izigame.me

I try to wait until I finish a game before leaving a review, but as my hours climb while I play, there are a number of frustrations growing in size that stick out to me so much that I felt the need to write this now. Perhaps my opinion will change once I finish the whole thing, but for now, after 10 hours and about to hit the second "boss", this is where my impression of the game currently stands.

I am heartbroken to have to give this game a negative review, but there are two glaring things that I can't really ignore that I think may be harming the game from keeping it fully enjoyable, them being:

1. The game world is TOO big. There are little puzzles and chests and crevices, secrets put throughout the areas, but the ones I have been through so far have large amounts of barren, empty space. This isn't to say the areas aren't decorated or aren't pretty! The game is very pretty, my problem is I am spending a lot more time looking for locations of interest for things like Wisps or chests or goodies... and more often than not there is nothing.

For example, currently I am in Mosswood and explored some of its coastline. One side was an obelisk to unlock more map, and the other was a rotted out boat with a lore scroll to show more story. The area they were in was a pretty generous space of coast where it'd take a minute or two to walk or run across from one to the other.

The space between these two points? Empty. Just flat dirt and slope. There was nothing in the middle between them, not a puzzle or a half buried chest or anything to pique my curiosity and get me to explore the space a little more. It was just the obelisk and and then that boat. If there is somehow anything else there to uncover, it is not telegraphed well at all.

Huge portions of the map so far have been like this, and I'm not talking about the areas between where you technically aren't supposed to go there or find anything. This is the normally traversible area within bounds of the region that you go from points A to B to. There is very little in terms of landmarks between large points or puzzles to give you wisps.

Which honestly feels like a huge waste of all that space. I think a lot of it could have been condensed down so that traveling around and finding what spots for things is there less time consuming and easier, because there are at least 1-2 puzzles i passed by entirely because nothing stuck out about them to encourage me to go to those spots.

This has started to be really felt as I climb to 10 hours in the game where more of my time is being spent walking/running around looking for something, only to continuously be disappointed when there is nothing there, or the reward for my curiosity is just a couple pots to break that may not give any currency. With a world this big I really, really think it should have been filled more, because I'm now progressing the game more with a wariness that anything that sticks out to me may be a waste of my time, and that's not a feeling I think this game is trying to invoke.

As a side note, another point that was a bit of a downer is the world is big and otherwise looks lush in untainted spaces, but like the first game is basically barren of any other life. Fox Village at the beginning with NPC foxes milling about gave a strong impression that the areas across this world would at least be somewhat populated with passive fauna themed to their spaces, yet after the tutorial opening it is pretty much only you and your raven friend. I can understand the society of this world being long destroyed and no longer around, but I was at least expecting to maybe witness uncorrupted areas to have some critters, or for the areas to become populated with critters once I cleared the area. Instead it's just a little depressing to see a nice forest or field nothing is frolicking in it.

The world does have some things in it that give it some character. Critterless as I say the game is, there are raccoons that sell you things and raccoons you can see in the overworld and chase to get shinies. There's also some sort of turtle thing I found in Mist Haven by following mushrooms, but I have yet to encounter that again. More stuff like that or just passive fauna (even if to just point out spots of interest) really would be nice.

2. This is influenced greatly by the first point, but the Wisps, which you use to open doors to get to little dungeons and other areas, are simultaneously too spread out/scarce when you need them, and also underutilized in this game.

This is the point that has me writing this review as I am progressing into it. Before writing this review, I was looking around the area for a puzzle to get a Wisp to open a door. I only needed one, so I figured "well, there's probably one around here somewhere!"

Except I couldn't really find any. There was one, that I located, which involved 3 glowing spheres you roll down paths into pits, but touching those spheres hurt the fox as I rolled one. I could probably have brute forced it if I wanted to, but I got the impression that a certain item was needed to do it the 'expected way', so I left that puzzle to go find another one.

Fast forward an hour later, and I could not find a puzzle for another Wisp. I did, however, find a Raccoon Grotto while looking for it. By then however I was upset and stressed from not being able to find another puzzle for a Wisp, so I spent my shinies to refill my whole stock of Wisps.

On my way back to the door to open it I crossed paths with a single puzzle that would have been the Wisp I needed. Seeing it hidden in a grove of nondescript trees was---frustrating, to say the least! But at that point I no longer needed that Wisp and moved on to continue, but the mood felt sour still and that was the point where I chose to put the game down for the night and write this.

This is where the size of the world comes into play as a negative. It feels as if there are enough puzzles in the area for Wisps to help you open necessary plot doors without having to buy any from the Raccoon, but with the world so large, they are vastly spread out or are so subtle in the landscape they are easily overlooked, making finding them when you need one like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Like it gives me the sense that I am doing something wrong. Am I missing something? Is there some rune out there that reveals or makes it possible to point out these puzzle spots to get a Wisp? I'm hoping there is one somewhere because I really don't want to spend huge amounts of time being lost trying to locate them so I can progress.

Mist Haven felt a bit more paced and I didn't have a lot of lulls between from running around, but it did have some areas that look like there could be something for the player to do.

3. A much more minor third point is how stretched out the unlockable eyes and fur colors feel. Every time I open one I hope it'll give me more than crystals, or something else beyond a skill point, yet that's usually what they wind up being. Crystals and/or a skill point. I'm not having a lot of fun buying these Runes and Home Keys and Furs and Eyes from the Raccoon that much. I'd rather they all be scattered in the world and filling out more of that dead space that's not getting a lot of use.

I'll update this review if I need to after finishing the game, but until something shifts my perspective I cannot in confidence recommend it to anyone since I do not think the long lulls of running around between relevant areas would be enjoyable to them. People value their time and a big empty world like this doesn't seem to be paying back enough for the curious mind that may really want to check every corner.