existing game.

It all started one summer. After I played that game. The one that changed. Everything. A few months ago I had received an Xbox One for my 16th birthday. School was in and I didn't have much time to play, but I did have those moments of spare time we all need in our lives. I was bored and had no homework that day so I decided a little video game time couldn't hurt. I fired up my console to see what was new. As I was about to play Call of Duty for the billionth time, I noticed a message in the corner from one of my Xbox friends. I scrolled over to the bubble and clicked on it. The subject was simply "Download please" and a link to a game file. At the time, I thought eh what the heck, I need a new game anyway, so I went ahead and downloaded it.

It was only about 32 MB and took about 20 minutes to download. What was strange was this game didn't appear in my menu like any game purchased off the Xbox Store would, but I had never seen this game before until now and I browsed the shop frequently. I thought nothing of it, and opened it up. The game opened smooth. The start credits appeared, or the closest thing to starting credits. The developer was one i haven't heard of, Flame Light Media, but I just assumed they were an independent publisher. The title was "Celestial Kitsune World" and the game appeared to be somewhat professional. The graphics were great and they reminded me of something like Zootopia.

Even though it had a cheesy name, I rolled with it and hit "New Game". The screen cut to black for a few seconds, and it appeared the player character was a magical girl fox, in a little red and white dress with a tie and long red pigtails. Her name was Annabelle Foxebury. She explained the objective, basically the world of foxes was falling apart and she needed to save it before it was destroyed. The first area I needed to cover was called " Village of the Damned". That name unnerved me a bit. Why would an area in a game with such a cheerfully styled graphics have a name like that?

I needed to find the items on my list and defeat a boss before I could advance to the next world. The sky was gray with the sun piercing through, giving it an overcast but bright look at the same time. The trees were devoid of any leaves and the whole atmosphere was kinda eerie. I moved my little player fox to a stone building, which was a weapons shop ran by a little fluffy tailed bunny with a fur collar and a dress. Her name was Merlaine, and the screen said to press A to interact. I hit A, but the only thing that appeared was a string of text that made no sense. I was kind of shocked at this. What was this NPC trying to say? What was I supposed to do here? I had a look at the weapons on the wall, and went with a sort of bow that shot flaming arrows.

I tried to interact with Merlaine again, but got another jumbled string of random text. Oh well. I figured it was just a bug that hadn't been reported and left the shop. My health bar appeared at the top of the screen, it was full for now. I took my new weapon and tried to find the first boss. After a minute of it ends searching and collecting, I came upon a giant creature that resembled a horse-canine hybrid that had four equine tails, back hooves, long claws on its front feet and saber teeth. The creature roared and the fight began. I jumped, rolled and ran to avoid its attacks, shooting it with my bow. It wasn't very hard. I got it down without much damage, but I had to restore my health by drinking some ethereal elixir that was purple.

I headed back to the blue flames that would allow me to travel to the next world.

The second area was called "Crossroad of Dreams". That was a bit of a refresher from the cryptic title of the first area. I had a cool new weapon that the first boss dropped named Coiled Ice Sword. I switched to it from my bow that shot flaming arrows by hitting the back right button on my controller and proceeded Into the area. The game seemed to be the run-and-gun type, I
needed to run, jump, roll and attack to get through. I did notice as I progressed, the music would shift in pitch slightly, it seemed to get slower and deeper, which I admit was odd.

The colors shifted slightly too in contrast, and I was beginning to feel uneasy but couldn't figure out why, maybe it was just a weird glitch, or this was some
unfinished prototype of some kind. Either way, I shrugged it off and continued playing. Now, some creatures that resembled a rat skeleton covered in glitter with eyes and bits of flesh still attached to the bone were chasing me. They were aggressive and I had to kill them. There were lots of them now, and their eyes appeared glassy and expressionless. I turned around started killing them with my sword, but oh dear lord that sound they made upon death.

When I hit them, the cracking sound they made didn't sound at all like video game effects, it sounded like the crunch of real bones, like a small animal was slowly being run over by a car. I literally cringed everytime I heard it, but that's not the worst part. When I officially killed them, they would bust apart with a high pitched screech that sounded like a person or animal being set on fire or otherwise in pain, and it got louder with each rat creature I killed.

I needed to get out of this world I needed to find the second boss so I could advance, I don't know if I wanted to keep playing but I had an insatiable curiosity to see the end, and what was to come.

I also noticed the further i progressed, the harder the game got. I didn't particularly mind, I liked a challenge. Nobody likes a game that stays easy right? Well I came upon the boss of the second world, a dragon-unicorn hybrid called Dice Roller. As soon as the fight started, the way the boss moved intercepted my player character in every way possible, making it extremely difficult to avoid. At least with the first boss you were good if you kept your distance, but Dice Roller was different. I switched back to my flaming arrows and made a long distance shot, but the boss intercepted my attack, knocked me into the air, then landed on all fours on top of me, gushing the intestines of Annabelle out of her open mouth.

When the death screen popped up, Dice Roller was literally grinning from ear to ear, with the message " You really have been out foxed, haven't you?" underneath, before automatically kicking me back to the start menu, not even giving me the option to retry or exit to the main world. I'm not sure what I was playing, anymore, or why someone would make a game like this. I shut off my console and headed to bed.

Well, I decided to give this game a try again the next day, and did manage to beat the Dice Roller boss. I was now able to advance to the next world, the third area. The ominous feeling it gave me upon seeing it was indescribable. The sky was an apocalyptic golden amber color and the trees that surrounded the land were all horribly twisted and gnarled, and the background music seemed to be a reverse of the music from the first area.