Kinsfolk

This should be an informational review. It doesn't seem like a bad game at all, but it's NOT a pure walking sim. Don't give me something tagged as "walking sim" and "relaxing" and then I'm supposed to do a platforming challenge to the voice of a toxic father. I've had to say it many times before and I'll say it again: People used to platforming have NO idea what's "casual" and "very easy" for those who struggle with dexterity and controls. Not that I had much patience with an unpleasant surprise like that, but I gave up. Another heads-up is that as far as I experienced it, a lot of the story revolved around a topic that I didn't see mentioned and wouldn't call "casual" or "relaxing" either: [spoiler]recent loss of a spouse[/spoiler]. I honestly don't get why you wouldn't mention grief as a theme, as there are both people who want to avoid it and those who'd be more interested. EDIT: Oh, and you find a [spoiler]non-gory dead deer[/spoiler], and there's a memory scene where [spoiler]the narrator talks about a hunting trip while you walk, and then it's implied your perspective was the animal's[/spoiler]. I'm sure it's an enjoyable and meaningful game for the right audience, but I think these things should be made clearer. * * * If you like chill and story-driven games, check out my curator [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35872486]Peaceful Adventures and Stories[/url]. You're also welcome to join the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/chilladventures]group[/url].

As a first time dad to a baby, life is super fast paced everyday. This game not only resonated well with me, but to be able to take a breather for an hour and relax to this was very pleasant. Highly recommended to play this over a hot freshly brewed cup of coffee.

A full, uncut version of this review is on the [url=https://otomelovers.com/2026/02/28/kinsfolk-review-by-celtic7guardian/]Otome Lovers website.[/url] [h3]Introduction[/h3] One of the most difficult genres to get right is walking simulators. Despite my distaste for the term (we really need a better name for this genre), it brings certain expectations to mind. Limited gameplay, great environments, and a focus on plot/characterization are what I expect. Kinsfolk, the debut game of developer Vinko Kodzoman, is able to capture some of these strengths. Its high points made it worth playing for me, but not to the extent others might enjoy it. I'll do my best to explain why this was a good game to me, and why it might be a great one for others. [h3]Story[/h3] Kinsfolk follows the journey of a nameless husband whose nameless wife has recently died. Thankfully he has his nameless baby to keep him motivated, and he decides to go somewhere important while thinking over past events that haunt him to this day. Cue introspection leading to acceptance of grief and seeing the beauty of life through the shrouds of death. A box of tissues is optional. Okay, I'll be serious. That basically does summarize the story, but we're not here for the plot. The focus is on the father. This leads to an interesting factor. Since the player character is nameless, it gives the impression that the players are intended to put themselves in his shoes. That's what would lead to the greatest emotional impact. It's hard to cram a bunch of character development into a game that's about an hour long. It can be done, though I feel it wasn't quite enough here. I never felt all that invested in him or his baby. I wanted them to have a happy ending, sure, but not much beyond that. With that said, this is much more of a personal factor. I've lost some important people in my life, yet none like the father has. I could sympathize, and to an extent empathize. Full empathy was impossible due to me not having experienced this specific type of grief. Partial empathy means that I need more introspection with the character in question, and the father didn't do that for me. If someone playing this has lost a spouse, is a single parent, or has gone through similar loss to the father, a lot of the feelings portrayed here are not going to need anything else. It feels strange saying all this because I cry pretty easily, just not so much for this game. The ending did get me a bit teary though. [h3]Graphics[/h3] One of my favorite parts about Kinsfolk was its graphics. The landscapes are gorgeous. Each area of the game has lovely colors that really distinguish the different locations. I was especially fond of the golden fields in the second act, though the third act with its bright purple flowers wasn't far behind. I found myself hitting the screen capture button a lot through my playthrough, and it was tough deciding which to use for the website version of this review. If you're a player who primarily enjoys walking simulators for their visuals, this is definitely a game I'd recommend for you. The father's model is mostly good. He doesn't look overly realistic, which in my eyes is a plus. I like his design as a common-looking man with practical clothing. What I did find goofy was that you can't see the baby he's carrying. The sash he has over his body is supposed to have the baby inside it. However, it looks like said sash is flat against his body. I'm sure it would be much harder to model the baby being in there, so I get why this wasn't done, but it did take away a bit from the experience. [h3]Sound[/h3] The voice acting was well done. With the protagonist being a man grieving over his wife, it's unsurprising that a lot of his dialogue is heavy and filled with anguish. When talking to his baby, his voice is calm and reassuring. Upon viewing beautiful sights and reaching personal revelations, his voice actor captures the wonder perfectly. It did feel like the dialogue had a lot of pauses at times, though that could be chalked up to thoughtfulness on the father's part. The emotions in this story make it a difficult role to get right, so hats off to the voice actor for doing a good job. Unfortunately, the subtitles took me out of it to an extent. There were a lot of grammatical typos that I kept noticing. I didn't see any spelling mistakes, but the punctuation was particularly distracting. While it'd be preferable to see these fixed in the future, in the meantime, I recommend that players turn off the subtitles if they're likely to be bothered by those issues. None of the music stood out to me. It was atmospheric and pleasant, so it did its job, but that's all there is to say about it. What did bother me was that certain sounds seemed to loop unnecessarily. One that I think was intentional was the baby crying. In most of the areas, the baby only cries a few times, and you can interact with him to quiet him down. Those are fine. The issue was in the mountain area. Since the baby is in a bad state, he is crying on loop the whole time. Fortunately this crying is much lower in tone than when the father has to comfort him (and he does have to during this climb as well), but it still annoyed the heck out of me. Is it realistic for the infant to cry this entire time in these circumstances? Yes, I'd say it makes sense in context. Is it also off-putting? Absolutely, especially when it's the same looped cry every time. The other looped sound I ran into was most likely unintentional. During the memory where you have to capture chickens, I ran by a chicken to check out the house on top of the hill. The chicken noises continued to play despite me running way past them, and they persisted until the memory ended. That definitely killed the mood for me. Thankfully it wasn't a bunch of clucking, but it was a sort of scratchy running noise that was irritating at best. Hopefully that was just a bug I happened to run into; I can't imagine why it would be programmed that way on purpose. [h3]Gameplay[/h3] I did not go into Kinsfolk expecting much for gameplay. That's just how I approach walking simulators. I play this genre for storytelling and characterization, preferably with a good dose of using the environment for it. If one has solid gameplay that goes beyond walking around, then hey, it's a nice bonus. Kinsfolk did not deviate much from this, but where it did led to one of my most disliked aspects of it. Something I liked is that the protagonist runs by default. If a story beat occurs or he is comforting the baby, then the father will slow to a walk until the scripted section is done. There are some walking simulators that force you to always walk for 'atmosphere' or aligning cutscenes to play out properly. I hate this because it curbs the urge to explore. Kinsfolk makes it possible to explore efficiently while still keeping a good pace for its story sections. The part that I disliked was the platforming. There's a section where you climb a mountain. The game doesn't have good platforming due to its ledge grabbing aspect. I was playing with keyboard and mouse, so this might be better on controller, but for me it was an absolute pain to get the father to grab onto surfaces. [h3]Conclusion[/h3] Kinsfolk is a beautiful journey with some minor frustrations. While I did not fully empathize with its protagonist, many players would, and I still was engaged enough to want him to find a happy ending. The game's moments of brilliance are enough for me to be glad that I played it, though its short run time makes it a questionable purchase at $4.99 USD. - Otome Lovers wishes to thank [i]Vinko Kodzoman[/i] for providing a free review copy for this game. [quote]Please follow our curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/4680120/]Otome Lovers[/url], if you'd like to see more reviews like this one![/quote]

Without spoiling anything, I'll just say it's a fine short-story game (finished in 45mins). There are games you could get for $5 that give you hundreds of hours of playtime, like Brotato, Binding of Isaac, Vampire Survivors, etc. but this game can give you something that those games can't. I won't say that it can give you a 'life lesson' or anything meaningful like that, because it didn't do anything like that for me, but what it did do, is illicit a bit of emotion, and offer a moment of self reflection. I played through the entire game, and summarize my opinion at 1:25:16 without spoilers (obviously the parts/gameplay before that timestamp does contain spoilers): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOuakSeayyY

[h3]A short and Heartfelt story[/h3] Made with love, this is an interesting graphical or interactive telling of the relationship of a man with his father, with himself and with his son. It represents, well it represents the way a man must find his future in his past. All of which is especially hard to do when the pillar you lean on, has gone. [h3]Cute[/h3] It's a very simple game. You must walk, jump from stone to stepping stone, and always, and here is a hint, keep an eye on the skyline for clues as to which way to go. As you go, you will stop for a bit of cutscene or narration at times. You can explore as you see fit, but it's a simple game, and you cannot go too far. There is only ever one goal at a time. The interactions with the environment are very simple, gathering, fixing, hunting, and most of all caring for your tiny family. There is no run key, this is a walking simulator. I think the stand out thing in this game is not brilliant sound effects, not brilliant graphics or even plotline. These are all good enough to get the job done. Made carefully. The thing that stands out is that it was built by a tiny team, and although rough, everything works and is immersive. A fun game to get through before breakfast. If you loved Kinsfolk, you might like a few of the cosier games I have curated here : https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41773079-EmpathyGames/list/90678

works well on steam deck

This was a lovely relaxing game with a beautiful look, great music and great voice acting. There's very simple platforming and simple fetch quests, but those are really just there to give you something to get to the next story beat, its really about the story of coming to terms with heartache.

Kinsfolk is an emotional, atmospheric journey that invites you to slow down and reflect as you travel through several varied scenes. It is refreshing to play a game that tells a clear story without having to put 100's of hours in. Though simple, the graphics create a clear atmosphere, and the voice acting portrays some real emotion. I recommend you take a short, relaxing time out of your day to experience this story.

A small walking sim game with a lot of heart. Can finish the entire game in an hour. The game isn't trying to introduce anything new here in terms of gameplay but it does have a lot of emotions, and I believe it does convey those emotions pretty well thanks to some really nice voice lines & voice acting. I'm not a father or even married, but I'm at that point in life where I often think about certain interactions from when I was kid, especially with my parents. And some of them are ones you have to make peace with when you realize 'It is their first time here too'. And its probably because of that reason, Kinsfolk did hit me. Recommended. (And I think it might hit you more if you are a new dad)

Kinfolk ist ein sehr kurzer Walking Simulator, den man in weniger als einer Stunde durchgespielt hat. Und während andere Beispiele zeigen, dass das für eine tiefe und tolle Spielerfahrung völlig ausreichen kann, bleibt Kinfolk über weite Strecken sehr durchschnittlich. Das Spiel beginnt mit einer emotionalen Geschichte rund um einen Mann, der seine Frau verloren hat und sich mit dem Baby auf den Weg zu seinem Vater macht. Trotz dieser Ausgangslage bleibt die Story irgendwie flach. Nicht im katastrophalen Sinne, aber sie ist auch nicht annähernd so berührend, wie sie sein wollte. Insgesamt bekommt die Story das Urteil okay. Das Gameplay besteht grösstenteils aus Laufen, mit ein paar wenigen simplen Plattforming-Passagen und einem sehr einfachen Rätsel. Auch hier lautet das Fazit: Okay für so ein Spiel, aber nicht mehr. Noch gemischter ist mein Gefühl bei der Grafik. Die ist sehr bieder und immer wieder stören z. B. aufploppende Bäume die Atmosphäre. Man merkt, dass hier die Entwicklung an ihre Grenzen gestossen ist und man das Beste daraus gemacht hat. Aber wirklich hübsch würde ich das Spiel nicht nennen. Insgesamt gilt darum auch hier: Ist okay. Gemischt fällt auch das Fazit beim Sound aus. Der Sprecher ist top und holt viel heraus. Dagegen ist das ständig gleiche Babygeschrei eher irritierend und der Sound insgesamt einfach durchschnittlich. Dass manches einfach abgehackt statt sauber ausgeblendet wird, passt zum unrunden Gesamteindruck. Um das klarzustellen: Es scheint das erste Spiel vom Entwickler zu sein und dafür ist es durchaus eben genau das: okay. Das hier ist kein billiger Assetflip und keine Katastrophe, sondern solide Arbeit. Aber es ist eben auch nicht wirklich besonders. Fazit: Kein Spiel, das man gespielt haben muss, aber eine okay Geschichte, die okay unterhält, und deren grösste Stärken der tolle Sprecher und die perfekte Spiellänge für ein Spiel in dieser Form sind. Für Fans von sentimentalen Walking-Simulatoren ist es durchaus einen Blick wert. Insgesamt gilt das Fazit: okay und darum trotz allem einen Daumen hoch.