izigame.me

I wanted to love this game. It felt like Wind Waker meets Jak and Daxter, with a dash of Gravity Rush and some of the most fluid gameplay I've ever enjoyed. It's hard not to compare this to Solar Ash, which I played earlier this year. Honestly, Solar Ash's presentation may be much stronger, but the gameplay and the one character at the heart of this wavebound tale resounded far more with me than those of Ash. The tone is dim but hopeful, and the environmentalist message isn't... exactly original or well-rendered, but it was somewhat charming.
However, after beating the main story in one sitting, I can't fully recommend this game--not unless it's on sale for less thatn $20. I like short games. They're less of a commitment, so they're easier for relaxation. I think Wavetale could have been a masterpiece--a breakout hit of indie game development--if it was just more polished and there was anything to do in it.
Imagine if Wind Waker:
had only the main quest, with a couple of pointless fetch quests and races as side content,
was a linear game instead of an open-world game,
all of the items were unlocked at the beginning,
and the dungeons all looked and felt the same,
and worst of all, Grandma was not only extremely bossy, but she was your constant companion.
That's more or less what we've got here, unfortunately.
Maybe it's a little unfair to compare this to Wind Waker. I know it's an indie game. I gave it a lot of patience. I gave it my full attention for four straight hours. But after finishing it, I'm more than a little disappointed not in spite of its gameplay, but actually because of how ridiculously good this game could have been.
There are side quests, but everything boils down to fetch quests. Even the main quests are ALL fetch quests. Go here. Do this thing. Gather three things while you're at it. I cannot stress this enough. If you can't stand 4+ straight hours of fetch quests, do not play this game. It starts to feel like an MMO at its worst. You don't gain or upgrade any abilities during the game. Money is just for cosmetic stuff.
Kill a few enemies, and it soon becomes clear the combat is just not up to par. Contrary to the movement controls, the combat controls are too stiff and simplistic for this kind of game. Here, Solar Ash has it beat HARD, and it was simplistic itself. I would have gone for something like Gravity Rush's combat--maybe grabbing things out of the water and shooting them at enemies? Propelling yourself to bounce off enemies? Both would have fit so well in this game. Instead, you have two attacks and a grapple. Animation canceling doesn't seem to work with the normal attack. This is really only an issue in the final boss fight.
Ugh, the final boss fight. It's hard to pinpoint exactly how it feels wrong... but something is really off. Swarmed by a wave of minions after each phase (which is only hinted at in the cutscenes, not visually shown at all). I don't mind the lack of health bars, I do mind the lack of visual clarification that I was nearing the end of the boss fight (no cracks on the "shell").
Sigi really carries the story. She's a believable character and the perfect choice for a protagonist. If it weren't for her, the other characters would be grating. As it was, I was frustrated constantly getting an earful from Grandma. Her arc was good near the end, but it felt a bit rushed.
The movement controls, while near-perfect, aren't without issue. I was three hours in before I realized I could dash or ground pound. The game gives you tutorials on a few buttons and that's it. With the exception of the ground pound, I just never needed to use those utility moves until the final hour. Sometimes the auto-aim gets a bit wonky or your momentum sends you flying past the location where you swear you grappled to a platform. What exacerbates this is the camera.
I'm not sure what's wrong with the camera, but as I got further into the game I started having to actively fight against it just to finish the last hour. The section where you follow an airship was a real problem. The camera kept trying to look up at it. The FOV might be to blame, but increasing it did not make the game feel better.
Sometimes the art design and character expressions can look a bit uncanny. At first, I found the hand-drawn style charming, but by the fourth hour I was just over it. It's similar to a low-poly Windwaker, but painted over like A Hat in Time. Oftentimes things just aren't quite visually clear enough. There's a lot of fog and effects in the game that detract from visual clarity.
The environments feel manufactured, not lived in--despite their efforts at environmental storytelling. I was so disappointed in seeing this because the world and mysteries sounded interesting at first. However, I predicted most of the interesting story beats, including a "twist" that I think the developers realized wasn't much of a twist and smartly kept as a character's sad revelation instead.
Grandma was absolutely annoying. She actively made the game worse even when she was off-screen, because she's still shutting down Siggi's attempts to get close (understandable but grating later in the story) and judging everyone you meet. If they had toned her down to an eighth of how important she was to the plot and made you see her once every hour I would not be so frustrated with her.
The plot just... isn't there either. It's a linear story-driven game with a plot that is barely held up by a likable main character. I kept wondering if I should put the game down, then something happened and the plot picked up again and... oh wait, that's the end of the game. It's nothing groundbreaking or even great, just serviceable. If it weren't the main focus of the game despite the excellent traversal, that would not matter.
There are some nice collectibles, but they weren't enough to keep me interested.
For what it's worth, the traversal mechanics are amazing. I never fully got them down, and they seemed a little inconsistent, but it really, really feels good to build up speed, jump off the crest of a wave, dive under the water like a dolphin, chain a second jump into a grappling hook, slide through a grind-rail type booster, then do it all over again. You might get all of that enjoyment for free with the demo.
Unfortunately, there's no reason to explore or go off on your own. I really wish there had been. I wish I felt like returning to Wavetale's world--but I don't.
TLDR: try the demo, unfortunately everything is fetch quests and angry grandma chiding you