Oh wow, this one was long. I didn’t notice until I read it lol. The build was fairly minimal, with nothing beyond sprites and text, but the music really elevated the experience. I’m a huge fan of ambience in general.
There were a lot of grammar issues. Lack of punctuation, spelling, and a few cases of tense mismatch made some sentences sound a bit awkward. It was fine and inconspicuous at first, but as this was a longer entry, it grew more noticeable the further I read. Of course, this should be the least of your concerns and can be fixed later.
The story itself was decent, though both plot points of the story could use a little more meat to them; they began and had their resolution well enough.
I especially loved the setting you made. A low fantasy surrounding a mysterious forest where strange things happen. You withheld the right amount of information to make me feel a simultaneous sense of curiosity and dread from the Forest. The worldbuilding felt reminiscent of children’s fairytales, like a fever dream that would have me waking up in a sweat. More nostalgic than in a bad way.
I also wish I knew a lot more about the Protagonist. At first, it seemed like they were meant to be ambiguous, what with me getting to choose their name and their lack of backstory. It soon turned into a huge gap in the plot, however, with their induction as “The Chosen One” and the specific line alluding to the Protagonist’s species and ancestors. Just what are they?
The theme became evident at the climax, though the line literally spelling out “the light in the dark” came across bluntly and lacked subtlety.
I also played this on the Mac build, and it worked well with no errors. Nice job on your submission 👍