Spirit of the North

I did not spend 17.9 hours of play time with this game. I fell asleep playing it a couple of times. There are worse media to fall asleep to than the gentle piano and melancholic violin caressing the gorgeous Icelandic scenery in this game. I almost want to recommend this game because I did not mind the relaxing nature and purposefully slowed pace of this game. I actually enjoyed the complete absence of exposition, which allowed me to come up with my own interpretation of what Spirit of the North is about: you play a red fox that wants so badly to be a crip, and you spend the game trying to become a crip, by befriending a crip and stamping out the bloods that have corrupted the land with red.

But I can’t recommend this game because it makes bad gameplay choices. The main game is about solving simple but tedious puzzles. The tedium feels almost malicious on the developers part because all of your abilities uses magical blue energy from flowers, but you can only carry one charge, so any forward momentum in this game is lost because you are running to blue flowers after every puzzle. The side quest is about finding sticks and placing them next to a dead shaman. Many of the sticks and many of the shamans are very difficult to find, and I spent large part of the game with a stick in my mouth, unable to find the stupid human to give it to. And to add insult to injury, reuniting a shaman with his stick offers no tangible reward, except for the few times where doing this is necessary to progress the main game. If finding the sticks and finding the shamans led to an upgrade to the fox being able to carry more blue magic charges, than that would kill two bloods with one crip, and this game would be so much more gangsta.

The game is not unequivocally bad. Still, my opinion is inclined to "do not recommend".
The good sides of the game: beautiful, atmospheric, with pleasant music.
Unfortunately, there are more negative moments and they are annoying.

1. The game is very monotonous. You repeat the same actions over and over again. By the middle of the game, I got tired of it and quit playing. The landscapes are also monotonous, although pleasant to look at.

2. There are a lot of places where the fox can seemingly jump, but this is a location "not allowed" by the developers, so even having jumped on a stone, the fox remains blocked on the edge. Before the next stone, you can no longer understand: either this is also an "unintended" place, or you just jump badly. Often there is a feeling that the fox turns in the air specifically to miss the target. This is very annoying. It seems to me that there are very few of these in modern games. Most developers have managed to overcome this shortcoming and leave it in the past. Unfortunately, this game resembles crafts from the past

3. I don't like games where saving is not allowed. Here I assumed that saving happens automatically, but I was unpleasantly surprised when I tried to exit at night to go to bed. The game told me that "all progress in the current chapter will be lost." I was slightly shocked, because the game announces the beginning of a new chapter and this happened almost an hour ago! Of course, I exited anyway. The next day I discovered that although I was not returned to the beginning of the chapter, but returned to some random place back, rolling back 15-20 minutes of the gameplay.
My opinion is that it should be a maximum of 2-3 minutes or "save after every meaningful action". I don't play to go through the same thing every day. Well, and the notification was certainly incorrect.

See for yourself whether it is worth buying. I would watch the second part if it is free of the shortcomings mentioned.

Finish review on my youtube channel Ryu Potter. cool simple

I want to like this game so bad, but it's absolutely unplayable for me. The graphics lag and glitch, the camera zooms and pans randomly and wildly no matter how I set the camera sensitivity, and to top it off, there's no manual saves, so when I inevitably get too frustrated with the game's terrible movement mechanics to continue, I have to start over at the beginning of the last chapter. I've only made it as far as the beginning of Chapter 3 and I can't continue. The spirit fox lighting effect is jarring and distracting, and interferes with the camera angle and movement so that I can't even see to jump, even when the jump mechanic decides to work as expected. I have tried several different Proton compatibility tools, I've tried switching from keyboard to controller and back, I've tried tweaking the settings as much as the game allows you to, and nothing is making this any better. And it's not just my laptop, either, as I can play far more graphically intense games with no problem. I really appreciate, or want to appreciate, the love and time the devs have clearly put into this game, and I think the story looks sweet, but I can't get past how frustrating this game is to try to play. As I said, I can't even get past Chapter 3, and I have played many many far more technically challenging games. It's really bumming me out, so I'm uninstalling. Maybe they'll fix some of these issues in Spirit of the North 2, but IMO, they should have taken the time to make this one a smoother experience.

Quite a nice and cute game altought it wasnt chill for me as I tried to not miss anything and complete game in 100% at first playthough haha :D
I've played on Steam Deck on ultra settings. Game was looking very good and at begging I had quite stable 60fps but the further I went the lower fps I've got. At the last chapters I had drops to 25fps anyway it was enough for me to enjoy the game.
Really fun but also kinda slow platform game. Make yourself a nice coffee or tea and enjoy :)

Is fun to play, but the bodies are hard to find a lot. It's a cute, friendly, and Heartbreaking game.

I faced too many bugs and there game is lame too on top

A lovely game!
I tried playing this before, but got stuck on a puzzle. I tried it again a couple of years later, and had no problems solving any puzzles. I've come to love the puzzle designs.
The game is stunning and has amazing environmental storytelling. The achievements are fairly easy to get, which I like.
There are some details that could be better, for example; movement feels a little bit wonky at times.
It's over all a good experience and I can recommend this game for sure.

The game is STUNNING and the environmental story telling is superb.
The achievements aren't super difficult to get, and the puzzles are easy enough for my smooth brain to work out.

A walking simulator, nothing more. You follow a blue spirit to go for some sightseeing, but there isn't much to see because all sceneries are repetitive.
Graphics was... okay I guess? Not very appealing imo.

One thing I hate the most in this game is water. Whenever the fox gets out from water, it plays a 5 seconds animation of shaking off. Every single time. And this game has so freaking many rivers/ ponds/ hot springs. Not to mention it is a platformer game, i.e. you fall into water either by accident or intentionally to complete a puzzle. This unnecessarily slow down the already tedious gameplay.

Occasionally the game gives you debuff so you cannot run but can only walk very slowly. Super frustrating.

The game was very well put together. I enjoyed playing it.

This game started out fun and cute and all around endearing. Sadly, it did not stay that way.

I played with a controller. There is a lot of controller rumble. That would be perfectly fine, if there was an option to disable rumble. There isn't. Or, if there is, I could not find it for the life of me. Yes, I can and did disable it through Steam Input, thank god, but there should really be an in-game option for it.

The fox is very cute. It's not the highest production quality, duh, lets be realistic with standards here. But it's cute, the game is pretty, it all looks good to me. However, animations are ... something. They're not bad looking but do often times feel off compared to the input you are giving and with what timing you are giving it. Overall I found the jump and running aspects to be uncomfortable more often than not, due to this animation disconnect. Which is a major issue, seeing as a large part of the game is running and jumping.

There is a lot of unskippable mini cutscenes. You interact with something, in reaction the environment changes, pan to the change and watch it happen. That's fine. Once, maybe even every time, if it were skippable. But I am trying to figure out a puzzle here. I don't know how it works yet, so I will be interacting with the same thing repeatedly. And you're making me watch the same mini cutscene every time. That gets irritating fast.
In a similar vein, there's the frequently mentioned water shake off animation. Yes, its cute, its realistic. But please for the love of god, let me walk during it.

The camera bobs with uneven terrain. That wasn't a major pain point but I did notice it being unpleasant in certain areas.

There's staves lying around along the way, which you can bring back to their owners. In the beginning, this seemed optional. An achievement related side quest, so to say. So, as I'd already overlooked some early on, I decided not to worry about them on my first run. Imagine my surprise when later in the game, some of these turned out to not be so optional. Suddenly I needed to bring back certain staves in order to open up a path forward. Ofc I only noticed that after spending a good amount of time combing the area for the established 'open up' mechanics....

Guidance is weird. The maps are rather vast, much larger than the area you actually need to interact with. This is very pleasing visually. You have a spirit to guide you, technically. But it spends a lot of time just next to you, rather than guiding. There seemed to be a system of 'if player doesn't do things within x time, spirit tries to show it'. But it felt inconsistent and frustrating for me at times. If I missed a clue or a passage I was meant to go down, I spent a lot of time running in circles with no clue where to go. Ofc, 'a lot' is relative. I only spent 3 hours to finish this game. It certainly felt like more than that, not in a good way.

Which brings me to one of my biggest dislikes with the game: saving. It is parted into chapters, which vary greatly in length. There is little saving messages happening throughout, yet, if you quit the game, you do end up back at the start of the current chapter, no matter where the last saving message was. I don't understand why, but it tells you this before you quit, so that's something.
However, when entering a new chapter, you get an onscreen text saying 'chapter xy'. Me, thinking, okay, this is the next chapter, I stop now and restart here next time' quit the game. Once and never again, because it turns out after the 'new chapter' screen, you have to move forward some, watch for the little saving message (which usually doesn't give you progress when quitting the game) and only then are you registered as in the new chapter.

AKA: Struggle to finish lengthy chapter 5, hit chapter 6 screen, quit, surprise, on next boot you are back at the start of chapter 5. Not fun.

This issue is made worse by the aforementioned unequal chapter lengths. The first and last chapters are comparatively short, while the middle ones are lengthy while for me personally also being the hardest to finish. This caused great frustration and a strong desire to either just quit the game or 'be done with it' soon. It would have been much more enjoyable, had I been able to quit midway when frustrated or stuck on something, calm down and come back to it.

The ending was fun and cute. This is the second or third time I can remember having fun while credits roll. But make up for the issues throughout, it does not. It seems like a beloved passion project, so I don't like giving it a negative review. But I spent the majority of the game frustrated by various issues, so I cannot say it was an enjoyable experience for me, overall. There were certainly nice moments, but they are overshadowed.

A lovely, cozy game with beautiful music, stunning artwork and the cutest foxes <3 Perfect for a relaxing adventure.

Beautiful artwork, lovely game. It was just the right amount of challenging. Any time I got a little confused, the game had some element to it that helped clue me in.. Music was absolutely gorgeous, so mush so, that I'd find myself pausing just to listen. Looking forward to the second one!

So when you see "Puzzle Game" and play to find no direction and get pissed, that's your fault. Whats the fun of a puzzle game with directions lol. Honestly this game is great and has inspired me to learn unreal a little and make my own masterpiece for myself. I would really love to see some updates in the future if you plan on that. Overhauls would be great like you mentioned in the beta and also a graphics toggle for Classic graphics and Modern graphics. I'm a game dev myself for unity and I make VR story games so being able to play games like this is a blessing being able to see others ideas and creativity.

I personally cant wait for SOTN2. When it releases I will 1000% buy and play. Also I hope you don't have a problem with me live streaming it, because I wanted to do the same for the first one and didn't because i got to exited to play. Anyways, good day to anyone who read this and happy developing to the devs.

best couples ever

Beautiful landscapes and silly little fox 10/10

Basically walking around a large very similar landscape with no direction, goal or map. Blowing fots is more fun. All set.

เป็นเกมพักใจ ที่เล่นแล้วไม่ต้องเข้าใจทุกอย่างก็ได้ ปล่อยให้เสียงเพลงกับ บรรยากาศพาเราไปสู่ความผ่อนคลาย

A surprisingly cute game where a fox gets to become a spirit.

Good quality

cute
relaxing
peaceful
nice ost

cons?
sometimes puzzles feel a bit hard to solve

It is a nice game for all of you who like simple puzzle and peaceful games.

Should be great, unfortunately isn't. No instructions, not even a vague guide to help if you get stuck. Poor controls, can't turn off the controller vibration in settings. Anytime anything happens it vibrates, super annoying. Gameplay is way too slow, esp swimming, which you do loads cos you're forever falling off things. I wanted to like this, it has nice images and nice music and the whole idea of 'slow' gaming is appealing. But this is just too much. Also you can't save it, there are only check points, so if you get stuck or have to quit before you finish the level you have to restart that whole section.

This game was a secret gem. I got it when it was 90% off. First of all, this game is short, don't expect it to take you more than 7 or 8 hours. For me it was perfect to fill two streams.

This game has one of the more unique forms of storytelling. The game does not have out-of-game cutscenes. This game does not have voice acting, it does not have dialogue, it doesn't even have writing. The whole story is portrayed visually. The soundtrack of this game was phenomenal and complimented the game and mood so well. The platforming was fun, and the tools you were given were good, although the puzzles were a little too easy, but I didn't get stuck for longer than 10 minutes at a time, so maybe not being frustrating is better.

I got Kena: Bridge of Spirits vibes from it too, which was a game I loved too.

Ultimately, the comment I used to describe this game during stream was that this is an example of how games can be described as art. This left me with such a strong feeling at the end of the game.

In all means, this is a great game. Very beautiful surroundings, fantastic visuals, and a pretty nice story.

But the only downside of this game is the lack of direction. I have gotten stuck on so many tedious puzzles and platforming to the point where I just had to close the game. (Also could just be me being stupid :p)

In a sense, I do recommend it if you're looking for a relaxing game to play, but if you aren't ready for tedious platforming and puzzles. Then this game isn't for you.

But in my opinion, solid game. Hope the sequel will fix a lot of the bugs and quirks the first installment had.

Final rating: 7/10

Chill vibes somewhat spoiled by tedious gameplay/puzzles. I started experimenting to find the best button to press for canceling out the water shake-off animation because it was driving me to madness.

If you like Foxes, adventure and relaxing game play, then this game is for you, it has amazing graphics and scenery, It also has some very cool small details such as the Fox having wet fur and shaking it off.
The game does have puzzles to solve though out the chapters and they can be a bit confusing at first like what ability should you use for them, the Fox abilities are also very cool.
There are some bugs though out the game which is a shame.
The only issue I have with the game is finding all sharmans and staffs, it takes a lot of work finding them all and if you missed any, you have to reply chapters again.
Overall good game.

This game is fine. It has some really beautiful imagery. I love its concept. I enjoy the music and the peacefulness.

It's just that the controls are very clunky, and some of the little skeletons and their staffs are nearly impossible to see because they blend into the surrounding area visually.

I do like that we can go back to specific chapters if we miss releasing some spirits, but because some of the controls are so clunky, it just doesn't feel worth it. The little guide spirit is somewhat helpful but not by much.

Overall, I don't recommend this game, but I also don't think it's horrible. It's just okay. If they could fix the clunky controls, I might be more inclined to play the whole thing, but I gave up after a few hours because it just wasn't my cup of tea.

It's a cozy game that I would recommend. However, make sure that you have plenty of time ahead to play freely as there are not a lot of check points.
Personally, even if I made sure to start a new chapter before stopping, I had do again some things I already did on the previous chapter.
So I would say that's a point to improve: to have a bit more check points.

it's wonderful with irresistible peaceful and healing from my deep down inside

Gorgeous scenery and soundtrack, easy to understand gameplay.

The fox handles like a shopping cart sometimes. The platforming can be frustrating and the level design a little unintuitive for the player. There is a checkpoint saving system but you cannot save manually (left the game running while I went to do other things so I wouldn't lose the progress). Most of the time this would make me stop playing but the music, the visuals, the fox's movement and animations, and the wordless minimalist story-telling that leaves room for some speculation while giving you an idea of what has happened to the fox's world makes this game extremely emotionally affecting.

The controls (especially on PC) made me so frustrated at level 3 that I thought I was going to give up but I was determined to complete the game and I'm so glad I did. If this had a bit better structure to the levels, a way to ask your wisp friend for some direction, a little bit better refinement on the fox's movement (furry friend got wedged into a window on a level once or twice forcing me to restart the whole thing) and a better save system, I think it could be amazing.

As it is, it's still a pretty good game.

Also, I like little foxes soooo. Yeah, tentatively recommending this one. If you get frustrated, check the video walkthrough.

Spirit of the North is one of my comfort games. The game world is simply breathtaking, and the music composition complements it well. The game isn't exactly difficult or challenging. Instead, it appeals to the player by simply allowing them to exist in the world and appreciate its innate beauty. In our modern world, it's rare that we get to have an experience that isn't trying to make us feel depressed, angry, or outraged. Everything on the internet is trying to make us upset or sell us something, because that's what makes the most money and feeds the algorithm. Spirit of the North is so refreshing because it won't do that. Playing it is genuinely relaxing. It's a perfect cozy game for when you want to chill out and escape from the stress of the outside world. There are no combatants to fight, just a few puzzle mechanics for you to solve as you explore a serene Icelandic landscape.

I had high expectations for a different kind of game..
But as it turns out, I don't play the game.
There's no exaplanation whatsoever. The puzzles become more far fetched as you go along ending in a level with me running around in endless circles trying to figure out what I have overlooked.
Pity, because the scenery is very inviting.

I really wanted to like this because cute fox, but the poor level design unfortunately drags it down. At one point I had to clip up a ledge because the intended way was not clear.

Such a lovely immersive and story rich game, and all without saying a single word!
Wonderful experience.

Excellent puzzle game that does not let the fact that there is no dialogue stop it from telling an amazing story.

This is amazing! I know some people say it's boring, but personally, I love free-roam puzzle games. The visuals in this are beautiful, the sound effects and music are well-done, and the story is interesting. I'm especially surprised it can run even half decently on my very low-end computer. My only issue is that sometimes there are tiny creases in the ground and walls that kind of make you leap in the wrong direction or you're just stuck there for a bit. The environment does need a bit of tweaking, but to me, it's not that big of a deal. Amazing game, overall! Highly recommended!

You play as a fox in the far north. As such, there is no speaking other than yips and barks. Through pictograms, ambiance and atmospheric music, it tells a touching, and very moving story. For best results, play while alone, undisturbed, and just let your emotions flow along with the story and the beautiful music. All in all a highly enjoyable experience.

Beautiful. Great story and moving ending.

Sadly, a real let-down. I wanted to love it, because the visuals are quite pretty and the music is well done. But the actual gameplay often felt like a slog, where the platforming and movement was fighting me even during what should have been the most immersive parts of the environment.

Collecting shamans is both the most fun and most tedious part of the game, as it involves having to try and guess at which areas of the map the developer meant for you to be able to reach. Some were found out of sheer force of will at trying to jump to certain areas over and over. In this process I occasionally glitched out of the level, or broke the game so that certain animations or puzzles stopped working.

I can't recommend this one. You'd have a much better time playing Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, or Bramble: The Mountain King if you're looking for atmospheric nordic storytelling.

This is certainly a stunning game. However, it makes you feel dumb sometimes... or maybe it's just me. Chapter 4 made me feel like I didn't have a brain to use. My last braincells gave up on me midway and I found myself walking in circles.
This game is mostly walking. I don't know if it's considered relaxing, I certainly didn't find it like that. Finding the shamans turned out to be quite the chaos. Maybe those who enjoyed Hellblade might enjoy this one too.

Great game, shame i never got to play it sooner. Looking forward to sequel.

I really wanted to enjoy this game, and I did at first. The concept felt really fun and cozy, despite the immediately clear lack of quality to the game. The atmosphere of the game is truly magical, and I felt fully immersed from the start. The music and sound design are beautiful, only sometimes a little bit odd. The first thing that actually made me irritated was the animation of the fox shaking itself off after getting wet. It was adorable at first (And frankly, still is), but goddamn did it get old real quick when the water-centered levels began.

Traversing through this game feels very confusing and overwhelming. There's so much open space that invites you to explore and find different content. Only to then get disappointed that there was in fact nothing there, despite something looking like the entrance to a cave or a secret room. The borders of the map are incredibly unclear. I often found myself trying to use spots of my surroundings that looked like intented platforms but I quickly learned weren't.

The puzzles were quite fun at first, and transitioned smoothly with the journey. But after a while, they started getting really confusing because of the weird design of the surroundings. The final nail in the coffin was when I got to this one place where I had to somehow reach the spot for a puzzle to unlock the path to reach the puzzle in question. Was that sentence confusing? Not more confusing than that design at least, I'll tell ya.

When I first started writing this review I thought of how I wished there was a neutral option but the more I thought about it, it's definitely just negative for me. Do give this game a go if you love the feel of running freely as a cute fox and are patient enough to find what the game wants you to do.

Charming game, excellent example of teaching the player without the player noticing. Atmospheric as hell. Environmental storytelling at its finest

After playing though the whole game I can confidently say that this is very cute and I love the story even though at times it pulled at my heartstrings. The ending is well worth it.

Yet another game that proves that combat is not necessary to make a game good.

Such a beautiful game. Low stress puzzles, no health bar, calming music, stunning scenery. I play it when I need to decompress. 10/10

Could figure out how to run although it says shift is run. I dont mind low budget games, but those games either know how to hide it or have some other great redeeming quality. A no for me.

I've autism i like play games calm and loose, idk but i never dont liked games agitated.

This is very interessing game you not will be stressed and frustrated! Recommend.
Don't have dialogue but that's okay no problem and is based in folklore of countries nordic: norway, iceland and others.

No offense, I dont like the game
It is unclear what is the game about, what is the game objective ? where is this fox go to ? after I finished it, I still dont know wtf is the game about.
tbh, I praise how you dev team created great open world. its pretty good graphic and scenery. the puzzles are decent
the map is so wide and huge, there arent many things on the map. wandering around its wasting so much time for nothing. it caused the game boring

Just played this game after picking it up on sale and...just wow. WHAT A STUNNING GAME! Very chill and relaxing game with a mix of puzzle and platform elements, set in one of of the most visually stunning settings I have seen in a while. Manged to get 100% in just under 5 hours, and I wish there was more and more and more! Truly beautiful!