Posted by: Gianna Cosimini | October 8, 2025 | Demo, Adventure
Genre: 2D Puzzle-Platformer Dev: Why Knot Studio, Red Dunes Games Platform: PC (Steam) Price: $14.99
If you grew up on classic animation, Princess of the Water Lilies is going to hit you right in the nostalgia feels. On the surface, this is a contender for “Indie Darling of the Year.” The screenshots look like straight-up concept art. But before you add this to your wishlist, you need to know that this title suffers from a massive disconnect between its presentation and its actual gameplay loop. It’s a cozy game that seemingly forgot to playtest its own difficulty curve.
The Campaign: Zero Dialogue, All Vibes
The narrative setup is pretty standard fare for the genre. You spawn as a stray kitten adopted by frog NPCs. During a cutscene at a festival, you unlock a “Magic Collar,” which serves as your primary tool for interacting with the world.
The devs went for a completely non-verbal approach; no text boxes, no dialogue trees. The lore is dumped via thought bubbles and character emotes. It’s a solid design choice that keeps the HUD clean and immersion high. Your main quest is a classic “save the village” trope: mechanical mobs have overrun the biome, and you need to platform your way through various levels to rescue your frog family.
The Buffs: Graphics & Audio
Let’s be real: the art direction is carrying this game hard. The assets are hand-painted and gorgeous. We’re talking AAA-level polish on an indie budget. The sprites have incredible fluidity, and the background layers create a parallax effect that gives the 2D world distinct depth. If you’re a graphics snob, you’re going to have a field day with Photo Mode here.
The OST (Original Soundtrack) is also a banger. It’s fully orchestrated, dynamic, and adapts to your gameplay state. When you’re just exploring, it’s chill lofi vibes; when you hit a boss arena, it ramps up to an epic score.
The core gimmick (the “Purr” mechanic) is actually pretty innovative. Instead of a standard melee attack or projectile, you trigger a localized AoE (Area of Effect) by purring. This interacts with the environment: blooming flowers to create platforms or activating elevators. It’s a fresh take on puzzle-solving that doesn’t rely on violence.
The Nerfs: Controls & Physics
Here is where the review gets salty. For a platformer, “game feel” is everything, and Princess of the Water Lilies feels incredibly floaty. The movement tech is sluggish; the cat accelerates slowly and feels heavy, more like you’re piloting a mech than a nimble feline.
The biggest issue is the collision detection and hitboxes. You will die a lot, not because you lack skill, but because the edge of a platform isn’t where the sprite says it is. This inconsistency makes precise platforming sections a nightmare.
The physics engine is also prone to RNG (Random Number Generation) weirdness. Puzzles often involve pushing objects like mushrooms or rocks. Sometimes the physics object behaves normally; other times it clips through the floor or bounces off at a 90-degree angle for no reason, forcing a restart of the checkpoint.
The Difficulty Spike
You’d expect a game about a cute cat to be a “walking simulator” or a cozy collect-a-thon. Wrong. The boss encounters are surprisingly sweaty. These aren’t simple QTEs (Quick Time Events); they are multi-phase bullet hell sections where you have to dodge lasers and memorize attack patterns perfectly.
The problem is that the sluggish controls don’t match this high skill ceiling. When you need frame-perfect inputs to dodge a boss attack, but your character has a half-second input delay, it feels like artificial difficulty. It stops being a challenge and starts being a rage-quit moment.
Final Verdict
Princess of the Water Lilies is a confused product. It has the skin of a casual, cozy game but the punishment mechanics of a hardcore platformer, without the tight controls to back it up.
If you are buying this for the “aesthetics” and don’t mind wrestling with clunky controls, it’s a decent pickup on sale. But if you care about tight mechanics and responsive gameplay, you’re going to find the input lag and broken hitboxes frustrating.
Maturity Rating:
E for Everyone (ESRB)
- Content Descriptors: Mild Fantasy Violence.
- Parental Advisory: This title is completely “safe for work” and family-friendly in terms of content—there is zero blood, gore, or bad language (since there is no dialogue). The combat is strictly destroying robots. However, be warned: the skill floor is surprisingly high. While the visuals are safe for a 6-year-old, the boss mechanics might be too frustrating for younger gamers without an adult co-pilot to help them carry.
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