Prepare to celebrate with a scarecrow

Crowscare is a free role-playing video game wherein you get to attend the Harvest Festival in your quaint little hometown. Developed by arcadekitten, this 2D RPG Maker game is a short Halloween horror experience that offers puzzles and multiple endings. 

From the same developer who made It’s Not Me, It’s My Basement, Crowscare features some mature content such as blood, gore, and implied child abuse. It has another child protagonist and the horror elements in its setting mostly deal with the troubles that a typical child can go through. The gameplay lacks variety and more space for players to explore around, though. 

Beware of the witch

In Crowscare, you play as Ryo, a precocious young boy who helps his magician father with farmwork. He’s always doted upon by his dad and has never been let outside at night—even during their Harvest Festival. Now that he’s a little older, however, it seems he’s ready for whatever dangers are out at night. However, a fateful encounter with the mysterious witch in the forest changes his life forever.

As an RPG Maker game, the gameplay here is pretty standard in terms of controls. Progressing through the story mostly involves doing errands, solving puzzles, and talking to NPCs. There are three endings in total: one good or true ending and two bad ones. These will mostly depend on the small choices you make—and whether you complete some secret objectives. The game comes with a brief tutorial. 

The best parts about this indie game are the graphics and writing. It’s heavily centered on its narrative of a little boy just trying to fill a missing part of his life. It’s not too long and takes around one and a half hours to complete, as well. There aren’t any violent jumpscares either. However, the gameplay could be given more attention as you mostly just walk around and interact.

A lovely little horror game

All in all, Crowscare is a nice little RPG Maker Halloween-themed horror game you can sink your teeth into. It’s quite traditional about its gameplay and horror elements and there are enough endings for you to replay it. However, the gameplay mechanics themselves aren’t too varied and running the game isn’t as straightforward as you might hope. Still, it’s a great title to try out.