Warning: The subject of this review contains discussions and depictions of animal cruelty and neglect. Reader discretion is strongly advised.

Even someone as cynical and jaded as I am can hugely benefit from the catharsis of having a good, thorough cry every now and then. That’s both my way of warning you about what we’re in for and my best segue into my subject today: Puppergeist, developed and published by Serenity Forge. Puppergeist is a short, highly emotional rhythm game in which you play as a witch named Claire, who travels to the Doggie Underworld in search of Pup, her lost magical familiar.

Puppergeist gets right to the point in terms of introducing its core gameplay loop. The gate leading into the Doggie Underworld is guarded by Cerberus, the mythical three-headed dog. One of Cerberus’ heads is excited to play with Claire, one head is stern and logical with her, and the other head is pretty much always asleep. I can definitely relate to that last one. Anyway, Cerberus challenges Claire to prove that she loves dogs before she’ll be allowed to enter the Doggie Underworld. You do that by pressing one button in the same rhythm as Cerberus’ barks.

Shortly after arriving in the Doggie Underworld, Claire meets Lunne, a demon who hangs out there and looks after the dogs whose souls have traveled there. Claire explains that she needs help finding Pup, though notably offers very few details beyond that. Lunne takes a liking to Claire and hates seeing her so distraught, so she agrees to help Claire look for Pup. You decide to start by asking Fido, the “top dog” in the first area of the Doggie Underworld, if he might know where Pup is. Fido is glad to help, since he’s just waiting for his master to come pick him up.

Puppergeist has optional tutorials before every rhythm challenge in its campaign that provide detailed examples of what you’re about to be up against. I might as well openly admit that I have basically no sense of rhythm, so these tutorials were a massive help for me. I’m embarrassed to think about how many times I had to repeat multiple tutorials since I struggle so much with rhythm. Once you reach the end of a rhythm challenge, you’ll get one of three ratings: “Woof…,” “Good Boy!,” or “Top Dog!,” if you performed perfectly. A “Good Boy” rating is sufficient to progress.

If you want to improve your performance at any challenge you’ve completed, you can replay it as many times as you like. I appreciate that Puppergeist includes all those things to both accommodate rhythm-less players (such as myself) and hardcore completionists. After you’ve given Fido plenty of pets and played ball with him, Claire and Lunne decide that Fido deserves to know that his master isn’t coming to pick him up because Fido has reached the afterlife. Fido takes this really well, since he had a great life with his master and he’s having fun with the other departed dogs.

I’m going to be totally honest with you, folks: As soon as Fido started telling the story of what life was like with his master and how he ended up in the Doggie Underworld, I started crying. I didn’t stop crying until a good while after I had played all the way through Puppergeist, which Steam tells me took just over an hour. I had to take precautions to ensure my roommates didn’t hear or see me absolutely bawling until I had managed to compose myself. The second chapter of Puppergeist’s story is what made me cry the most intensely.

Claire and Lunne enter some disheveled apartments that are full of mice and spiders, which Claire has to use her magic to clear out. In those apartments, the two meet Cookie, a dog who has been utterly terrified all her life (and much of her afterlife, before you showed up) because she had such a cruel, abusive owner. Claire openly cries in front of Cookie as Cookie tells her story, which shows Cookie that Claire and Lunne aren’t like her previous owner. Just recounting that part of Puppergeist here has nearly made me start bawling again.

In summary, Puppergeist is a visual novel with some very simple rhythm gameplay thrown in as a means of progressing the story. Like I said, I played through the entirety of Puppergeist in a single, 70-minute-long sitting. I was somewhat surprised its story was so short, but then again, I don’t know how much more abject sadness I could have withstood if its story didn’t end there. I can only recommend Puppergeist if you’re sure you can withstand a short, but incredibly bittersweet and powerful story that addresses distressing topics. Now, if you’ll excuse me, it seems I’m not quite finished sobbing yet.

A PC review copy of Puppergeist was provided by Serenity Forge for the purposes of this review.

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Puppergeist

$4.99

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• Simple rhythm gameplay with no pressure to perform perfectly.
• Powerful, highly emotional story.
• Story is just long enough to fully get its point across.
• Fair price considering the story's short length.

Cons

• Story deals with topics that may be too difficult for some players to handle.