Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan is so sweet you can feel your teeth aching as you’re playing. Whether it’s the ultra-colourful Saturday-morning-cartoon-inspired artwork or the story which focuses on friendship, everything in this game feels like it’s made up of sugar and the power of friendship.

The game stars Billy, a beacon and hope and joy for their friends and the town. As a festival is kicking off, fireworks awaken a slumbering leviathan below the ocean that rises to the surface, which can drain the people and world’s literal colour and the inhabitant’s positive thoughts. The leviathan is one big giant flying depression monster. Luckily, Billy manages to escape on Friend-Ship, who is both a ship and a friend. And yes, beware of pun ah-oy in this game.

Billy and Friend-Ship escape the leviathan to discover a lost soul trapped in a cloud of negative thoughts out on a small island in the ocean. This is where the game starts to set up the core gameplay mechanics and characters.

Each time you find a character trapped in a gloomy cloud, you enter a battle screen, except it’s not a traditional battle at all; instead, it’s a confrontation. Using the “talk” and “listen to” commands you have to learn what response Billy should give to the character and help them get out of their dark spot.

The first character you meet like this is having fears that everyone wants to make fun of them, so if Billy explains that’s not the situation and wants to be friends, you can slowly open up that person’s heart. Between these commands, you’ll be able to use other friends you already have access to, to perform an action that’ll help strike some colour back into the character through a short mini-game. Do this a couple of times, and you’ll have yourself a new friend to board the Friend-Ship and continue the adventure.

In my short time with the demo, this was the core premise that was laid out. Travel aboard the Friend-Ship to islands, solve small puzzles, enter confirmations and gather new friends. You can also go fishing and use the fish to increase your friendship level with your friends below deck.

The gorgeous art style is going to be a big selling point of Rainbow Billy, and rightfully so, it’s the eye-popping, attention-grabbing detail that hooks you from “press start.” But it’s the game’s charm and characters that had me most hooked when the demo was cutting me off from continuing to play the game. The premise may sound so sweet it could be too much to handle, but I fell for the power of friendship here.

When my time with the demo came to an end, I was disappointed; I was ready to head to the next island and continue to gather new friends and use the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP to defeat that nasty leviathan and restore colour to the world. Hopefully, the full release for Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan isn’t too far away.

If you’d like to try the demo for Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan yourself, you can now, as there’s a playable demo downloadable as part of the Steam Next Fest.

A PC code was provided to us for preview coverage by the publisher.