I am awful at puzzle games and even worse with color theory, so combine these two together and She Remembered Caterpillars is what you get. Normally, this would definitely be a game I avoided at all costs but this one is different. I am not sure if it was the eerie atmosphere, the cute design of little creatures called “Gammies” or the abundance of smartly designed color puzzles, but somehow the developers of She Remembered Caterpillars, Jumpsuit Entertainment created a puzzle game that got its hooks in me. It sucked me in to the point that I ended up finishing the game in two sittings.

Sitting around the 4 to 5-hour mark, She Remembered Caterpillars tells a story of heartbreak, loss and the obsession that can consume people who experience a great deal of guilt and regret. The story is told through small portions of written dialogue at the beginning of each chapter, and will slowly unfold as you complete the game’s many brain-racking puzzles.

As mentioned above, She Remembered Caterpillars is a logic-based puzzle game that centers around little creatures called Gammies. Gammies come in three colors, yellow, blue, and red. The goal to solve each puzzle is to get all the Gammies to little pads on the map. The difficult part here is that each pad is separated by color bridges corresponding to the colors of the Gammies. For example, to cross a blue bridge you need a blue Gammie, but to pass through a blue gate you need a red or yellow Gammie.

As you progress through the game you will come across purple, green and orange bridges and gates; this is where merging comes into play. To cross a purple bridge all you need to do is merge a blue and red Gammie. Merging to purple will also enable you to get a red Gammie across blue bridges.

She Remembered Caterpillars adds an extra layer of complexity when you reach the latter half of the story and gives you the ability to change the colors of the Gammies as well as introducing pressure pads to extend and lower bridges. The puzzles are smartly crafted and implement a great method of introducing new gameplay elements over the course of the game to ensure maximum success and minimal frustration.

You might ask yourself “If someone is color blind then how can they play She Remembered Caterpillars?” The answer to that is quite simple but also quite ingenious. By using shapes to identify the different Gammies and their corresponding bridges and gates, the developers give a visual cue that differentiates it from the color design.

The art by Daniel Goffin reminds me a bit of the hand-drawn backgrounds of Final Fantasy VII, the eerie lighting and music all lend to the unusual and at times noncommercial setting Yet is also oddly relaxing at the same time. The music by Thomas Höhl and the sound design (by Christian Wittmoser) also enhances the ambient feeling.

Though She Remembered Caterpillars has a sad narrative, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a great one. The story does tend to dive a bit into cliches, and never got me to feel much for our nameless character and her father. Another issue I found myself constantly having was fighting with the controls. The game was built for PC and (on Switch at least) it shows. It was always hard to gauge whether I was moving the stick enough to get the Gammies to move to the next spot, or get them to fully move across the bridge which annoyed me.

Overall She Remembered Caterpillars was a fun, brain crunching adventure. With a great soundtrack, fantastic art design, and well-designed puzzles that make you feel accomplished and fulfilled after each successful attempt; you can bet that I would give my full congratulations to Jumpsuit Entertainment for making someone like me (who tends to avoid puzzle games,) want to play more titles like this. I am very excited for whatever they do next.

A Nintendo Switch copy of She Remembered Caterpillars was provided by Ysbryd Games for this review.

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She Remembered Caterpillars

12.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Well desgined puzzles
• Great Art Desgin
• Wonderful Soundtrack

Cons

• Cliche story
• Clunky Controls