"Bye Sweet Carole" is the most beautiful nightmare I've played in a long time

Kevin Hofer

13.10.2025

Translation: machine translated

Pictures: Kevin Hofer

There are games that stick with you. They nestle in your head and don't let go even days after the credits have rolled. "Bye Sweet Carole" from indie studio Little Sewing Machine is just such a game.

Lana enters a beautiful garden. Suddenly, a letter flutters past her to the ground. As Lana tries to pick it up, a gust of wind blows it onto the branch of a nearby tree. She moves a bench to reach it, only for it to be blown away again. This game goes on and on until Lana leaves the garden and enters an eerie forest. As if that wasn't enough, she is suddenly pursued by the villain Mr Kyn and has to flee.

Welcome to «Bye Sweet Carole», the new game from Little Sewing Machine, which is reminiscent of classic Disney cartoons from the 1940s from the very first moment. But beneath the hand-drawn surface lurks a dark, melancholy story that gave me goosebumps on more than one occasion.

A fairy tale that gets under your skin

The story is set at the beginning of the 19th century in Great Britain, an era in which the first feminists became politically active. «Bye Sweet Carole» takes me into a world between the eerie orphanage Bunny Hall and the fantastic surroundings of Corolla. It is a story about friendship, loss and the fine line between childlike innocence and the horror of reality.

I slip into the role of Lana Bennet. She is looking for her best friend Carole, who has mysteriously disappeared. On her journey, she meets a series of bizarre characters - not all of whom are friendly to her. The story isn't revolutionary, but it's a good one.

Underneath the sugary-sweet façade of «Bye Sweet Carole», there are serious topics bubbling away that give the story impressive depth. The most obvious is the feminist undertone. The head of the orphanage, Ms Hinman, has a very rigid idea of what constitutes a «proper lady»: graceful, polite and attractive to potential suitors. Lana and Carole reject this image and are ridiculed and ostracised by the other girls.

At the same time, friendship is the emotional backbone of the game. The inseparable bond between Lana and Carole, as well as her unexpected alliance with the kindly Mr Baesie, gives the bleak world a glimmer of hope. The game never preaches its messages, but lets them speak for themselves through the plot and the characters.

The first few chapters are a little drawn out. But if you stick with it, you will be rewarded. The pacing is deliberately slow and becomes more emotional and sinister with each of the ten episodes.

Simple gameplay with quirks

In terms of gameplay, «Bye Sweet Carole» is deliberately restrained. The gameplay mainly consists of light platforming interludes and simple puzzles. A few of them are cleverly designed, but none of them kept me playing for long. They serve to advance the story.

In the course of the game, I develop new abilities. For example, I can transform into a rabbit. As a rabbit, I can pass through narrow gaps, travel faster and jump high - including a wall jump.

However, I can't fight as Lana or as a rabbit and have to flee from enemies. That sounds more stressful than it is. The enemies are easy to lose by hiding and holding my breath. However, this simplicity is not a weakness, but one of the game's greatest strengths. The focus always remains on the narrative.

This is a good thing, because the controls are not beyond reproach. The wall jump, for example, is unreliable. Several times Lana gets stuck on levers without being able to be released. The puzzles are simple, but not always intuitive - and the lack of a tutorial makes many things a test of patience.

The loading times also test my patience. If I'm being chased by a monster and switch screens, it sometimes takes five seconds before I enter the next one. That's just not up to date in 2025.

A hand-drawn masterpiece with goosebump-inducing sound

Optically, «Bye Sweet Carole» is a stunner. The art style is immediately reminiscent of the golden age of Disney. Every scene, every animation, every character is hand-drawn with an incredible attention to detail.

When I enter a field of flowers, for example, the camera elegantly zooms in on the protagonist from a wide-angle view. Or when cleaning the cellar, a cloud of dust covers the screen, revealing the cleaned surroundings.

You can feel the passion that the Little Sewing Machine team has put into the project in every frame. The game has a lot of cutscenes, I constantly feel like I'm watching a forgotten animated film - which I quite like.

But what would these beautiful visuals be without the right sound? Here, too, the game delivers across the board. The soundtrack by Luca Balboni is phenomenal. He knows exactly when to hold back with soft melodies and when to create high tension with dramatic violins.

The voice acting is just as impressive. I was particularly blown away by the voice of the villain Mr Kyn.

«Bye Sweet Carole» has been available for Playstation 5, Xbox Series, Switch and PC since 9 October. The game was provided to me by Maximum Entertainment for testing purposes on PC.

Kevin Hofer

Senior Editor

kevin.hofer@digitecgalaxus.ch

From big data to big brother, Cyborgs to Sci-Fi. All aspects of technology and society fascinate me.

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