When it’s not trying too hard be a game, Spirit of the North really is delightful. Did they want to encourage replay value with the optional staves? Or convince players to slow their pace through the game to pad it out by making some of them necessary? Either way (or both ways), it’s disruptive and doesn’t add anything to what Spirit of the North does well. I’m not sure on the value of the developers doing this. There’s also a blend of essential and optional staves to collect, but which is which isn’t overly clear, and the end effect of that is that you’ll be doing your best to find them all, just so you don’t miss out on the essential ones and need to backtrack vast distances to find them. The problem with this system is that it actually forces you to backtrack at times, and take diversions that, again, stop the forward momentum through the game. If you do that, then you send the soul to rest. Scattered around the world are staves that you need to collect and then bring to the bones of dead people that are also scattered around the world. Spirit of the North also has an aggravating collectibles system. The puzzles were there, yes, but they were so subtly woven through there was never the jarring reminder that “yes, you’re playing a game” every time they popped up. You think back to Journey and all you think about is the forward progress. If there was anything that the developers needed to do in their efforts to copy Journey, it was to understand the seamless way that game’s puzzles were integrated into the overall experience. They’re not difficult puzzles by any means, but their presence becomes a grinding reminder that Spirit of the North really is a just a game rather than a more potent work of art. Each puzzle is an arbitrary mess, where forward progression through the world grinds to a halt while you run around looking to fulfill the conditions that will bring down the wall blocking your way, and far too often that is an obvious, arbitrary wall that just disappears once the puzzle is solved. Spirit of the North’s greatest struggles occur when it tries to play like Journey. I really struggled to finish this one because I couldn’t help but think that if I wanted this kind of game, I could just play Journey again. The problem is that because Spirit of the North is so slavishly devoted to trying to be Journey, it misses out on the opportunity to develop its own personality, and ultimately this hurts the game. That in itself isn’t a slight against it – after all, there aren’t many games that are Journey. Unfortunately Spirit of the North is not Journey. ![]() Part of the magic of both of these games is that they always feels expansive, and that you’re very much a part of a world of wonders. This game is not open (it’s deceptively linear and limited), but then, Journey was the same. It’s the moments where you come across a new area, to see expanses of land, water, snow, greenery, and whatever else that Spirit of the North really hits home. ![]() The game is also truly gorgeous, even on Nintendo Switch where things have clearly been cut down substantially to work on the more humble hardware. If nothing else, my knowledge on Nordic storytelling traditions is sadly inadequate and this game reminded me that I probably should remedy that at some stage. There’s not a word of dialogue in Spirit of the North, but it has a strong narrative context, and by going into it with an interpretative and inquisitive mind, it does seem to have real cultural value. In this case, it wants you to reflect on the cultural implications of the Nordic storytelling traditions that it explores. ![]() It wants to be a Journey-like artistic experience, designed to lift your soul and simultaneously give you something to reflect on. Spirit of the North wears its inspiration on its sleeve. People who participate in those vile fox hunts need to be rounded up and made the subject of a hunt themselves… but we’re not here to talk about that. They’re smart, fluffy, and noble animals, like wolves but more petite and less terrifying if you happen to just come across one (yes I know that wolves aren’t actually the dangerous monsters that popular culture likes to depict them as, but they are still much more powerful animals than the shy fox).
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