I'd like to thank Bolverk Games for the review key for this title.

Sometimes, gamers just want to explore a world. It may not involve doing more than taking in the scenery, but some players simply wish to have a generally distraction-free world to explore. Thus, Glyph is a game where the player investigates the fall of an ancient civilization.

Glyph is a 3D game that has both exploration and puzzle elements. The primary goal in the story is to explore the ruins of an ancient civilization as Glyph, a ladybug-shaped robot that once served that culture, and find out what caused their fall. The puzzles involve a lot of physics-based platforming to find keys, coins, and other items to unlock further parts of the ruins. A time trial mode is included as well for those who wish to see how fast they can complete certain levels, for those who want an alternative to the laid-back pacing.

Graphically, Glyph uses a vivid, cel-shaded style, and this goes nicely with the desert ruins motif. There is a slight sci-fi aesthetic with your main character Glyph and other helpful machines, who all tend to have a neo-futuristic robotic ladybug look.

Sounds and music tend to go for ambient noises and soundtracks. The sounds have a pleasing, soothing sound, fitting for a game about exploring an ancient civilization, and the aural presentation features a lot of gentle instruments such as flutes. Given the fact you will want as few distractions as possible to keep your concentration, this minimalistic approach is a good thing.

Controls involve using the analog sticks, the B, and shoulder buttons to move around, jump, and perform other unlockable actions like smashes (which allow for higher jumps) and gliding (which extends the distance you can go before hitting the ground). Given it's a physics-based game, the timing of these actions is quite important and the controls feel a bit floaty until you get the hang of playing. I found playing this on a handheld Switch for long periods gave me wrist cramps because I had to constantly readjust my perspective and shift my hands quite a bit. I would recommend pausing to take a break and do some hand stretches in between levels; this is not a game you can marathon easily.

I found no stability issues. For a Switch game, it loads reasonably fast, I saw no frame rate drops or visual glitches, and it was modest on power consumption on my handheld Switch.

Morally, this has hardly anything of concern.

Violence is almost nonexistent. You can "die" if your character lands in the sand, complete with an explosion effect, but reappear unharmed to simply try a level again.

There is no foul language, sexual content, or crude humor. There is some vaguely religious dialogue, like hefty use of the word sacred, artifacts, relics, and other dialogue of that nature, but this is flavor text for that "ancient civilization" atmosphere; the usage is entirely generic and references no actual deity or religious beliefs. If anything, the plot is about a civilization that depended on advanced technology that was doomed because it went bad on them due to sabotage, and the dialogue mentioned above is generic platitudes about how important it was to the health and continuance of said civilization.

Morally and ethically there are no issues. You play as an intelligent, ladybug-shaped machine, assisted by similar robotic lifeforms, and your goal is to discover why the civilization that created you ceased to be. There is no in-story reason why this would be impermissible in any way.

If you want a game to test reflexes, solve physics puzzles, and otherwise tax your brains, this is a pretty good choice. Morally, this is entirely appropriate for all ages. Overall, I had fun with this title, and I very highly recommend it.