I suppose there’s something symbolic about the fox drawing power from these rare plants, but the experience would benefit from less restrictive energy consumption, since continually scavenging for flowers is never really fun and often impedes momentum. This single-use nature quickly becomes wearisome because you then need to hunt another flower to top it up, and they aren’t always in the most obvious place. Once it’s used up on a particular interaction, it needs to be replenished. The problem is that you can often only engage with environmental hotspots or use the fox’s abilities when you have that blue flower’s energy. Learning these skills is spread out nicely so it doesn’t feel overwhelming, and you’ll use them immediately so that their purpose becomes obvious. These include the ability to quickly dash long distances or temporarily leave your body and become a spirit that can pass through any barrier. Later, as your journey continues, you will gain new powers at set moments. In the early stages, it mainly involves transferring the energy to designated stone tablets which then magically alter the environment, like lowering the water level or removing blockages from passageways. As the four-legged furry protagonist, you’ll come across special blue flowers that you can bark at to receive their energy. I can forgive a lack of story if the gameplay makes up for it, but sadly that isn’t the case here. The premise of a suffering world being healed by a lone animal is intriguing, but it really never goes anywhere interesting. I would have liked to know more – about where the sickness came from, and the backstory of the two foxes. The vague narrative allusions here fall on the wrong side of that line, and even the ending doesn’t provide much enlightenment. It’s true that less can be more, but there’s a balance when it comes to maintaining a sense of intrigue while still telling an engaging story. While you’ll occasionally encounter murals depicting past events, the imagery is vague and without any dialogue, you’re mostly left to make your own backstory up. The general gist of the story is that the world has been taken over by a disease, which manifests itself in suitably disgusting red boils attached to the landscape and spores floating in the air, and it’s apparently your role to cure it, which you can do thanks to your spirit buddy. Unfortunately, it’s all downhill after the opening twenty minutes, with most of the next five or six hours feeling more like a chore that I was looking forward to being done with. I was happily anticipating what was to come. The orchestral music is excellent too, shifting between ethereal singing and slow piano. I was intrigued by this mysterious opening: watching the fox plough through the deep snow is satisfying and the cold blue cavern, surrounded by bright ice walls as water pours down from above, is visually impressive. This mystical creature guides you along for a while before suddenly turning into an orb of light to accompany you the rest of the way, always floating nearby. It’s not long before you encounter another fox, except this one is blue and translucent. As you trot along toward it, you’ll enter an ice cavern and find some peace and quiet. In the distance is a giant red swirl of energy, rising somewhere from the ground and enveloping the sky. Spirit of the North puts you in control of a cute red fox, who in the game’s opening is roaming a snow-covered land, the wind loudly whipping around. It feels empty, stirring no emotions despite the soaring music, which makes for a disappointing time. It looks and sounds great, and it offers the intriguing hook of being able to control a fox, but this is a game that lacks much of anything interesting to see, let alone do. Infuse Studio’s Spirit of the North is a similar style of adventure, but sadly falls far short in terms of quality. Playing those games is almost like a tightly choreographed dance, where everything moves with rhythm and feels perfectly paced. Both are wordless, but they manage to immerse and amaze with incredibly beautiful worlds that are a joy to explore. For my money, Journey and ABZÛ are two of the best video game experiences ever made.
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