Ghost Parade

I spent a good stretch of an evening just standing still in Ghost Parade's forest, watching Suri's little parade of recruited spirits trail behind her through the dark undergrowth, each one bobbing with its own personality. That image is the game's purest promise, and it is genuinely beautiful. Lentera Nusantara, an Indonesian studio whose very name translates to "the Lantern of the Archipelago," built something here that Western developers almost never attempt: a Metroidvania constructed entirely around the creatures and moral weight of Indonesian folklore. That alone makes Ghost Parade worth knowing about. The premise is modest and warm. Suri, a schoolgirl who misses her bus, cuts through a haunted forest and ends up tangled in a fight to save it from corporate deforestation. Her weapon is a lantern she swings at enemies; her support system is a roster of up to 30 recruitable ghosts, each pulled from actual Indonesian legend, each with a distinct ability mapped to your trigger buttons. Some fire projectiles, some create shields, some help you reach otherwise-inaccessible terrain. The in-game journal quietly teaches you the mythology behind each one, and more than a few reviewers admitted they ended up reading about Indonesian folklore after unlocking a new companion. That kind of cultural specificity, worn lightly and without lecture, is rare. The hand-painted art reinforces all of it, with dark contrasting forest environments that carry a faint Vanillaware quality, smooth animations, and character designs original enough to make you do a second look on almost every new ghost encounter. Here is where honesty has to take over. The gameplay mechanics that surround all that beauty are rough, and not in a charming first-effort way. The platforming is floaty without that floatiness feeling intentional; there are no invincibility frames when you take damage, so enemy clusters can chip you down with nothing to be done about it. Fall damage exists and feels arbitrary, especially early before you unlock the parachute. The ghost-selection system, which ought to be the centerpiece of the experience, is buried inside a clunky menu accessed through an awkward item-drop prompt, meaning most players eventually stop swapping ghosts altogether and just stick with whatever three they landed on first. Backtracking, a Metroidvania staple, works here because the game is structured around it, but the map is locked behind the pause menu with no quick-access shortcut, which makes navigation genuinely tedious. The PC version at launch also had reports of limited remapping options for keyboard players, so a controller is strongly recommended. The first act in particular is slow to explain anything, and deaths in those early hours sting harder because the rules are never clearly stated. What saves Ghost Parade from being a frustrating experience is its sincerity. The dialogue is charming, the environmental storytelling around the forest spirits is genuinely affecting, and the environmentalism theme, though handled simply, suits a story aimed at younger or story-first audiences. The soundtrack earns the "atmospheric" tag without reservation: it is quiet, earthy, and appropriately ghostly, the kind of score that does its job without announcing itself. Players who approach this as a narrative adventure with light Metroidvania structure, rather than as a precision platformer, will find more to appreciate. The ghost companions who literally parade behind you as you walk are one of those small design details that someone clearly cared about, and it shows. Ghost Parade is a debut game made with obvious love and some inexperience in equal measure. Its cultural heart is irreplaceable and worth experiencing. Its mechanics need patience to tolerate. If you have that patience, and some affinity for folklore-rich worlds that feel genuinely handcrafted, there is something real here underneath the rough edges.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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