The Knight Dance

An enchanting, magical little story between two absolute beauties 🥺🥺🥺 10/10 it even got me to draw some fanart, it's unfinished but still!!!!!!

AWW this is adorable!! It's been forever since I've seen the "12 dancing princesses" referenced, but I always had a lot of fondness for that fairy tale, and I really adored this twist on it.

I'll start with the technical aspects. The art is gorgeous - the designs are so colorful and full of life, and the sprite art is clean and pretty (I especially like the Storyteller's sprite!) I loved the painterly style of the background art; it really complemented the "storybook" quality of the story, and the CGs were magical. The music suited the mood and tone of the story quite well, and all of the VAs did a great job bringing the characters to life. I also really like the framing of the story as a "Storyteller" recounting the story to you, which was perfect for the "fairytale" theme. The prose is beautiful, and the playful banter/relationship between Heather and Ezra is quite fun to read. 

====SPOILERS====

I really like this play on "the 12 Dancing Princesses!" In the original tale, the soldier follows the princesses and reveals their secrets of his own accord to win the king's rewards. Here, you play the part not of the soldier, but of one of the princesses - and your decision determines the soldier's (knight's) fate (I do like how Ezra deliberately gives Heather the decision here, instead of taking it for herself, like in the original tale). Heather lives a restrained existence, unable to fully embrace or pursue her own desires (hence she lingers on the outskirts of the ballroom, waiting for someone to speak to her). She doesn't want to trouble her grieving father, and she fears that he will reject her sexual orientation. She desperately wants to be free, but she stops herself - constraining her "dreams" to this ballroom that she is only able to visit at night. At the end, Heather's fate is tied to one pivotal choice - to be true to herself, or to lie about what she wants.

I appreciated that, in the good ending, the answer for Heather isn't "romance." She doesn't wed Ezra and become happy. Instead, her answer is that she needs freedom - she wants to explore herself and the world, free from her father's watchful eye. And honestly I appreciated the approach to this fairy tale a lot - I always felt sorry for the princesses, since it did seem like they just wanted a tiny bit of freedom in their restrained existences. 

Overall the team did a really great job on this one - this is probably my favorite take on this tale that I've seen! Fantastic work! 

My honest reaction playing unspoilered : OH MY GOD IT's GAY YEAY!!!! This was adorable ! tell the composer they cooked because the music is so good ! Just like the rest of this charming game ! 

Another HummingBird games hit on our hands!! Black Princesses and Black knights and this pleased my oh so gay heart. 

in conclusion, Black women  a r e  princesses!