Grimm's Hollow is a 2019 freeware, indie adventure role-playing video game for Microsoft Windows. It was released on Steam and Itch.io on Halloween by the developer ghosthunter, running on RPG Maker 2003.[1][2]
The player controls a singular player character, Lavender, as she navigates through the Hollow (the game's central town) and ghost caverns. Maps are 2D and in a top-down perspective. At the Hollow, the player can interact with the townsfolk, purchase food items that replenish the player's health at the Bakery, and progress the main plot. The player collects experience points (called Spirit Energy) by fighting ghosts, and these points can be used as currency to purchase food or progress their skill tree. Combat takes place in ghost caverns, where an encounter will start if the player interacts with a moving ghost.
The story starts with Lavender, a young girl who awakens in a bed in the afterlife. Surrounding her are balloons and skull-masked figures in purple robes. Their leader, a non-human entity called Grimm, informs her that she has died and reincarnated as a Reaper in the game's town, the Hollow. The dead in this world can reincarnate as ghosts, or Reapers; a type of psychopomp who defeats ghosts. Lavender does not believe Grimm's story, and starts to think of escape as soon as he leaves. However, a ghost appears and tells her that her brother, Timmy, has arrived with her into the Hollow. The game begins with Lavender embarking on a journey to find her missing brother and return home.