Minute of Islands is a phenomenal and emotional game that starts as what you think is a simple "you save the world" type of plot. I had played through the demo thinking this was a simple puzzle game with designs that remind me of the show "Scavenger's Reign" with some world-building added in. However, you quickly learn there is more to this story than meets the eye, building into an emotionally turbulent game that builds on the idea that no one should ever have to burden everything alone.
You play as Mo, a girl given a unique tool used to rebuilt and repair a biomechanical world her family has lived in for decades and the Giants that power it. Using the Omni Switch, you visit to different islands to try and fix the machines holding back the Spores, fungi that are taking over everything as you know it. The further into the game you go, the more you learn about her family, history of the place she calls home, and about Mo. What seems normal on the surface does not always mean there isn't more going on, and the story reflects the inner turmoil plaguing Mo about her duty and her relationship with her family.
The story itself becomes more significant as you continue to each new location, and you really get a feeling for how events can sway people in a particular direction. For the sake of her duty to the Giants, Mo has isolated herself, and with the isolation, her relationship with her family becomes more and more strained. The burden of her duty causes her to put too much on her shoulders in the name of protecting said family, and this game demonstrates beautifully how things can be misinterpreted, strained, and can lead to unimaginable despair. While the game itself is fantastical, the emotions and motives it introduces are much more common to experience, and the devs did a fantastic job with visualizing it.
The game itself is pretty easy to learn, giving you commands when you need to use the Omni Switch and showing you what can be interacted with or where to go next. Much of the gameplay is story-driven with puzzle and explorative elements added in for extra background. Most of the puzzles are a decent difficulty, neither too easy they aren't worth completing or too difficult it gets frustrating. You also start off by exploring the largest island, then move to the smallest one which matches the tone of the story and its urgency. The game is also both mouse/keyboard and controller compatible, so there are options to play it based on preferences.
The music is gorgeous to listen to, giving the right amount of atmospheric and emotional tones. Every island had a different theme to it, and the episodes brought on by the spores also felt trippy without being overwhelming. I also noticed that the music being played while underneath each island with the Giants sounded more ominous, which played a huge part in displaying how the isolation and mental turmoil was getting to Mo. In contrast, the music played on the surface was lighter and more nostalgic with the occasional sadder tune, especially when going through the memories of past experiences. The balance the music did a fantastic job in giving more insight into Mo's emotional state.
The art style of this game, as I mentioned previously, made me think of the show "Scavenger's Reign", with all its fantastical creatures and the vibrantly diverse environment. Despite the struggle everyone on the surface is facing, much of the environment still is vibrant with some sort of life and use of color. In contrast, the underground where the Giants stay feels much more dull and ominous, using only a combination of greys, reds, and purples. These were obviously choices made by the devs to aid the player in figuring out part of Mo's inner turmoil and life choices. I am very thoroughly impressed by how much time, thought, and effort went into creating each of these scenes.
Now, the achievements are a wonderful mix of easy to get (unmissable story events) and collectibles (memories or interactable objects). I personally would rate most of these achievements as easy, though they just take longer to get because they span multiple locations. I personally am a huge fan of the memories collected both on the islands (Remembering XYZ location) and underneath the surface (Compartmentalized). The memories gathered for these achievements greatly improve the player's understanding of Mo's emotions [spoiler]and in the case of the Compartmentalized achievement, really goes to show how negatively being isolated is is on her mental health and how much she's truly shouldering for the sake of keeping her family safe[/spoiler]. All achievements can be feasibly gotten within 2 play throughs.
Overall, this game was phenomenal. There was so much more depth to it than I had initially expected, and every moment of playing this was worth it. While there really isn't any replayability to this since there is no deviation from the story, it really helps in understanding that there's nothing you have to do by yourself and is definitely worth playing at least once. This game has definitely made it to my favorite's list.
