A review copy was provided by the developer.

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One of the reasons for my interest in Ogu and the Secret Forest (SF) was the cuteness factor. I can appreciate conquering a release where every enemy deserves death, but with the escapism I prefer, it's nice having more reasons to enjoy life and my surroundings, even if my avatar is short, white and round, “If only I could be short like that.”


After being dropped off in another world, Ogu has scant resources at his disposal, and before long what feels like a dozen different directions you can veer off into. You'll gather several items that never seem to have very much utility, such as stray rocks, branches, and leaves, although they can always be sold off. Either way, as you explore your surroundings and talk with NPCs, you'll accumulate several quests and branching paths to take, never receiving explicit directions like a quest marker to guide your way. It's always up to your discretion where to go and in what order to tackle things, as long as it's not obstructed by a resource you haven't gotten yet. Due to so many interconnecting factors, like abilities you'll learn, hats with effects, and friends who can clear debris, there's no definitive best starting point or route to follow.

Generally speaking, when I had much less health, the desert certainly seemed intimidating. Enemies there can deal 4 HP of damage, which is much scarier when you have 7 compared to 30. After getting more used to SF, I realized that it's still probably an area better saved for later, but there are ways to mitigate the threats, such as avoiding combat, and having a clear destination in mind. Having beaten the game, I couldn't say what about it required so much time to finish. When looking at the map, it doesn't seem like there's all that much to do, yet I didn't really mind the need to wander around not knowing the exact end goal or place to finish a quest. Being completely stumped or lost wasn't fun, a common issue I encounter anyways, but perhaps not having glowing sprinkles to follow made it feel more like an adventure.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3387438733
Despite the fact you'll fight several enemies, combat isn't the central feature of SF. Many foes only require a few slashes, and some basic hit and run mobility, in order to handle them. That's why they have such long pauses in-between their attacks, so the player can attack and fall back. The combat could be more refined and flow better, but the system is functional, and I think the rest of the game handles fine. You can access another set of menus using Select in order to help track completion for optional stuff like recipes or bug collecting.


Ogu winds up being whisked off to another world, where 99% of everything takes place. He's the only person that can fight off another invading force, which genuinely loves garbage in a way that'd make Oscar the Grouch blush. With somebody dumping their trash everywhere, the world is beginning to fall asunder, so like any good protagonist, he has to tilt larger powers back in the right direction. As a silent protagonist Ogu can serve as a pure hero archetype, yet with so many NPCs, more interaction with their personalities might have been nice.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3387438922
Having been drawn in by this factor, there are many elements that make the game charming. Ogu draws important landmarks to expand the map, NPCs appear as friendly as they act, unless it's a dangerous place the settings are vibrant, and many of his hats look silly with no purpose besides something cute. Every so often, an important event will have a short cutscene, which only emphasizes how silly certain situations look with a short, tubby platypus acting as the hero. For me, it helped create an experience that was largely relaxing, allowing me to take it easy exploring this sweet world.


I had to go out of my way to listen to the different songs, because they didn't leave a strong impression on me. When I listen to them intentionally, I see the common thread and reason why. There's some variety in the use of instruments, although wind instruments seemed predominant, and some range in the tempo. However, all of them focused on a relaxing atmosphere, so they naturally fade into the background for me. They're not unpleasant, but they lack the right emphasis for me to notice them.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3387439619
🌟 There's an option to play on Baby Mode, where you'll never die. Even if not in this mode, dying is fairly painless, since you respawn at the start of the screen, losing minimal progress.
🌟 You don't need to find every little hidden item in order to 100% the game. I'm aware of at least a handful of puzzles I never solved before finishing SF.
🌟 Some areas introduce distinct gameplay mechanics, acting as a slight change of pace to the rest of the game.


❌ The amount of money required for everything is steep, while the spawning rates for optional items is low. Despite how much grass I cut down, I'm positive some bugs never spawned in the wild.
❌ You can play a large portion of the game without incredibly useful items, all due to the random route you happened to choose.


🔍 You may not have them for quite a while, but certain hats can be quite helpful for specific situations. Since cooking is a good way to turn a profit from cheap, basic items, the chef's hat helps improve your chances of getting double items.
🔍 It's easy to get distracted with so many options available at any given time. Periodically double-check your quests and remember to get credit for finishing them. The end reward can open even more paths.
🔍 If your HP gets low, you can dance for a few seconds to regain half health. Otherwise, munch on some food.


It didn't take long before it sort of felt like I was in Skyrim again, because I kept accumulating so many things to do. I thought SF did a good job providing players with something new to investigate or check into, as there were so many little improvements sprinkled throughout the game. Sometimes I'd increase my HP, find a hat that made a task easier, or open five or six optional areas because I made friends with the right person. Hunting down some secrets were difficult because if you don't find the necessary hint cluing you in on what to do, it'd be a bit cryptic. For instance, I was missing a heart apple from the Snow Fields because I never found the note suggesting I light a fire in the right place. Despite a few mishaps, I was so intrigued by the world-building and charming presentation, I wanted to continue Ogu's adventure, no matter how lost I was. That's why I 100%'ed the game, and is a title I highly recommend picking up. Baby's first adventure was a humdinger.

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Ogu and the Secret Forest is a game in the style of the 2D Zeldas and is a very good game in that genre, easily worthy of the Overwhelmingly Positive rating the game currently has.

Unless you go for the true ending, which involves about 99% game completion and dumps all the fun into the landfill.

- The big problem with the true ending is that you need to fully complete all the museum collections. Some of these are reasonable, but the fish and especially the bugs are reminiscent of the figurine collections in Wind Waker and Minish Cap. To be fair, there is a mechanic that makes it easier to collect the bugs/fish you're missing; unfortunately, this mechanic is unlocked by for collecting the two sigils that I did last, is still infuriatingly random and prone to giving you the wrong item, and you still have to suffer through the other categories.

- You also are locked out of obtaining an entire category of museum collectible without a specific upgrade from a specific map region, which happens to be in the same region as the sigil I did last. I want to be very clear on this: the ability to do the middle 4 sigils in any order is great and something a lot of 2D Zelda fans will love, but there's a hidden "correct" order to do them after all and that turned the whole thing sour for me. I might not have had to grind nearly as much if I'd picked the "correct" region to do first.

As for the rest of 100% completion, there are a couple additional problems that crop up if you're foolish enough to think the worst is over:

- The biggest offender is the tennis minigame, which has an achievement (the rarest in the game, for good reason) awarded for not letting your opponent score a single point. The problem is twofold: your hits always send the ball within 5 degrees or so of straight down the court while your opponent can hit at any angle they so desire, and this is the one part of the game where the hit detection on your attacks breaks down entirely because sometimes the ball just goes through your net and you lose a point for no good reason. It took me 15 minutes of attempts just to get a successful normal victory, which is first to six points; I didn't even bother trying for the achievement.

- The next rarest achievement is cooking every dish. This requires catching a whole bunch of max level (i.e. ultra-rare) fish due to the surfeit of recipes that require one (or even two). It also involves pure guesswork for some of the recipes, particularly the fried salt (which has no use whatsoever aside from padding out your recipe book). I only got this achievement because I won the last specialty dish I was missing from a randomly-spawning minigame, I have no idea where you're supposed to get its recipe from normally. For reference, the third rarest achievement after tennis and cooking is completing the pottery display, which requires doing the pottery minigame 50 times or so and is time consuming but trivial and RNG/guesswork free.

- Upgrading your hats is unreasonably grindy for no particular reward. We're talking stacks of 5-10 very rare drops and 15-20 ores that need to be crafted through a minigame one at a time. Or 20-plus pieces of fancy grass from a plant that only drops like 1 or 2 pieces from every 100 plants you cut. Meanwhile the only upgraded hat I ever really used was the angry monkey mask that gave attack/speed buffs, and I honestly could have just used food instead.

Oh, and if I ran this game at the same time as any other programs like my web browser or Discord, either the game would crash while loading my file or the other programs would crash while the game kept running. My best guess is this is some kind of memory allocation issue, which it's truly bizarre because a 2D game should not be nearly intense enough to cause this sort of behavior when none of the 3D games I've played in the last several years had problems like this.

I did genuinely enjoy most of my time with this game, but because of the endgame grind (and minor technical problems) I can't wholeheartedly recommend it to people like me who like seeing the full endings to their games.