Night in the Woods elegantly sidesteps these pitfalls with ease. Had the conversations felt forced, rushed or phoney, then all effect is lost on the player. In fact, the best way to summarise all the dialogue in the game is real which again only serves to further the impact of the game’s story, its themes and the characters themselves. Again, all this made all the more believable thanks to the emotional conversations she’d be involved in. Throughout her transition, though the game never made her unidentifiable, her character shift is organically done rather than forced and rushed. Mae at the centre of it all sees her character transform with every passing day making the eventual reveal of her troubled past work so well. Countless times I would pick up on little nuances where I’d recall and be reminded of my early 20s and how I might talk or interact with my friends back then. Take the aforementioned Gregg for example, who on the first appearance just seems like an over-excitable troublemaker but as you spend more time with him soon reveals there’s much more than meets the eye.Įvery conversation or hangout session is so expertly crafted you forget these are talking animals in a video game. Here you’ll discover a cast as complex as they are diverse. Characters aren’t merely one-note either like so many other games. Sure, you’ll likely have favourites, whether it’s the hyperactive Gregg constantly flailing his arms around in excitement (plus one scene that had me laughing so hard involving cups) or the goth-like Bea, but even then you’ll still want to put in the extra effort to talk with everyone. Everyone that you come across has something about them that draws you in and makes you want to take the time to learn more about him or her. Where we as the player are seeing these characters’ experiences with what might be depression, problems with parents, self-doubt, anxiety, or dissociation rather than just plainly focusing on the issues themselves.Ī large part of the reason that Night in the Woods’ story works so well is in how strongly its characters are written. While other games might use this subject as a means to clearly and plainly define its villain or as some sort of gimmicky gameplay mechanic, Night in the Woods does so in a more meaningful way. Readjusting to her hometown life once more, you’ll spend time with friends, your parents, and generally explore the settlement and meet its inhabitants – activities that at first might seem fairly innocent enough but slowly unravel revealing a far deeper and darker tale at its core.Īnd the game does go for some rather delicate topics, mental health, for example, being one of them. Living back with her parents in their attic she quickly reunites with her old high school friends Gregg the fox, his boyfriend Angus the bear and Bea the alligator, a group whom all work but all suffer from the same uncertainty of adulthood. You play as the 20-year-old anthropomorphic cat Mae, a college drop out who has just moved back to her small hometown of Possum Springs. The fact of the matter is Night in the Woods is such a rare experience on any system, let alone the Switch and one that will keep you glued from start to finish. I want to tell my friends and family about each moment spent with its characters or every reveal the game threw my way. Even now several days after having seen its end credits, I constantly find myself thinking back to the emotional rollercoaster of a journey developer Infinite Fall had taken me on. It hit me in a way that video games very rarely do these days.
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