Seasons After Fall

{Seasons After Fall} is a platformer with a very clever mechanic: the ability to control all four seasons and use them to manipulate the environment, something that allows players to access new areas and resolve puzzles that are at times quite challenging. The story revolves around a young boy who wants to keep the sacred ritual of the four seasons, which is to grant new life, although he needs to get to the four guardians of the seasons and acquire their gifts in order to do so. You can't do this alone, however, so you will enlist the help of a sly fox who can move through the forest and help you.

The game design is focused and to the point. {Seasons After Fall} gives us very few pointers and the developers apply this consistently throughout. There are four guardians of the seasons who live in different areas of the forest. The bear lives in the East behind the tundra; the crane in the western swamp; the eel behind the waterfalls in the south; and the cicada is perched in a tree on the mountaintop. We appreciated that Swing Swing Submarine chose such simple animals for these figures, and this narrow range of images works to keep the current destination clearly in mind. The story doesn't do this as effectively, however, and we found ourselves losing focus during the picturesque woodland walks.

As expected, the seasons work in different ways, and the player can shift between these four seasons at any time to solve platform puzzles and overcome challenges. In the spring the snow melts and constant rain can increase the water levels. In summer the flowers are blooming and the water level drops. With the autumn (or fall as the game would prefer it) the warm winds come and mushrooms sprout from the soil, while in the winter snow arrives and the water freezes. The puzzles aren't particularly complicated, however, and become somewhat repetitive over time. Since {Seasons After Fall} is only about four to five hours in length, this is perfectly fine and the game still offers a great couple of evenings' worth of entertainment.

In regards to controls, you choose the seasons with the analogue stick, which is next to the jump button, and there is another button to growl, allowing you to interact with nearby objects. If you reach an edge, the fox pulls itself up to it, but jumping as a whole isn't especially well-executed. In the later stages particularly, jumps must be timed to perfection and these passages become very difficult. Since you don't die by falling you sometimes have to walk all the way back and maybe even go through another puzzle on the way to where you were as well.

The first thing that most people will notice about {Seasons After Fall} is that visually it looks stunning. The change between the seasons feels very natural and looks great. It's not just a looker, though, and what made us even more excited on top of the visuals was the soundtrack. The sparse, orchestral background music succeeds in capturing and accentuating both the quiet and the action-packed sequences, and this is aided by decent voice acting that accompanies this quiet adventure.

Ultimately, though, the game just isn't comparable with the likes of titles such as {Ori and the Blind Forest} (which is certainly one that springs to mind when considering this). With Ori, Moon Studios crafted a phenomenal adventure with impressive atmosphere and a poignant story. {Seasons After Fall} is similar throughout, being both reminiscent of it while combining this familiarity with an experience of its own that uses truly successful game mechanics. The manipulation of the seasons is the element that stands out in this adventure and it's what makes the experience feel unique, but unfortunately the game never really excels despite it's clever mechanic.

Having said all that, we'd still say that overall {Seasons After Fall} is an enjoyable experience that has been cleverly presented. The gameplay ultimately ends up feeling a little bit too repetitive to enjoy over longer sessions, but Swing Swing Submarine has created a well rounded adventure with a story that is well suited for this sort of short experience. The atmosphere would have benefitted from a stronger narrative, but nevertheless we appreciated the simple setting and its cleverly implemented central mechanic.