The Night of the Rabbit

I have a soft spot for games that feel like they were made by someone who genuinely loved children's literature and wanted to do it justice in interactive form, and The Night of the Rabbit is exactly that kind of project. Conceived, written, and designed by Matthias Kempke, it follows twelve-year-old Jerry Hazelnut from the last lazy day of summer vacation into Mousewood, a parallel world of talking woodland animals, portal trees, and a sinister threat lurking beneath the whimsy. The art direction draws from old European illustration and British children's lit rather than any digital shorthand, and the result is one of the prettiest 2D point-and-click games Daedalic ever shipped. Every background is rendered with a density of little details: acorn-cap headphones, toadstool rooftops patched with medical bandages, fox spirits in a fantasy version of old Japan. The world feels genuinely inhabited rather than assembled. The core loop is traditional inventory-and-dialogue point-and-click. You combine objects, exhaust conversation trees, and slowly unlock more of Mousewood and its surrounding worlds. Two mechanics soften the usual pixel-hunting frustration: Jerry's enchanted hollow coin, held to the eye to reveal all clickable hotspots in a wispy glow, and a day-and-night book acquired midgame that shifts the time of day, moving characters around and gating certain items to specific hours. There is also an optional Quartets card mini-game, essentially a reskinned Go Fish you can play against any town resident, and a smattering of collectible dewdrops and stickers tucked into corners for completionists. None of that is revolutionary, but it is thoughtfully assembled. The story earns its 20-hour runtime by shifting gears. The first half is an unhurried introduction to Mousewood life, helping residents prepare a festival while Jerry trains as an apprentice Treewalker under the Marquis de Hoto, the albino rabbit in the very fine coat. The pace can feel sluggish if you arrive expecting urgency. Then the back half arrives with a genuinely dark antagonist, a villain named Zaroff whose method of conquest involves cursed nails driven through parallel worlds, and the tone pivots with enough confidence that it retroactively justifies the slow build. The soundtrack by Tilo Alpermann works the same central theme in multiple emotional registers, light and wistful early on, unsettling when the narrative demands it, and the voice cast, including a then-13-year-old Jed Kelly as Jerry, sells the tonal range. The honest warning is this: the puzzle design sits squarely in the old-school school of adventure-game logic. Most puzzles reward careful attention to dialogue and environment. A few do not, relying on leaps that feel arbitrary even in hindsight, and the in-game hint system, accessed through Jerry's magic wand, is nearly useless in practice. If pixel-hunting illogic has driven you out of the genre before, those moments will sting here too. The hint system is too vague to rescue you, which means a walkthrough is a realistic companion for anyone without patience for extended stuck states. Genre veterans will find the difficulty curve familiar and largely fair, with the later puzzles tying cleverly into story themes. Newcomers should set expectations accordingly. What stays with me is the sincerity of it. The Night of the Rabbit teaches curiosity, environmentalism, and the idea that magic is less extraordinary than it is pervasive, and it does so without condescension. Adults who grew up on Narnia or The Hobbit will find something that resonates; younger players willing to read dialogue carefully will find a story built around them. It is not a short game and it is not an easy one, but it knows exactly when to end, and the final act pays off the patience the opening asks for.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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