Steam Challenge: Seasons after Fall
Game: Seasons after Fall
Time Played: 7.2 Hours (Complete)
It’s been a while since I’ve worked on posts for the Seam Challenge, where I endeavor to play games in my Steam backlog. I chose this one because it was a gift from Almonihah this past Christmas and I was super curious what it was about. I’d never heard of it before he gifted it to me, and I know he had his reasons to think that I’d like it… turns out, he was right!
What is it?
Seasons after Fall is a game of pure whimsy and wonder. Those are the only two words I could use to describe it — it hits all of the right buttons for me.
On one hand, it’s a gentle platformer puzzle game. I say gentle because you really can’t die in this game, and there’s no punishment for the very rare times you can/do fall somewhere you shouldn’t.
On the other hand, it’s a cleverly immersive story narrated by two different characters with lovely voice acting. The story is woven into the adventure, completely voiced as you move through the game, and sometimes in short cutscenes, so you never need to stop what you’re doing as things unfold.
Gameplay
You are an (still as of now unknown) entity that has been summoned to the Forest and dropped into a world that’s painted as lovely as any storybook fable. You are given the body of a fox to explore and traverse the lands, and wow… animations and motion are so fluid! It’s simply a joy to romp and leap as your little fox!
The game is not a sprawling one. You have four large zones to explore, made up of a few smaller zones. But clever level design makes it so that when you travel back into them, new secrets are unlocked, making areas larger than they seem at first.
This is done through the use of the power to change the seasons, which your little fox unlocks through the course of the story. The puzzle mechanics and the world change around you as you manipulate the seasons.
For example, changing it to winter will freeze ponds and water spouts, allowing you to use them as platforms. Summer will melt that water, but allow vines to grow, opening up other areas. Fall will wilt the vines, but cause mushrooms to appear, creating other platforms.
This may sound complex, but the game does a very good job of easing you into learning mechanics, and you see them over and over again, just in different locations. Changing the seasons is as simple as a mouse-click, and there’s no power meter or anything, so you are free to explore everything as much as you like.
Story and World
I have to give a whole section of this to the story and world. Both were subpurbly crafted with a strong vision that brought everything together. Even the music is perfect, often falling silent when you’ve already cleared an area, only to play again when you’ve unlocked the way forward.
The world design is whimsical, but not over-done. Its lovely art style holds on to natural realism, so you’re not going to see candy-striped trees or fanciful castles. The thing I love most about the story is that you are blind to the truth from the outset and dropped into this world.
The story unfolds through two voices, as I said before, but not all is what it seems. It’s up to you to determine which character is reliable… and to unravel the truth of what happened to make the forest as it is. Only then can you set things right!
Overall
I actually did complete this game, which says a lot for it. I spent time looking for all the dreams, and managed to get the full “good” ending. I unlocked most of the achievements during my playthrough, with the exception of finding all the flower beds — but that’s mostly there for completionists.
Some of the puzzles can get pretty tricky, but most of them aren’t that bad. I did have to look up guides about three times when I got stumped during the playthrough, but I’ll say that I completed about 97% of the game on my own.
Recommended?
Yes! A wonderful, whimsical romp through a gentle puzzle platformer. If you enjoy this type of game, or you adore the idea of playing as a fox, don’t miss this one!
