Confetti’s Cozy Corner: Little Goody Two Shoes
Little Goody Two Shoes, from AstralShift and Square Enix, is a cozy, anime inspired, horror narrative adventure game with queer representation that follows Elise, who was adopted after being found in the woods.
When Elise’s adopted mother dies she goes on an adventure to investigate rumors of a wish-granting creature. While on your adventure your choices matter, and you can do odd jobs for villagers, romance characters while Elise works towards her goal of becoming filthy rich.
Little Goody Two Shoes combines many genres under one experience, life sim, dating sim, horror, adventure, visual novel, RPG, puzzles and anime. Often it is those combinations, in addition to the odd job mini games Elise must do for money, that can be overwhelming at times for players. As an anime fan and lover of all of those genres, navigating between the varying game mechanics was no issue for me personally, but it is understandable how it can be overwhelming and perhaps confusing.
At night, Elise must travel through the woods to investigate the rumors of the wish granting being, and the mystery behind why monsters started appearing at night in the first place. When traversing the woods Elise’s panic, hunger and insanity must be maintained or there will be consequences, even death. It is important that Elise must get home while avoiding monsters.
During the day, Elise must do various jobs for the villagers. Players must choose dialogue and build positive relationships in order to reduce the possibility of Elise being accused of being a witch and the reason for the monsters appearing.
Elise will meet three companions on her quest for riches, all of them women and all of the romance-able. There are multiple endings and pathways to the game depending on who you choose to romance. Rozenmarine is a mysterious traveler with a shy personality. Freya is sort of Elise’s rival as she is a known and trusted hard worker in the village with a kind heart. And the final love interest is Lebkuchen, who is a nun known not only for her devotion but amazing pastries.
Each route with your love interests, and the choices you can make with them, will often leave you wanting to know more about their personalities. Sometimes I felt that when there was an opportunity for their personality to shine, it fell flat a bit. While it is awesome to have queer representation, it’s even more awesome when those ideas are fully developed.
The story of Little Goody Two Shoes is ultimately a captivating fairy tail that is completely in your control. Do you want the village to believe Elise is a witch? Which of Elise’s friends will you choose to date, if at all? And what is the mystery behind the monsters and the wish granting being?
How the story unfolds is ultimately up to the player, and that is where Little Goody Two Shoes shines. You can create the ultimate feel good fairytale or create a more tragic storyline, with many combinations in between. Once you finish a playthrough, you will want to go back and see what changes you can make to affect the outcome of Elise’s story.
The aesthetic of the game is beautiful, with the cut scene art style being very anime-inspired. Specifically, as someone who loves older anime titles, the anime art style looks very close to Shamanic Princess and Magic Knight Rayearth. Shamanic Princess is an anime that was released in 1996 and collectively created by Animate Film and Triangle Staff. Magic Knight Rayearth manga was created by the legendary CLAMP in 1993 with its anime premiering in 1994. The developers of Little Goody Two Shoes specifically were inspired by the Shōjo anime style – an editorial category of Japanese comics with examples including Sailor Moon, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Slayers.
Cozy games that lean towards darker aesthetics and themes are always a nice change of pace in the genre. As an anime nerd, I like that Little Goody Two Shoes‘s specific Shōjo anime inspirations are all magical girls, but in many ways lean into both magical girl and dark magical girl themes (yes, there is a difference!).
While gameplay can get somewhat repetitive, the art style and story are incredible. Little Goody Two Shoes is available on PlayStation, Xbox, PC (Steam Deck compatible) and Nintendo Switch.
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