This is such a heartfelt and polished game. I absolutely love the charm in the characters and the writing. The tortoise boosting across the screen once you give the boots was hilarious and really made me feel the impact of gesture. The generosity is felt and seen in such a simple and distinctive way, that it makes you look forward to meeting the next character and helping in any way you can. Giving away abilities and getting back the abilities through the story is such a brilliant idea, and you tied that very well with a narrative and atmosphere that feels warm and full of life. I also thought that it was smart to not make the mouse run or move too fast, so that you can really take in the world you've created. And can we talk about the music? Absolutely superb. Well done!

Love the concept, theme implementation and art style. |

Giving away my dash shoes to the turtle at the beginning dint change much of the gameplay for me which was good, I thought that I would miss out on things now but that’s not the case.

I like all the characters and the way story is progressed. Really well done!!

hey Chris here!
Glad I experienced Homecoming and that you were able to submit your hard work. Honestly, this game made me feel something. There were rough around the edges (all of which were already mentioned in other comments), but I was emotionally invested, and as such, I easily overlooked all of them.. except the very last part (if you know what I mean!!!). My fiancee and I sunk hundred hours into Hollow Knight, and I thought the reverse-Metroidvania was an extremely novel idea: instead of gaining power ups, you are to lose them, but in losing them, you are gaining something greater. It's all beautiful. Great, great effort guys! 

I really like the art style and the music. I wish the gameplay felt better: the jump windup is too dramatic and navigating through the caves felt rough as I'd constantly hit my head on something. Cute game though I always like mouse protagonists

This game is very adorable, I really like the look of each scene, and the mouse protagonist is a fun concept. Also really liked the use of dynamic lighting! I think there should have been an explanation for the dash mechanic in the game itself, but I was able to figure it out myself from the sound cues. Can't wait to see the completed game after the jam is over, great work!

Very cute characters! I like the idea of someone that has retired giving away what they don't need anymore, which may make things difficult but not impossible.

Also I really like how cute your mouse is omg. I couldn't figure out the dash mechanic before within the game so your itch page really helped, once I figured that out, OMG I LOVE THE DASH MECHANIC SO MUCH!
That said, art wise, while it's superrr cute, UX wise it can be better because I could not differentiate what is background and what is interactable (like the trees), but still super cute artwork and the textures on it is also very niceeuu. ALSO the narrative, very very interactive and immersive!

This game is a little bit slow for platformer and lacks of tutorial at the beginning, you should've added controls binding to the menu. Your artist made a great job. Art style is good, reminded me of Ernest and Celestine or redwall. Also dynamic light blowed my mind.

While playing, I noticed a few areas on the map that seemed like they could be explored, but when I reached them, there wasn’t actually anything there. That left me feeling a bit disappointed. Anyway, I completely agree with the idea that generosity isn't about self-sacrifice, and I really appreciate how the game conveys this theme. Nice job!

P.S. The little mouse’s walking animation seems a bit off — it walk with the same hands and feet (I don't know how to excatly describe this in English, I mean the mouse use left hand and left leg at the same time while walking)

The art style of this game is so cute! I really love the concept and even though it doesn't fully work, what you have is really cute and compelling!

Two things about this game really impressed me. One is that in the first section, you had dynamic light and shadow despite being in a 2D environment. The other was the section after that where the mouse first goes outside and background objects pop up and back down again, like you were in a pop-up book. It was a great way to get the player invested in the environment.

I wasn't really sold on the dash mechanic. In the first area, I'm guessing the intent was to use the dash mechanic to get across the spike pit. However, I couldn't have known that since there wasn't anything indicating that the player had to hold down Shift to cross a large gap. Especially since there's another spike pit immediately after when the player drops down to the lower level. Another thing is that if you choose to give away your shoes and scarf, that doesn't reflect on the mouse character since he's still wearing those things after the fact. It could be a scope thing, but I still found that slightly odd.

I found a bug where if you click somewhere else on the screen when you first talk to the Kiwi, the arrow goes away, and you can't select either dialogue option.

I look forward to seeing the future build and finding out how the story ends.