A hand-drawn narrative adventure about grief and small kindnesses. Short in length, enormous in feeling, and the indie highlight of the year so far.
There is a kind of game that is less about winning than about being present, and Little Lantern belongs to its finest tier. Across four or five hours it tells a story about loss and the small kindnesses that carry us through it, and it does so with a restraint that never once tips into sentimentality.
Every frame looks hand-drawn because it is, and the soundtrack — sparse, acoustic, patient — carries as much of the story as the script. There is little conventional challenge here, and that is entirely the point. Little Lantern is a game to sit inside rather than conquer, and it is the finest indie release we have covered this year.
