![]() While its overbearing narrator robs Season of the wonder and meditation it so clearly aspires to, I still managed to find a little of my own. Even when a bug wiped all my save data several hours in (an issue that has since been resolved, at least) I still painstakingly put together that journal a second time. By the end of the game I was so proud of the book I'd put together, in spite of so much of my exploration being drained of all mystique. I fixated on the layouts, trying to be thorough without just cramming in everything. You get to choose what goes in and where, from pictures and audio samples, to sketches and knick-knacks found along the way. I did relish taking great care of the little journal I was curating. Perhaps that's appropriate for a game about a sheltered, youthful traveller. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it's pretentious, but it is overeager. The kind of game you might make if you wanted to mock the earnest sensibilities of walking simulators. Its melancholy tone is potent but without any respites of joy or warmth, Season starts to feel like a parody of itself. Unlike Sable or Lake, Season is humourless in its dialogue and not very playful in its exploration and the endless chatter really starts to drag things down. A dark cloud hanging over the whole game.Ī lot of dialogue doesn't have to be a problem, but Season is quite one note. I couldn't help but think about the allegations of sexual and verbal harassment regarding former studio creative director Simon Darveau, who remained at Scavengers Studio until January 2023. A world, built by so many people, wasted by one who refuses to get out of its way. Our narrator comments on every object, every sight and sound, as if Season is afraid of what anyone might think if left to come to their own conclusions. ![]() It feels like it wants to take me on a meditative journey, but it never leaves enough room in its story for us to breathe. Season is a bit too ponderous for its own good, reluctant to let me have a thought for myself before the narrator pipes in with theirs. The games that Season pulls from rely on "less is more." Shadow of the Colossus, Journey, and very recent games like Sable and Lake invest in captivating landscapes because they trust them to tell their stories. ![]() With these you will be compiling as much as you can about what you see. To do this you have three main tools: a camera, an audio recorder and the journal. Whether that's through graffiti or religious shrines, you are trying to provide a thorough snapshot of a place and time. Yet you're focused on deciphering the past, capturing cultures gone or fading. The world is littered with remnants of the past and bears the hallmarks of post-apocalyptic fiction, but people continue to live and flourish in this world. Together you create a pendant, infused with memories, to protect you on this journey. The narrator's mother carries it, thanks to a voice performance infused with warmth and encouragement. There's something cosy in this opening as you prepare to set off. This unnamed protagonist has been raised in an isolated mountain village and wants to journey out to capture the world's current "season," an era, before the next one comes along. Season begins with a character at some point in the future opening a journal, the one our narrating protagonist is about to embark with and begin to fill. ![]() The starting promise is a tantalising one. ![]()
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