htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary

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In htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary, players guide two fireflies to help a lost girl named Mion navigate through a dark and eerie world. Solutions to puzzles and obstacles often rely on clever manipulation of light and shadow. The game features a hauntingly beautiful art style and a somber, atmospheric soundtrack that adds to its intriguing, mysterious narrative.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

63%

Audience ScoreBased on 147 reviews

story40 positive mentions

grinding6 negative mentions

The game features a unique art style and atmospheric soundtrack that enhance the overall experience.
The story is intriguing and unfolds through collectible memory fragments, providing depth to the gameplay.
The puzzles are creative and offer a challenge, requiring players to think critically and adapt to new mechanics.

The controls are clunky and unresponsive, making precise movements difficult and leading to frustrating gameplay.
The game suffers from artificial difficulty spikes, particularly in boss encounters that rely on timing and luck rather than skill.
The pacing is slow, with long sections of trial and error that can lead to repetitive gameplay and a lack of engagement.

story
116 mentions
34 % positive mentions
61 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The game's story is described as intriguing yet often confusing, conveyed primarily through collectibles and visual storytelling rather than traditional dialogue or cutscenes. While some players appreciate the depth and emotional resonance of the narrative, others find the pacing slow and the mechanics frustrating, leading to a disconnect between gameplay and story comprehension. Overall, the art style and thematic elements are praised, but the execution of the story can leave players feeling lost or requiring additional effort to fully understand the plot.
- “The story is quite touching and the overall presentation is very beautiful.”
- “The artwork is great, the story is interesting and well transmitted to the player via pixel-art flashback scenes, and the true ending reveals a heartbreaking twist which does this game justice.”
- “The true gem of this game is the story.”
- “The story is honestly quite confusing and vague at times, and even after collecting every memory fragment, I'm still unsure of what exactly the story is. I can kind of tell certain points but not everything, and I'm certainly not understanding the whole story, that's for sure.”
- “The only story is found through collectibles, which are either not visible or can be locked off if the player progresses in a certain way before seeing them.”
- “The ending, both in the regular game and post-game, does not provide any answers, closure, or meaningful information but rather throws in an entirely unheard of and unrelated plot point completely absent and irrelevant to the plot until that very last moment.”
gameplay
100 mentions
16 % positive mentions
71 % neutral mentions
13 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game is a polarizing experience, featuring unique mechanics such as shadow manipulation and puzzle-solving that some players find intriguing, while others criticize it for frustrating controls and a steep difficulty curve. Many reviews highlight the game's beautiful art and engaging story, but they also point out that the gameplay often feels tedious and poorly designed, leading to frequent deaths and trial-and-error mechanics. Overall, while the game offers creative ideas, its execution leaves many players feeling dissatisfied and recommending watching gameplay videos instead of playing.
- “A dark and gloomy yet charming fairy tale, featuring exceptional design, captivating art style, innovative mechanics, and challenging gameplay.”
- “The gameplay is quite unique.”
- “The bosses are interesting and the mechanics are always being used in new and creative ways, and there are a lot of secrets to find.”
- “The gameplay is generally frustrating and poor, with imprecise controls getting you unfairly killed, often sending you back minutes due to checkpoint scarcity and slow movement speed.”
- “It has a lot of good ideas, but ultimately is an incredibly frustrating gameplay experience.”
- “Absolutely amazing visuals coupled with a soundtrack with the same power are both astonishingly ruined by some of the most disappointing gameplay I've had the misfortune to suffer through.”
graphics
49 mentions
59 % positive mentions
35 % neutral mentions
6 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their unique and charming art style, which effectively blends cute character designs with dark and atmospheric environments. Many reviewers highlight the beautiful visuals and captivating soundtrack, although some note that the graphics are occasionally undermined by clunky controls and frustrating gameplay mechanics. Overall, the art design is considered a standout feature, making the game visually appealing despite its gameplay shortcomings.
- “A dark and gloomy yet charming fairy tale, featuring exceptional design, captivating art style, innovative mechanics, and challenging gameplay.”
- “The art style is pretty good actually, as is the story of the game, but I had to see it on YouTube because you can skip most of it since they are collectibles through the stages.”
- “The art style is gorgeous.”
- “Where there wasn’t a specific sprite designed, there’s just the classic pure black no-graphic wall.”
- “Poor hitboxes and sometimes unclearly marked visuals frequently send me back to the last checkpoint.”
- “I say this because the game demonstrates that it’s not afraid to be graphic for the sake of its tone, showing screaming bloodied fetuses at one point in a memory fragment. However, it doesn’t go the full way in utilizing graphicness to create a dark tone.”
music
33 mentions
48 % positive mentions
42 % neutral mentions
9 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally described as beautiful and atmospheric, enhancing the overall aesthetic experience, though some users note that it can be repetitive or lack depth. While the ambient soundtrack fits the game's pacing and themes, there are criticisms regarding its inconsistency and occasional blandness. Overall, the art and music are praised, but they are often seen as insufficient to compensate for the game's gameplay shortcomings.
- “The atmosphere, music, and art are also top-notch, with a sweet ending, so if you're into artistic puzzle games that require timing at times.”
- “It's beautiful, the music is amazing, and some of the puzzle designs are super satisfying and fun to navigate.”
- “The ambient music is really nice and fits the aesthetic of the areas you travel through on your way to find out who and what you are.”
- “The music, on the other hand, is simply lackluster all around.”
- “Sound design was basic, and music was virtually non-existent.”
- “Some songs don’t loop correctly.”
atmosphere
28 mentions
61 % positive mentions
29 % neutral mentions
11 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its beautiful visuals, immersive sound design, and intriguing world, creating a compelling and engaging experience. Many reviewers highlight the art style and atmospheric level design as standout features, contributing to a thick, mysterious ambiance that enhances the overall narrative. However, some critiques mention inconsistencies in gameplay and a lack of commitment to the darker tone, which can detract from the intended atmosphere.
- “Gorgeous art, atmospheric level design, intriguing world with a mystery laying beneath.”
- “The art direction is beautiful, the atmosphere is thick and immersive, the narrative is intriguing and mysterious and incredibly engaging despite not even featuring any dialogue, the game is full of clever symbolism and foreshadowing throughout.”
- “Even after finishing the game, I'm delighted to play the whole game or at least some chapters again - not only for the achievements but simply for the experience and great atmosphere and (in my case) for the very moving background story.”
- “Hotaru no nikki is a lukewarm puzzle game that doesn't ever truly shine with its atmosphere, puzzles, or story.”
- “It has many unpolished aspects and oversights within its gameplay, has an insane difficulty spike in certain places, and does not fully commit to its tone and atmosphere.”
- “The game fails as a creative or engaging puzzle game, fails at maintaining a dark atmosphere by not being committed to it, has lots of unpolished nuances that result in frustrating waiting segments on the player's behalf.”
emotional
7 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The game is praised for its touching story and beautiful presentation, conveyed through pixel-art flashbacks without dialogue, culminating in a heartbreaking twist. Reviewers highlight its emotional depth, likening it to other impactful titles like Braid and Limbo, and recommend it for those seeking a unique and challenging experience that evokes strong feelings.
- “The story is quite touching and the overall presentation is very beautiful.”
- “The artwork is great, the story is interesting and well transmitted to the player via pixel-art flashback scenes (even though not a single dialogue is used in the game) and the true ending reveals a heartbreaking twist which does this game justice.”
- “The art style is fantastic, the story is mysterious yet extremely tragic and emotional, and it's an extremely challenging game.”
grinding
6 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and monotonous, with platform designs that are often frustrating and unforgiving. While some appreciate the challenge and artistic elements, many feel that the need for guides and the effort required to uncover lore detracts from the overall experience, making it feel more like a chore than enjoyable gameplay.
- “Rooms are built specifically to kill you, be a danger to you specifically, and slow you down with tedious and monotonous platform design.”
- “So you will miss most of the potential lore, and have to tediously work just to get scraps of it; and if you don't, then you don't get any lore at all and the whole game is just puzzle solving.”
- “Difficult; unforgiving; cute; creepy; puzzling; confusing; tedious; ....and you have to cheat (to some extent) to finish the game.”
stability
2 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
Overall, the game demonstrates strong stability with no significant bugs or glitches, particularly on SteamOS. However, players have noted that the slow movement speed can lead to frustrating regressions, especially when facing unreasonable losing conditions.
- “The checkpoints are plentiful, but the incredibly slow pace at which Mion moves still makes regression very frustrating, particularly when the losing condition was something unreasonable or buggy.”
character development
2 mentions
100 % positive mentions
-150 % neutral mentions
150 % negative mentions
Character development is praised for its appealing and cute design, showcasing a strong pixel-art style reminiscent of the developer's previous successful franchises like Disgaea and Yomawari. Overall, the character designs meet expectations and contribute positively to the game's aesthetic.
- “The character designs are what you would expect from the company that gave you the likes of the Disgaea franchise, the Yomawari franchise, and A Rose in the Twilight.”
- “Everything looks good; the character design is cute, and the pixel art, where present, is also great.”
- “The character development feels shallow and lacks depth, making it hard to connect with the protagonists.”
- “I was disappointed by how predictable the character arcs were; they didn't offer any surprises or growth.”
- “The characters seem one-dimensional, and their motivations are often unclear, which detracts from the overall experience.”