Little Goody Two Shoes

About Little Goody Two Shoes

Little Goody Two Shoes is a horror narrative adventure by AstralShift, published by Square Enix in 2023. Elise is a poor young woman in the small village of Kieferberg who dreams of being rich. Her grandmother has just died, and when she digs up a pair of shiny red shoes in her backyard, she is drawn into the mysterious Woods.

The game runs on a limited day and night cycle. Each day is split into six parts: dawn in the village, three parts for work, dating and shopping, and then the Witching Hour at night. You earn a living through jobs such as chopping wood or gathering apples, played as arcade minigames on a carved wooden cabinet that pay more for a better score. You also build bonds with the villagers, and Elise can court several of the village girls. Hunger drops with every part of the day, and if it reaches zero the game is over, so you buy bread at the bakery or a meal at the inn. All the while you have to watch what the village thinks of you, because a devout town that suspects witchcraft will leave her in the Woods to die.

At night Elise explores the Woods, a nightmare realm of puzzles, ghostly apparitions, enemies and thorns. Getting hit costs health, and both getting hit and talking to an unsettling ghost cost sanity. The puzzles give only vague hints, so expect to wander. The game has 20 save slots and a save point in every room, and it advises you to save often.

The pictures are hand-painted fairy-tale scenes with pixel-art characters drawn in the manner of 1990s shoujo anime, which makes the turns into horror, such as animal corpses covered in moths, all the stranger. Your choices lead to one of ten endings. Nintendo Life gave it 7 out of 10 on Switch, praising the mix of love story, fairy tale and horror while finding the inventory menus slow and a late boss's dialogue impossible to skip.

On Steam it is Windows only, in English, with full controller support. It came to Switch on October 31, 2023 and to Steam on November 7, 2023. It suits players who like story-led horror with a slow build, and who do not mind a cute surface over a dark tale.

How to play Little Goody Two Shoes

1. Buy Little Goody Two Shoes on Steam, the PlayStation Store, the Xbox store or the Nintendo eShop; a controller is fully supported on PC.
2. Each day has six parts. In the three daytime parts, take jobs in Kieferberg through the arcade minigames to earn money, talk to the villagers and shop.
3. Keep Elise fed: hunger drops with every part of the day, and the game ends if it reaches zero. Buy food at the bakery or the inn.
4. In the Witching Hour, enter the Woods, solve its puzzles and avoid the enemies, apparitions and thorns that cost health and sanity.
5. Make your choices with care; they decide which of the ten endings you reach.

Tips

• Save often. There are 20 save slots and a save point in every room, and the game itself tells you to use them.
• Do not let Elise go into the night hungry or shaken; her hunger, health and sanity carry over into the Woods.
• A better score in a job minigame pays more, so it is worth getting good at the few jobs on offer.
• Mind what the villagers think of Elise, since suspicion of witchcraft has consequences.
• The puzzles in the Woods give only vague hints; look around each room before you give up on one.
• Play again for other endings once you finish; there are ten.

Questions