Seasons after Fall

I've enjoyed the first 1/3 of the game - captivating art, interesting choice of music, a story that holds something to discover. Then you are asked to run around the same 4 places again. And then again. And then, if you want the 100% completion - again. Sure enough, it gets boring quickly. As to the gameplay - it's like the developers made the game first, and only then retro-actively tried to implement the gameplay. You can expect awkward traversals through the maps, getting lost, and looking up puzzle solutions, since they are placed in locations that are awkward to get to.

Given my avatar, I really wanted to like the game and the game get high scores on both the visual and accustic front with a fitting orchestral soundtrack and a cute narrator that leads you on your journey. There is no combat so the gameplay is relaxing although the levels can feel a bit empty. Unfortunatelly the game seems to have some sort of problem with my xbox style controller and keeps randomly ignoring my input. It just isn't much fun when you have to check whether the jump key is still working and if you need to switch from analog to digital controls multiple times during a platforming sequence.

We're not amiss in labeling this as 'Ori-lite'. There's no combat, plenty of platforming and puzzle exploration in the style of Ori. I hear the complaints and I do agree - Seasons After Fall has its issues. But the issues did not dampen the delightful story, artwork, music for me not to recommend it.

It's wonderful to look at, and has a relaxing quality to it. Big props for letting you pause the game at any moment, even during a cutscene - More games need that. The story is also really cute, not to mention the lovely cello soundtrack. I don't feel like I can rate it higher due to several issues I've had: 1) Others have already mentioned the floaty controls. It's not terrible, but it caused me to often miss jumps. 2) Perhaps this is a "Me" problem, but I feel like one puzzle near the end was not well explained and I had to resort to a guide to understand what I'm supposed to do. Everything up until that point was straightforward so this felt odd. 3) I'm good at navigating and finding my way, but I struggled with a sense of direction in the game. The final part I did had me running in circles a dozen times because I couldn't find where I'm supposed to go and find the last bit to activate. There's a light Metroidvania to the game, but in many cases I found myself going "Ok, now what?" before picking a direction and going off hoping that's where I need to go. I still enjoyed it, though.

A lovely little sidescrolling Adventure in which you can change the seasons to reach new areas. Not quite a Platventure, exactly, but a decent focus on platforming and puzzle solving. The environments are beautiful on their own, but the color shifts with the change of seasons makes them absolutely breathtaking. The story, while fairly minimal, is also well-written; it weaves an interesting lore into a lovely fairy tale world that's a joy to explore.