Review: Puppergeist - A Cute and Emotional Rhythm Adventure Full of Ghost Dogs
A charming little rhythm adventure about friendship, loss and helping ghostly dogs, which also reminded me just how terrible I am at rhythm games
Puppergeist is an adorable little rhythm adventure that follows a young witch travelling through the Doggie Underworld in search of her missing dog. Along the way, you'll meet all sorts of ghostly pups, learn their stories and help them through a series of musical minigames.
It's a lovely concept, combining cute hand drawn characters with a story about the relationship between people and their pets. The whole thing is wonderfully colourful, with plenty of personality packed into a relatively short experience.
It also reminded me of something I'd apparently forgotten about myself. I am absolutely terrible at rhythm games.
Despite the simple controls, keeping time with the music was quite a challenge for me. Thankfully, there's a lot of charm in Puppergeist beyond the rhythm mechanics, and I enjoyed seeing how the different dogs and their stories were incorporated into the gameplay.
Story
Puppergeist follows Claire, a young witch who ventures into the Doggie Underworld looking for her beloved dog, Pup.
Shortly after arriving, she meets a demon named Lunne, who accompanies her on her journey. Together, they travel through the underworld and encounter the spirits of other dogs, each with their own experiences and stories to share.
Although the world is colourful and full of adorable characters, the story deals with some quite emotional subjects. At its heart, Puppergeist is about the relationship we have with our pets and how difficult it can be to say goodbye to them.
As Claire travels through the underworld, she learns more about the dogs she meets, and helping them becomes part of her own journey towards finding Pup.
I think it's an interesting premise for a rhythm game. Rather than simply moving between musical challenges, there's a narrative reason for meeting each new character, which gives the individual minigames a little more meaning.
It's a short story, so there isn't an enormous amount of time to develop every character, but the central theme is something many people who have loved and lost a pet will understand.
It's also worth mentioning that, despite its very cute presentation, Puppergeist does explore pet loss and grief, which might be difficult for some players.
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Gameplay
Puppergeist combines visual novelstyle storytelling with a series of rhythmbased minigames. You'll spend some time talking to the different characters before helping them through musical challenges that allow you to progress further into the underworld.
The controls are incredibly straightforward. Most of the minigames involve pressing a single button in time with the music, although the timing and patterns change depending on the challenge.
You might be petting a dog, playing a little game or taking part in another activity designed around the character you're helping.
I really like that the minigames involve different activities rather than simply repeating the same rhythm sequence with different music. It gives each encounter a little personality and helps tie the gameplay back to the characters.
However, simple controls don't necessarily mean simple gameplay, and I was quickly reminded just how hopeless my sense of rhythm can be.
You need to pay attention to the musical cues, learn when to press the button and react at the right moment. Some challenges are reasonably forgiving, while others require much more precise timing.
Fortunately, you can practise the minigames before attempting them properly, and failed challenges can be retried. That's particularly useful for someone like me, who definitely needs a little more practice than the average rhythm game enthusiast.
Graphics and Visuals
Puppergeist has a gorgeous hand drawn art style that makes the Doggie Underworld feel much more welcoming than you might expect from a game set in the afterlife.
The characters are colourful and expressive, with lovely animations that give the various dogs plenty of personality. Claire and Lunne also have distinctive designs, and the illustrated dialogue scenes help bring their interactions to life.
I particularly like how the game manages to make its supernatural setting feel playful. There are ghosts and demons everywhere, but the presentation is much closer to a colourful illustrated storybook than anything traditionally spooky.
The different minigames also have their own animations, which makes watching the characters interact part of the fun.
Music is obviously an important part of the experience too, and the soundtrack changes to suit the different challenges. The sound effects and musical cues are essential to the gameplay, so playing with the sound on is definitely the way to go.
Overall, it's a really cute game to look at, and the bright artwork works nicely alongside its more emotional subject matter.
Longevity
Puppergeist is a very short game, taking around one to two hours to complete, depending on how comfortable you are with the rhythm challenges.
There are 11 minigames to work through alongside the main story, so it's quite a compact experience.
The individual challenges are also replayable, giving you the opportunity to improve your performance and work towards better rankings if you particularly enjoy the rhythm mechanics.
I can imagine that being appealing to players who enjoy mastering musical patterns and getting perfect scores. Personally, given my rather questionable rhythm game abilities, I'm happy enough when I manage to keep up!
I don't think every narrative game needs to be particularly long, especially when it's built around one specific idea. Puppergeist has a straightforward premise, and the relatively short runtime means the individual challenges don't have much opportunity to become repetitive.
You can comfortably experience over an evening, rather than something that requires a major time commitment.
Conclusion
Puppergeist is a cute little adventure with a lovely premise, particularly if you're someone who enjoys emotional stories about animals.
The combination of visual novel storytelling and rhythm challenges is an interesting one. Meeting the different ghostly dogs gives the musical minigames more personality, and the hand drawn artwork makes the whole experience incredibly charming.
I also appreciated how straightforward the gameplay is to understand, even if actually getting the timing right was another matter entirely.
Rhythm games have never been my strongest genre, and Puppergeist certainly hasn't changed that. If you're anything like me, some of the challenges may require a little more patience than you initially expect.
That said, the ability to practise and retry the minigames makes the difficulty much more manageable, and there's enough variety to keep the short adventure interesting.
I think the biggest thing to consider is whether you enjoy rhythm based gameplay. Although Puppergeist has a narrative at its heart, the musical challenges are essential to progressing through the story, and you can't simply skip them to find out what happens next.
For anyone who enjoy cute characters, short narrative adventures and a little musical challenge, Puppergeist is an interesting indie game worth checking out.
Just don't let all those adorable ghost dogs fool you into thinking it's going to be completely effortless!
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Puppergeist is a cute little rhythm adventure about a young witch searching for her missing dog in the Doggie Underworld. With adorable characters, emotional storytelling and surprisingly challenging minigames, it's a short indie adventure full of charm.