Röki

Röki is an adventure game from British developer Polygon Treehouse and publisher United Label Games. Players control Tove, a young girl who ventures into an ancient forest to save her little brother Lars from a pitch-black monster called Röki, a creature straight out of a fairy tale.

The gameplay focuses on "brains not brawn," offering a modern twist on point-and-click adventures. Tove collects items in a backpack to solve puzzles and unlock new areas. She also gathers objects for a catalogue in her journal, which includes maps of each location and notes on characters and folklore. Accessibility features include a toggle that highlights all interactive items. Late in the game, new mechanics appear: switching between an invisibility mask and a revealing mask to free the Stag, and swapping control between Tove and her father Henrik to solve final puzzles, with items shared between them.

The story begins with Tove, her father Henrik, and her younger brother Lars living in the mountains. Their mother Eva died giving birth to Lars in the cold winter forest after a car crash, leaving Henrik grief-stricken and often asleep by the fire, so Tove cares for the family. Lars loves fairy tales and claims to see creatures from them. One night, Tove reads Lars their mother’s favorite story, about four giant guardians of an enchanted forest: Jötunbjörn the Bear of Autumn, Jötunhjort the Stag of Summer, Jötunúlfur the Wolf of Spring, and Jötunravn the Raven of Winter. A woodcutter fell in love with the Raven, who took human form as Rörka and became pregnant. Because the child was half-human, it was wild and dangerous, so the other guardians imprisoned Rörka and her son in the prison realm of Utangard.

That same night, a pitch-black creature attacks the children’s home. Tove and Lars escape down the mountain, but Henrik is trapped under debris and fire, forcing them to leave him. In the forest, Lars is distracted by his imagination and captured by the monster. Tove pursues them to a portal at a lake, but it closes before she can reach it. Lars is taken to Utangard, where the monster is revealed as Röki, Rörka’s son. Röki plans to use Lars—forest-born and touched by magic—as a sacrifice in a dark ritual to become human, believing humans cannot accept monsters. Previous attempts have failed, with the children dying.