At first glance Seasons After Fall seems like a pretty simple adventure title, but the more you play the game starts to unravel in a remarkable way as you engage with the guardians of the forest. Developer Swing Swing Submarine wanted to create a game that takes the player beyond the realm of reality, and into a magical 2D platform world full of crafty puzzles. The artstyle is magnificent and the animation is so fluid that it just everything moves along with you seamlessly as you control this adorable little fox. Fans of platformers will certainly want to grab a hold of this one because it provides you the very same experience you know and love, but throws in puzzle elements to create stimulation of the mind.

Seasons After Fall doesn’t try to be fancy with over budget cutscenes and a distorted story; it merely wants to invite you into a world that’s full of wonders while bringing you closer to nature at the same time. There’s no crazy music or special effects to draw your attention away, so every moment you experience with Seasons After Fall is unique and endearing. You’re on a journey to discover more about the mysterious world to uncover its secrets, and the power of nature is within your control. Use the seasons to your advantage to manipulate the environment and unlock new paths, interact with the guardians, revisit old areas and just have a total blast as you watch nature do its work. The concept is so amazing that every time you pick up the game to play, there’s always something new to discover, and little intricate details that start to pop up out of the blue and amaze you.

The game starts off with you being a floating cell, wandering aimlessly in search for the light up ahead. Suddenly you reach the surface only to be greeted by a mysterious voice that now explains to you that rituals must take place to unlock the secrets of the world, but to do so you must take control of a small fox who now has the power to change the seasons at will. With the power of the elements in your paws, it is up to you to use these special abilities to learn more about the ever changing world and come to discover the secret that lies deep within.

If there was one word to simply describe Seasons After Fall it would be reincarnation. We say this because everything just feels like a total dream, a whole new experience that’s been bestowed upon you and now you’re a young fox trotting around in search for something intriguing. Once you start running around in Seasons After Fall it’s like walking into a museum full of mesmerizing paintings and uniquely drawn frescos. The phrase ‘Becoming one with nature’ is truly fitting of this title because that’s exactly what you do all throughout the game. Each puzzle you encounter requires the use of nature to overcome whatever lies ahead, and to see that transitioning take place within the game is truly incredible. The contrasting colors and hues just stand out so vividly as you witness every season unfold, with purples and blues defining the cold dry winters, and the earth greens paired with rainfall for the spring. When we played through the game honestly our eyes were more fixed on the beautiful backgrounds more than the gameplay itself.

Seasons After Fall draws you in and keeps you there for the entirety of game, and the deeper you go the more exciting things start to pop up. There aren’t really any enemies that attack you, it’s more about taking control of what’s around you and using what’s available to unlocking more secrets. The narration within the game was an added touch of brilliance as everything started to feel more like a moving picture book, and the soothing voice was just there to help us cruise along in a dream-like state. Games, of course, are supposed to take you out of reality most of the time and Seasons of Fall certainly does that too, but what’s fascinating is that it teaches you the very importance of our being in that, the more you become connected with nature and its beauty, the more enriching the experience becomes. Many other titles try to help you escape by shooting enemies or grouping together to take down mystical creatures, but Seasons After Fall eliminates all of that and just wants you to be as immersed as possible without all the messy details. It’s a game that doesn’t require a lot of hours to beat, but it’s the quality of it all that really gives it such a unique charm. Seasons After Fall reminds us of those games like Flower where the aim isn’t to draw your attention away, but rather to draw your attention closer. There are no deaths in this game either which is another plus, because it helps to evoke more emotion out of you the deeper you explore and there’s less worry about taking risks or simply just wandering around.

At first many might think, “Hey this seems to be targeted more to a younger audience” and while that may be true, one should also consider that we all are in essence young at heart. Seasons After Fall caters to just about everyone who’s willing to build a closer bond with nature and in doing so, creates a profound understanding of just how everything works together in unison. Each season you encounter has its different effects but in the end nature is more or less just one uniform structure, much like we humans are no different than the fox or the fox from the insect. Everything works in conjunction with one another as you need the assistance from a plant in spring in order to help a tree grow in the summer, or the warmth of the fall to help you climb an icy geyser in the chilly winter. This whole cycle of elements is like watching the birth of a child and you being that parent seeing that child evolve over time. That feeling is what you experience in Seasons After Fall because you’re right there as everything changes and you’re in direct control of it all. This may sound a bit weird but when we were playing through the game, all we could think about was Captain Planet. It felt like we were doing our part as the fox to help restore wealth back into the world, while coming to know the truth behind the mystery. An incredibly therapeutic experience that we recommend everyone try.

With an easy to use control scheme and no UI in your way as you explore, Seasons After Fall is as simple as it gets when it comes to gameplay and that’s a very good thing. It doesn’t try to fit in with the crowd, it instead ventures out into the wilderness that is the game industry as a lone fox, willing to take on any challenge that comes its way. Games like these don’t often make their way into the spotlight, but they really should because they really emphasize what it’s like to really be “in the game”. We only experienced one small bug in the game when the whole screen blacked out, but we could still hear the game sounds and vibrations. After we restarted everything was back to normal, so it didn’t really destroy or take away from the overall experience.

So is Seasons After Fall really worth the buy on console even after its PC release a year before? We surely think so because not only will it help to draw more attention to players who may not have or use PC for gaming purposes, it also helps Swing Swing Submarine get the attention they rightfully deserve. We only hope they continue to develop more titles like this in the near future, and continue working hard to make them multi platform. If you had a chance to play the PC version let us know what you think in the comments section below. Also, be sure to follow us on Twitch to know when Honey’s Gaming goes live with game reviews and more! Until next time this is NualphaJPN signing out.

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