LOVE ETERNAL Review

I received my code for LOVE ETERNAL several weeks before its launch date. After my time with the demo, I was convinced that I needed to have the full experience as soon as possible. As someone who is discovering what kinds of games I like by trying everything I can get my hands on, I’ve really taken a strong liking to genres like horror and precision platforming, and it felt like a rare opportunity to see these two combined.

Like many, I’m an absolute sicko for a double jump or any unique platforming mechanic that feels satisfying and snappy. Although I’m still developing my platforming skills, I feel naturally more suited to take on difficulty when it comes to platformers than I do with combat or puzzle solving. It’s just something that makes a little bit more sense to me, and I find that I have the patience and enjoyment for the difficulty vs wanting to give up immediately, which is something I face often with other genres of games when they get challenging. 

Now that you know where I’m at, I should also say that LOVE ETERNAL was, in fact, brutally difficult for me to complete. My journey and experience playing it happened to coincide with my ending a 7 year relationship with someone who I was literally building a house with and planning on spending the rest of my life beside. A process that also felt brutally difficult, but in a different way. For some reason I told myself that if I could just finish this super hard game, I could be okay after ending things and moving out on my own. But both took their time and came with their own unique approaches and processes.

LOVE ETERNAL in Action

Certain pieces of media (games, music, etc) can accompany us, intentionally or not, during really impactful and memorable moments of our lives. When you devote a large part of your life to games media and content creation, you will often still be playing games for reviews and podcast recordings throughout many of your most difficult times and big life changes. I didn’t mean for LOVE ETERNAL to be my breakup game, but it honestly feels like poetry to me when I look back on it. In the game you play as Maya, someone who feels uncomfortable, alone, and misunderstood in her environment despite being around people who care about her (I think?). Maya is accommodating to her family and occasionally/subtly expressive about her own wants, but overall you can sense the loneliness, confusion, and unrest that plagues her.

The story bits and how this is revealed can feel vague and few and far between in the beginning. Throughout the game there’s a recurring theme of doubles or altered forms of us and those we know. Familiar, and almost familiar. These uncanny and unexplainable moments build such a strong atmosphere for horror, but lest you forget the arguably worse horrors of actually completing the platforming challenges. The death sound has played for me hundreds, if not thousands of times. I wanted to give up so badly, but I was doing it for Maya and I was doing it for me. We had to see this through together. 

Non-stop falling upwards

The platforming mechanic is so unique that it’s honestly hard to compare it to anything else that I’ve played. Maya is tiny in this concrete and hollow world full of spikes and darkness. Press a button to flip gravity, hit a red gem while airborne to flip again. It feels like you’re floating and flying, but then you’re crashing fast until you can be perfect and precise with your timing. When you hit a red gem to gain an extra flip, there’s a sound effect of breaking glass. I found the most success by listening for the correct rhythm and finding the most accurate succession of those sound cues to guide me through LOVE ETERNAL’s most difficult platforming challenges.

I could find the rhythm, and I would simultaneously find the rhythm and routine of stumbling into my new life. Similar to my experience with the game, not without constantly trying and failing to be okay, until eventually I was.

A really smart friend and well experienced gamer once told me “platforming isn’t hard, it’s just about finding the rhythm” and it’s something I held onto, and repeated to myself over and over again during this process. I could find the rhythm, and I would simultaneously find the rhythm and routine of stumbling into my new life. Similar to my experience with the game, not without constantly trying and failing to be okay, until eventually I was.

Quiet horrors hiding in plain sight

The visual world of LOVE ETERNAL is deep and detailed, though seemingly minimalist on its surface. The closer I looked into its gorgeous pixel art environments and landscapes, the more I was able to understand the world of the game. I can admit that I’m a sucker for a 2D pixel art platformer with a limited color palette, but I think that any gamer could appreciate these nuanced visuals upon taking them in.

The visual horror is so subtle sometimes, but when you notice it, you won’t feel okay. The horror exists in the slightly off way that a body moves at the dinner table, or can live within a soft yet evil facial expression of a family member. Eyes of a classmate that are bulged, but just slightly. The sounds and visuals are working overtime to cement me in the world of its peculiar horrors, and the addicting platforming challenges keep me there for longer than I wanted to stay. 

LOVE ETERNAL Trailer

Honestly, I don’t think LOVE ETERNAL is for everyone, but it’s definitely for me. I’ve already started my second playthrough and it’s kind of wild how quickly I’m moving through it. The game trains you so well to be an absolute master of its platforming challenges in such a beautifully paced way. You don’t even realize how good you’re getting as you move through the game. Upon my second playthrough and after discussing the game with a group of friends, I realized that the story is a lot more clear than I originally thought. To be fair, I was a bit lost in the platforming sauce and was pretty on edge as my fleeting moments of success were quickly followed by horrific anticipation of whatever truly deranged platforming screen I was about to experience next.

Those who know me know that I don’t like difficult games, but the rush I felt upon completing the final platforming challenge is something I can’t compare to anything I’ve felt before. To have this game be there for me in my darkest and loneliest moments, only to meet me with more darkness, was sort of like listening to sad music when you’re already sad.

There were weeks where I couldn’t even touch the game, because I was busy looking for a new place to live and strategizing my exit plan. There were weeks where I couldn’t pick up the game because I couldn’t take one more loss or even an ounce of frustration. I started LOVE ETERNAL a week before my breakup at the end of January and I finished it shortly after moving into my own apartment. It’s the hardest game I’ve ever played, and I’m better for having played it.

Kate was provided with a review key of LOVE ETERNAL by Stride PR

This review will also be featured in Pixels and Polygons Quarterly 2026 Q3.

About No Small Games

No Small Games is an indie game recap and review podcast brought to you by hosts Kate and Emily! They became friends while streaming on Twitch and bonded over their love of indie video games. In each episode of No Small Games, the two will discuss an indie game they both played independently. They’ll compare their experiences: the good, the bad, their most memorable moments of their playthroughs.

Learn more about the podcast and its hosts on the About page.

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