Before spinning us an enchanting and emotionally charged yarn, developer Little Sewing Machine opens with a simple dedication in lowercase: for mom. It’s a reminder that, despite the scope of the journey ahead, this is a deeply personal tale.
Little Sewing Machine lead Chris Darill is no stranger to artistic horror or cinematic flair. His Remothered games were standout examples of survival horror done right. Here, he introduces us to a disarming world of primary colours and art that feels straight out of Disney, before plunging us into a nightmare filled with tricky puzzles and shadowy monsters.
Lana Benton lives a bleak life of toil at Bunny Hall Orphanage. Her only solace was her friend Carole, who has gone missing under mysterious circumstances. Haunted by nightmares of a tall figure in a top hat, Lana sets out to find her friend. In doing so, she stumbles into the world of Corolla, where strange creatures roam and the sinister Mr. Kyn, the man from her dreams, relentlessly pursues her.
In keeping with its art style, Bye Sweet Carole unfolds like a classic Disney tale. A downtrodden heroine, who can speak to birds and is frequently called “princess” by fantastical creatures, moves from a bleak earthly existence to a strange alternate realm in search of a loved one. Personal struggles are overcome, and emotional lessons are learned. There's even an omniscient narrator that chimes in occasionally to exposit and vocalise the hero's internal trauma.
The writing has welcome cultural complexity. Bunny Hall is an oppressive institution that reinforces distorted gender dynamics. These story elements are well illustrated and underscore the importance of the central relationship.
The mechanics of Lana's adventure are as traditional as its story. Essentially a side-scrolling puzzle adventure, it plays out like an old-school point-and-click, with some added QTEs and punishing trial-and-error encounters.
Early on, Lana gains the ability to transform into a rabbit, unlocking wall jumping and new traversal options. The alternate Bunny Hall also features grotesque versions of authority figures that our princess must run or hide from in tense, though often clunky, stealth sections.
Hiding in dark spaces, holding your breath, and trying not to get caught by a twisted rabbit creature evokes the gothic chills of Little Nightmares. However, unlike the quick death that awaits in that Burtonesque classic, Bye Sweet Carole’s has a health bar that encourages multiple attempts at hide and seek. Character animations don’t always allow for a smooth escape once you’re discovered. Lana can switch between human and rabbit form to navigate obstacles, but these moments can still feel like frustrating exercises in trial and error.
There’s some light combat, where you take control of the mysterious protector Mr. Baesie. It fares a bit better than the stealth encounters but still feels somewhat fiddly. That said, an empowering final battle is thoroughly enjoyable, but I won’t spoil that here. The lavishly animated challenges are not as punishing as the visually similar Dragon’s Lair (Don Bluth rather than Disney), yet there are times when Lana simply has to die before you can figure out the solution.
The rest of the time is spent travelling between screens, collecting various ephemera to clear obstacles or open doors. There’s some very light platforming and frequent chase encounters with Mr. Kyn and his minions.
It’s worth pushing through the rough patches to continue Lana’s search for her friend. Using a familiar yet distinctive aesthetic to tell such a personal and occasionally bleak story is effective. The visuals are complemented further by a beautiful score from composer Luca Balboni, which makes even the simple act of retracing your steps through loading screens feel grandiose.
As mentioned before, the art style doesn’t always mesh perfectly with movement and combat, but that doesn’t take away from its beauty on either a big or small screen. Aside from a fair bit of loading between areas, the game performs well on the Switch, with smooth, fluid animation, especially when Lana is darting around in rabbit form.
Undocked Switch 2 performance feels mostly the same as on Switch 1, though the visuals stand out far more on the newer console’s larger handheld display. Undocked play is a much more viable option on the Switch 2, but Bye Sweet Carole performs well across both platforms.
Conclusion
Unfolding like a classic Disney tale, this is a beautifully animated adventure that weaves a deeply personal tale. Bye Sweet Carole is driven by its art style and a brilliant musical score, but occasionally stumbles due to stiff controls and frustrating mechanics.
Comments 21
This is not a game for me, but Jesus Christ... this is a fine piece of art.
I don't normally play this type of game but i will say it looks good. Very 90s Disney. If money is ever burning a hole in my pocket i might go for it.
Thanks for the review, further confirms my interest in giving this a try at some point despite being a horror game (a genre that overall keeps on not being my cup of tea) considering its positives - hope others going for it will also overall enjoy it beyond the occasional controls/mechanic frustrations!
I sense the joys are going to overpower the cons for me (although the stiff character animation does put me off) and I'll be giving this serious consideration and will probably get, before ultimately returning here to curse the cons that I've imposed upon myself...
@kendomustdie How much time does this game require in a playthrough, please?
@gcunit about 4-6 hours. On the shorter side if you’re not completely useless like me.
Just wanted to thank the reviewer for a fair and well-considered write-up. I have the physical version preordered and am still very much looking forward to experiencing Bye Sweet Carole for myself — especially now with my expectations thoughtfully adjusted.
Though I’ve long enjoyed horror films, this season marks my inaugural foray into the world of horror video games — and it’s already clear that the interactivity makes everything that much more frightening and immersive. (I think I always knew that, which is probably why I stayed away as long as I did!) I’m currently playing through Little Nightmares (on Switch, naturally!), and it’s been the perfect eerie, atmospheric entry point. Here’s hoping Bye Sweet Carole builds on that momentum with its own storybook sense of dread.
Darn it. Was really looking forward to this one. Backlog too extensive to be dealing with a 7.
I get Clock Tower vibes in execution only and that's not a bad thing. This game is one of those games, like Forgotton Anne, where the animation and story are the draw, so I'm likely to pick this up at some point on creativity alone.
I was so smitten with the aesthetic I preordered a copy at my local shop months ago, and I’ll look forward to picking that up (next week, I think?). I’m relieved that the gameplay is amusing enough.
I just wonder if it’s too dark to play with my younger daughter around though? She’s a tween and can handle things like FNAF just fine, but can be squeamish about some things.
@Teksette I honestly don’t think it’s much darker than FNAF. There’s some pretty creepy chase and death sequences, but I’d say it’s fine. Warning for giant rabbit monsters and shadowy oil/snake men.
@kendomustdie
Thank you for the input! That’s very kind of you.
It sounds like Carole isn’t too gruesome, so I probably will boot up the game with the kiddos around.
@Jamessmooth Thinking the same here. Not sure yet, maybe later… 🧐
My physical copy arrived 2 days ago. I'm looking forward to playing it.
I forgot it was released this month and received the physical version in the post a few days ago.
"Frustrating trial and error" is a BIG con for me, but "Bye Sweet Carole" is high on my 'to play' list as I love the look and sound and am hopeful for the story, so I'm looking forward to trying it and looking online for solutions to any frustrating bits if needed.
I'm quite curious to see this game in motion, but since I'm already interested in picking it up, I'll just go in unaware for maximum impact. No "animation spoilers," you could say, if you were silly. Which I am. So I said it.
At first I thought it would be similar to Dragon's Lair where all you do is mastering the art of trials and errors QTE but it seems there's prompt and choices you can make that does allow you to do things differently too so that's interesting. Definitely would check this out once the price is more affordable.
This looks really neat. I may get it once it goes on sale, though. Too many games in my current queue, begging to be completed first.
I love the art style, but I can't help but think that's where the bulk of the value and focus lies. I tend to come away from games with these choices frustrated, thinking "This should probably have been a movie".
It's got to be painstaking to create, and put a lot of limitations on gameplay. Hope it finds a fanbase.
I really wanted to love this game, but love it I did not. There’s no question that the visuals are astonishingly gorgeous, and that the music and voice acting support a truly heartfelt story. But the bugs and glitches I frequently dealt with really tried my patience. This doesn’t feel like a case of solid gameplay having great visuals; this instead feels like they created amazing animation and realized they had to tack on lacking gameplay, and I say this as a Clock Tower fan.
With all of that having been said, and despite the fact that I would personally give this game a 6 out of 10, the story and visuals made it worth it for me. I may be disappointed with Bye Sweet Carole, but I’m glad I got to meet Mr. Baesie!
Will defo be picking this up when I can.
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