Bramble: The Mountain King
I finally finished Bramble: The Mountain King and I have to say this game surprised me. I thought it would be a simple adventure game but it turned out to be much darker than I expected. It was released in 2023 by Dimfrost Studio and if you like games based on old fairy tales and folklore, this one is worth looking at.
The first thing I noticed was the graphics. This game is beautiful but in a creepy way. The forests, rivers, mountains and small villages all look amazing. Some places feel peaceful and a few minutes later, they become scary.
The lighting does a great job of changing the mood. One moment you're walking through a quiet forest and the next you're trying to hide from something huge. The character designs are also interesting. Some creatures look friendly, while others are straight out of a nightmare.
The story was my favorite part. You play as a young boy named Olle, who is looking for his older sister, Lillemor. She is taken by a giant troll, and Olle goes on a dangerous journey to save her. Along the way, he enters a world filled with creatures from Scandinavian folklore. Some help him, but many want to hurt him.
I liked that the game doesn't make every fairy tale creature nice. Some of the monsters are honestly disturbing. The story gets darker as you play, and it shows that this world is beautiful but also cruel. There were moments that made me feel bad for the characters, and I wanted to keep playing to see if Olle and his sister would make it home safely.
The difficulty is pretty balanced. The game has puzzles, platforming, and chase scenes. Most puzzles are simple and don't take too long to figure out. The chase scenes were the hardest part for me because you have to react quickly, and some enemies are scary enough to make you panic. A few sections took me a couple of tries, but nothing felt impossible. The game is more about the experience and the story than making you struggle for hours.
I'd give Bramble: The Mountain King a 9/10. The graphics are beautiful, the story kept me interested from start to finish and the difficulty felt fair. If you think fairy tales are only happy stories, this game might change your mind. I'd definitely recommend giving it a try. You might end up liking it as much as I did.












