.

You begin to learn that on the run up to Mr Voice appearing Misfortune had been seeing an imaginary boy and a fox she named Benjamin, when she told Mr Voice about them he was adamant on telling her not to listen to them especially the fox as he will try to hurt her. Misfortune see's the good in others and was sure this wouldn't be the case. On the subject of Benjamin, he is in the very first scenes of the game we see him walk into a portal so right away I knew how important his role would be, as the game progressed we start to see him hanging up missing posters and words of warning to others about keeping their children safe and there was good reason for this.

Whilst Misfortune is a sweet little girl she does misbehave and Mr Voice doesn't like this, in fact he would tell her off a lot and get frustrated that she wouldn't listen to him, it seemed as if he was used to getting his own way. With each choice I made something bad was bound to happen and Misfortune would say a collection of different quotes such as two of my favourites "Yikes, Forever" and "I'm a little lady you know" showing that she is acknowledging that something was wrong but she is still a lady and won't let it phase her. The controls are pretty basic, but at times I did regret certain choices I had made, I would get to a scene further along and find out why I would need something or if it was best that I had chosen a different choice in dialogue.

Misfortune is full of happiness and positivity and when something is sad or bad happens she likes to sprinkle glitter and quote "Sha-daan! Happiness to everything!", the player can control when she does this and I would find myself sprinkling glitter after every sad event I came across happened, making the sadness started to feel like a better solution for me too. I found myself chuckling at the random scenes I would come across such as the hamster club, there were all different kinds of hamsters just hanging out in a sewer living their best life and Misfortune wanted to go in the club and join them, to be honest I would be the same, it sounds like a blast to me! Mr Voice often contemplates whether it was worth talking to Misfortune in the first place, her way of seeing the world and dealing with things doesn't seem to be what he is used to and he gets more and more frustrated by it. Benjamin is also messing with his plans but it's clear he has a purpose and he is there to finish the job, with Misfortune not listening to Mr Voice and constantly trying to speak with Benjamin will mr Voice succeed on what he set out to do?

There are dolls to collect so make sure you look around and get them all, they come with a note which coincide with the games story, as well as the dolls the art gallery is full of scenes from the story and they move which is cute. For trophy hunters the trophies should be easy enough to get with 2 playthroughs, I think there are 15 all together, I need to go back through the game myself to get them but as I plan on doing a Youtube video playthrough I may as well try and get them whilst doing that. Bare in mind that the further in this game the more sinister and satanic it gets, there is a very heavy tone to it which is masked over (can be triggering for those who have lost a child), as soon as I realised who Mr Voice was and what he was capable of I wanted to tell Misfortune to stop listening to him and go home, I fell in love with her character and wanted to protect her at all costs which is what she deserved, all children do. It's a sad yet crazy situation she found herself in and all because she just wanted her mummy to be happy.

I can understand how hard it can be to get the message across without making it traumatising the player when it comes to death but the creator of the game Killmonday Games has created something quirky and humorous whilst also raising awareness, there is a strong message that even in an abusive situation children will just want to make their parent(s) instead of concentrating on what they want for themselves. Natalia Martisson art brought the game to life, her quirky art styles is very different to anything I have ever played before. I had such a good time playing Little Misfortune I want to get it for the Switch and on steam, Killmonday Games also have another game called Fran Bow which I like the look of, I may pick that up for Steam too, I managed to get Little Misfortune on sale in the PSN store, it was well worth getting!