Apopia: Sugar Coated Tale Demo Impressions

Ready for a game that looks like a cartoon from the 90’s, is bright and colorful, and full of really fun mini games and quests? Look no further than Apopia.

The Backstory of Apopia: Sugar Coated Tale

I played as Mai, a young girl on a hike with her mother. As they were hiking, a rock rolled free in front of me and broke into pieces. After the dust settled, it was obvious I was not in the same place anymore. The colors of the environment had changed, and although I was still hiking uphill, I was going in a different direction. What?? I ended up on a cliff, and my mother was on another cliff. We were separated by a deep cave, which I fell into. Oh no!

When I woke, I was in a mysterious place, and the soundtrack played equally mysterious music to add to the atmosphere. Turns out, I landed in a strange place called Yogurt which is a rabbit kingdom. It used to be ruled fairly by a princess named Moly, but BOSS  took over the kingdom by force and now rules as a dictator. BOSS has locked the gates to the kingdom and bullies some residents. No one has seen BOSS, but everyone knows of him. I needed to get through the locked gates in order to go home. And so the adventure began!

The Gameplay of Apopia: Sugar Coated Tale

I played with a controller which worked great; I had no problems at all. The overarching plot of the game was my efforts to get back home to my Mom. This new world I landed in has many obstacles, though. The first obstacle I encountered was bats. Although I knew bats in general were not a danger, if I got too close to these particular bats, they would bite me and slow down my progress. So from then on, I tried to keep a distance between myself and the bats.

But I didn’t get too far before there was an obstacle in my way. Apopia is a place like that! There are lots of obstacles. I remembered noticing that the bats seemed to like collecting colorful decorated Easter eggs. They would pick them up from one pile and put them into another one. So I made myself very small, to look like an Easter egg, and they carried me over the obstacle. Yahoo!

I discovered a kitty in Apopia, and it turned out to be a main character in the story. I seemed to think this kitty knew another way out of Yogurt and so I tried to catch it. The next obstacle I encountered was that the cave began shaking. That created a path with rocks scattered here and there, causing me to have to weave around them, as well as bats, which wanted to bite me. Oh, and did I mention some of the paths were dead ends, and there was a timer? Yikes! It was quite a challenge to get through this area. I failed once, but all that did was put me back at the start of the path again. I was able to get through it the second time. While I was on this path, I found the kitty, but he had been hurt, and I had to carry him to safety. Usually, I don’t enjoy timed events in the games I play, but this one was a lot of fun.

After I made it through the path, I encountered a large individual dressed all in black. He told me he was also looking for the kitty; he could hear it meowing, but for some reason, he could not see it. I didn’t trust this person, so even though I was actually holding the kitty at the time, I told him that I had not seen a cat anywhere. I later found out that this person was Leo, one of the BOSS’s guards, and he was actually the one who stole Princess Moly’s crown. So he’s definitely a bad guy!

More About the Gameplay in Apopia

As I walked around, I found things such as a coin and some quest items. These were all kept in my hoodie for safekeeping and were used automatically when needed. The demo was presented as part of the gameplay, and I was taught what I needed to know as I needed to know it. Last, the game autosaves. I appreciate all of those features!

Apopia had a very easy-to-use notebook of quests as well as an inventory management system. I like it when the UI is very easy for me to understand. In fact, all of the controls were pretty easy to use and remember. Nothing too complicated here. I was given the power to run early on, and that proved quite helpful with some of the quests and mini games.

Let’s Discuss Some of the Quests and Mini Games in Apopia: Sugar Coated Tale.

As I continued the game, I ran into other funny, cartoon-like characters who needed my help. This included 3 bunnies who needed help finding their swords. That quest was really 3 quests in one, as I had to find a sword for each bunny. That was followed by a mini game involving a fun chase on slippery ice to evade 2 more bunnies, this time one very large one and one small one. I won’t describe the rest of the demo to you; I will let the game surprise you instead!

The Look and Feel of Apopia: Sugar Coated Tale

The word of Apopia was bright, colorful and whimsical. It was meant to remind me of cartoons in the 1990’s, and it worked! The soundtrack varied depending on what I was doing at the time. During the slippery ice challenge, the music reminded me of “Keystone Cops”. But at the beginning of the game, when Mai first dropped into the cave, it was very mysterious. The world itself is what I’d call semi open world, meaning I was able to move in any direction I want but only within the various regions of the game. I could also go back to some regions (to see if I missed anything, for example), but I can’t go back to all of them.

Final Thoughts

Apopia is a really unusual comedic adventure with some mysteries to solve. In the game, you will beat enemies but with your brain, not your brawn. You’ll beat them through the use of mini games! As someone who does not like combat in the games I play, I approve! Along the way, you will have adventures and explore the whimsical world you now inhabit. The full game is scheduled to release sometime in the first quarter of 2026. I encourage you to give the demo a try in the meantime; it’s a lot of fun.

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