You can tell there was a vision, but the design around everything just didnt work. The maps were small, yet very open world. Making you need to go to a lot of dead spaces, and occasionally track back and forth if you missed something. The movement hence feels very slow and frustrating, especially the jumping which does not feel fluid at all. They either needed to severely fix up their map design, or completely botch the 3d aspect and do a 2d one, or something in between. This game is just a story, with a whole lot of nothing gameplay and boredom. I also wish that they put more effort into their art. The shaders / lighting were cool, but you can tell whoever made the maps again, was very minimal effort. It's one thing to reuse the same exact asset over and over, which were mostly the trees, but its another thing to have them in the same exact orientation for every single tree in the game... These repetitive assets made the maps feel a lot worse, no matter what windy grass movement or snow fox trail steps they add. If you really want to play the game, I really just suggest watching a playthrough on youtube, as you are literally just playing for the story, and you messing up on anything (getting lost) will only slow it down.

I so badly want to press thumbs up on this game. I really do. You can tell that the developer has poured his soul into this game, like literally. There are so many emotions in the story. I'm guessing he's telling a story about his own life, and he's a really good story **** game is about a fox trying to find her two pups. That context is set in the beginning, but throughout the entire game there's nothing to remind you of that. You forget about it until the very end of the game.Throughout the entire game there's a narrator telling a story about his childhood and his relationship with his father. The story is truly moving and, as a first-time father myself, he's talking about things I've thought about myself: What kind of father do I want to be? I keep wanting to hear more. You'll hear parts of the story automatically at certain checkpoints, but there are also optional sites where you can dig up items that unlock more of the story. The narrated father-son story feels like the main purpose of the game, which makes it weird that most of that story is **** gameplay is very, very simple. You run around and jump. That's it. There are stars to collect which are purely for achievement purposes. Some of the stars require a bit of platforming to reach, but that part of the game feels awkward. My girlfriend walked into the room during one of those sequences, saw the game and, without hearing any of my opinions first, said out loud: "Those animations looks **** environments are really beautiful. You can tell he's talented at replicating real world nature. The music is amazing and the sound design is really good. Just running around the maps is very relaxing. The game is divided into multiple maps separated by a loading **** game feels like two half baked games thrown into one. Either he should have created a game about a father-son relationship and found a better metaphor to emphasize that, or he should have created a game about a fox trying to search for her puppies and found a more suitable story for that. I would've rather seen one map that he poured his soul into, because running around the map feels really great. I could see parents letting their kids just roam around a big map as a fox. Remove the platforming altogether.

A review for this game is tricky since it's a labor of love from the author. It's an indie game with a minimal budget and a heartfelt center. I admire the passion, the exploration, and the artistry the creator put into this. It really is a beautiful experience by design. Unfortunately, the game was a drag and difficult to get through from start to finish. The concept sounded interesting and I enjoy myself a methodical slow-burn. However, the maps you explore are barren and uninteresting, the objectives are extremely tedious, and the mechanics are amongst the clunkiest and most awkward I've ever experienced. Getting yourself from point A to point B was an extreme chore and not very pleasant. For a "story-telling experience" in a game, I also didn't appreciate how unfocused it was. The "open-world" approach where you can go anywhere and do anything at your own order and pace I don't think contributed to the experience. Having a focused objective system with less places to visit that serve no function would've helped the game and the narrative. The narrative itself isn't voice-acted particularly well with every line being the same somber one note we hear again and again. The emotional thread felt over-the-top and too sentimental as I didn't feel like there was no development of its themes but rather and "introduce and payoff" structure. Unfortunately when there's no development, the payoff means very little. Again, I don't like to harp on passion projects with limited budgets and resources. You can tell there is real passion and I would be interested in this creator's future projects. I simply have to categorically assess the experience on its own and I just didn't really like it, nor would I recommend it to anyone.