Seasons after Fall Review – Forgettable As Autumn Leaves

<p class&equals;"western">Due to the combination of preparing for EGX and reviewing a good few September releases&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;ve been feeling rather stressed&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve plagued my usual online haunts with banshee-like screaming about one thing or the next&period; One suggestion I got to cool myself down was to go on a walk&period; However&comma; I generally don&&num;8217&semi;t get along with the outdoors as I&&num;8217&semi;m easily frightened&period; So instead&comma; I thought I&&num;8217&semi;d review something calming&period; So I dug up a review copy of nature-exploration title <em>Seasons after Fall<&sol;em> to look at&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><em>Seasons after Fall<&sol;em> is a side-scrolling game made by Swing Swing Submarine&period; Within the earth of a forest lies you&period; There you slumber&comma; as a spirit of some kind with no past&period; Until one day&comma; without provocation&comma; you rise to the surface&period; Upon which a seed makes you possess a fox&period; She then tells you to go off and collect four symbols of the seasons so she can perform a ritual&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Off you go then into each of the four zones represented by the seasons&colon; spring&comma; summer&comma; fall and winter&period; As you start gathering the symbols&comma; it is hard to ignore the condensed whimsy this game embraces&period; From the aesthetic&comma; to how your fox leaps and bounds across the land and even the lack of enemies make it a forest of frolicking than anything else&period; It is hard not to hold a pleasant relaxing smile as you wander around looking for the ritual components&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;112874" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-112874" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-112874 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;10141259&sol;Seasons-after-Dawn-Pic-2-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Seasons after Fall Pic 2" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-112874" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Seasons after Fall<&sol;em>&comma; Focus Home Interactive&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">This relaxing pace continues as a lot of the puzzles depend on you traversing and manipulating the environment&period; Since&comma; as a spirit fox&comma; you have the power to alter the Earth&&num;8217&semi;s axis on the fly you can adjust what season you wish to utilize&period; These can lead to the blooming of mushrooms&comma; freezing of water&comma; flooding of areas and blooming of vines&period; As there is no rush and these are rather easy puzzles to solve&comma; the process feels soothing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">My smile began to diminish at the 1 1&sol;2 hour mark&period; I admit usually this happens within the first few hours as whimsy is a curious beast&period; Without distraction it departs for new lands&period; The moment my smile dropped was the grand reveal I&&num;8217&semi;d be revisiting the same environments a second time&period; I felt disappointed that I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t be able to experience fresh new lands&comma; but still forged on&period; I was still coaxed by the soothing tone so far&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Upon the second loop&comma; I began to get lost really easily&period; Without the guided level design tunnel from before&comma; it turned into &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;spot the new destination&period;” This was the moment that the lack of a map became as apparent and obvious as a bear&&num;8217&semi;s roar&period; I just simply wanted to know where I had been so I could work out where to go&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Once I high-fived all the new spots in the four seasonal environments at about hour 3&comma; I could sense a smirk from the game&period; It felt bold&comma; perhaps proud of what it has set up&period; It then told me how I would have to do a third&comma; and last&comma; loop of the land&period; At this point&comma; whimsy was far away picking its teenage children up from school while drinking room-temperature Stella&period; This was exactly when the appeal of the environments had worn down like century old stones that had braved the elements&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;112875" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-112875" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-112875 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;10141420&sol;Seasons-after-Dawn-Pic-3-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Seasons after Fall&comma; Focus Home Interactive" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-112875" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Seasons after Fall<&sol;em>&comma; Focus Home Interactive&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">While most of the puzzles up to this point were a breeze&comma; suddenly at the end <em>Seasons after Fall<&sol;em> decides that it should put up a fight&period; Where other titles are expected to have a final boss&comma; you get instead a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;final puzzle&period;&&num;8221&semi; While functional&comma; the last puzzles felt more of a spike to deter victory rather than an easing progression to mull over&period; These &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;final puzzles” feel as though <em>Seasons after Fall<&sol;em> just woke up suddenly and messily created a puzzle quickly to tick a box best left undone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">After 5 hours of this platforming&comma; you may want to know if the stumbling about was all worth it&semi; if the narrative reinforces everything&period; The short answer is no&period; During the journey&comma; very little seems explained&period; What you end up with is loose hints&comma; even with the completist true ending&comma; that amount to an ending that presented an environment more interesting than the plot was&period; I kept wishing there was a second half based after the events of the game&comma; rather than trapping me with its final conclusion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The final score is a 5&period;5&period; <em>Seasons after Fall<&sol;em> feels like the life of a leaf&period; It starts off vibrant&comma; bringing life and wonder to it&period; As it runs its course&comma; it becomes less and less noteworthy&period; It shrivels and yellows&comma; trapped within the knowledge that one day everything ends&period; Then when the leaf does end&comma; it becomes forgotten on the floor&period; It returns to mud&comma; leaving behind a place more interesting than the life it lived&period; <em>Seasons after Fall<&sol;em> was a soothing and relaxing journey&comma; but hard to recommend to anyone who isn&&num;8217&semi;t hunting for whimsy&period; Even then&comma; like the cycle of nature&comma; it dies as quickly as it was born&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western" style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western" style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC Review Code was provided for <em>Seasons after Fall <&sol;em>by Focus Home Interactive for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;