Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 21/12/2025 01:52

Tiny Bunny – Review

The subject of today’s review is a horror visual novel inspired by the Russian short story of the same name, written by Dmitry Mordas. Tiny Bunny tells the tale of young Anton, a boy who is adjusting to a new town in Russia whilst dealing with visitors from the forest. In this review, we will be discussing the non-linear horror game developed by Saikono and published by Serenity Forge. We’ll keep it spoiler-free, making sure we don’t give too much away from the main story itself.  Story  The story is told from Anton’s perspective, a 12-year-old Slavic boy who lives with his mother, father, and younger sister, Olya. After moving away from the city and into a more rural house near a forest where children have gone missing, Anton prepares himself for his new start. However, his sister is plagued by an ‘owl’ staring at her at night from behind her curtain, and Anton himself worries about the secrets of the forest. Adjusting to a new school, new feelings, and new friends is as easy as it would be for a 12-year-old with thick-framed glasses. This, along with being plagued by vivid nightmares and struggling to understand just what is really going on in his small town, Anton goes out to investigate to discover just exactly why children have gone missing this winter.   Perhaps something to be wary of is that some mature topics come forth in the story. For example, not too far from the beginning, an animal is harmed with a rather descriptive account of the fact, accompanied by audio. This may require some players to take a break between chapters to catch their breath before proceeding.  Graphics  Being a visual novel, the game focuses mainly on beautiful artwork that looks almost as if it comes straight out of your grandmother’s fairytale books. The game features atmospheric black-and-white artwork designed by producer Saikono Joker.  The game is mostly entirely in greyscale, which adds to the Slavic wintery environment in which the game takes place. Due to the genre of the game, this also adds more tension and depth to the already grim-looking forest, Anton’s dilapidated house, as well as the period the story finds itself in, namely the late ’90s. Furthermore, the dialogue itself is put in a faded black box, which gives the impression of a frozen-over window, along with a font that works well with the story yet remains properly readable. It is a pleasant experience to see that even in these tiny details, the game tries its best to keep one as immersed as possible.  Lastly, there isn’t too much animated artwork going on. Instead, the game will shake its artwork or zoom in or out to emphasize whatever is going on. Once again, this brings forth the impression that you are reading an old tale, rather than just booting up the next visual novel, almost making the player part of the entire experience.   Sound  As mentioned earlier, the game tries its absolute best to keep the player as immersed as possible within the story. During the story, sound cues are a major part of this. Creaking wooden planks, cold winds blowing past your ears, a mysterious flute coming from outside… Tiny Bunny really delivered whatever they thought plausible to add to the already intense atmosphere.  Besides sound cues, there is also occasionally some music playing in the background. Usually, this is a tune that is canon to the story, and happening in the moment, rather than just some music slapped on the current artwork. An example is when Anton mentions hearing an odd flute from outside. Once this is told to the player, they too will hear the aforementioned music. The soundtrack itself consists of 74 songs, all existing between 30 seconds and a proper 3 minutes, and can be bought separately or bundled with the game on Steam.   Gameplay  Tiny Bunny is, in essence, a visual novel. This means there is a LOT of reading. You have your typical artwork with text, but occasionally, the players will get to make a choice. These choices affect whatever happens later in the story and can even change the ending depending on what was chosen earlier during gameplay.   Because the game mentions a lot of Slavic or dated things, sometimes non-native players may be puzzled as to what is being said. Luckily, the developers added a nifty feature that, whenever such a thing occurs, an ‘i’-icon will light up to explain the lore behind it. This way, terms such as ‘Babai’ will make sense to players who had to read the word twice before understanding.    Conclusion  Tiny Bunny is a beautiful visual novel that emphasizes atmospheric horror over the overdone jumpscare games in a wintry area. It combines the innocence of a 12-year-old with Slavic folklore tales, whilst keeping it realistic to prevent the story from becoming too whimsical. With winter going on and nights covering our windows, Tiny Bunny is sure to be a pleasant experience, which will make you think twice about opening your curtains at night.