Reclaim! Azhe-giiwewining

This was honestly a really fun and unique experience. Reclaim! Is a point and click adventure where you play as Miskwaa, a young girl who falls asleep in the woods and wakes up in a different world entirely. While you try to make it back home, you’ll be solving light puzzles and learning about the Ojibwe language and the stories and teachings that sit within the game. It’s an interesting experience - it’s really a language immersion environment while also representing Ojibwe culture in the context of a video game. I never really felt like I was playing an educational game in any sense, and I mean that in a good way! I think sometimes when games are framed as educational media, they can sometimes feel a little stuffy or stilted in their delivery. That was absolutely not the case here! It’s more of a language use game - while I do not speak Ojibwemowin, I started to understand some words and phrases based on use and context clues. It feels more like it’s immersing you in the language and the experiences of Ojibwe culture. Point and click games are some of my favorites - I grew up playing a lot of them (hello Freddi Fish and Guybrush Threepwood), and Reclaim! Feels like it just fits right in. You have very basic movement, and you obviously interact by clicking on objects around you. You have an inventory where you can use, examine, or combine items as necessary to get you through to the next steps in the story. I always like these games because they do not really hold your hand through things - they just kind of take you to the right spot and wait for you to be curious and figure out the solution. I massively enjoyed exploring, talking to various wildlife, speaking with the trees, and asking different spirits lots of questions. Reclaim does an excellent job of providing enough clues and information where you just feel naturally immersed in the story - you just feel like you are part of the world there. I really enjoyed my time with this game, and felt particularly connected to it from a cultural standpoint. It's a really cool, important project, and I think it's an excellent way to deliver this type of educational viewpoint.

I just paid for this and am excited for my children to play, but it keeps glitching on me and is not working. I am not sure how to fix this!

My family (ages 8-45) has really enjoyed playing this game. It is engaging and beautiful. And I am so happy that we now have a game we can play and enjoy fully in Ojibwe, I think it would also be great for language learners and teachers. Miigwech to everyone who worked on Reclaim Azhe-giiwewining. Hope this is the first of many!!!

Right from the beginning, I knew this was going to be a special experience. So much educational value encompassed in a delightfully crafted adventure. I definitely started to recognize some of the Ojibwe words as the story progressed. The characters, voice acting and soundtrack really boost this important game. And I was really glad I was able to share it all with my streaming community. They found it to be very endearing and learned a bit too!

The perfect game to play on a quiet night! The music, the animation, the story, and the cast of characters you meet along the way felt like a storybook you'd read as a kid. I loved the integration of more educational elements with fantastical ones and I felt like a learned a lot about a culture that doesn't get much exposure. I especially enjoyed the voice acting! So amazing to hear the language. I wish there was a little bit more instruction in the beginning as I spent a good amount of time figuring out the mechanics of combining items, accessing my inventory, etc. But, overall a really beautiful story and even though I did a lot of clicking around aimlessly trying to figure out what I needed to do, the beautiful art and music made the journey well worth it!

Aapdji-go nishin attagewin! I love this game, this needs to be standard in every classroom in Anishinaabe communities.

As someone who grew up in a city far away from my family I have been searching for resources like this to experience learner-friendly immersion in the Ojibwe language. For how small the team was and how limited their resources were, this game is an excellent point-and-click adventure experience. I'm glad I picked this game up as soon as I learned it existed and I will be urging friends and family to do so as well. Miigwetch <3

This was delightful. As a white Minnesotan, this game taught me a lot about the people who originally lived here and gave me an even greater appreciation for the work that Ojibwe people are doing to preserve that culture. The story has a lot of heart and humor and I really liked the designs of the spirits. There were parts of the gameplay that could have been more intuitive, but considering the small team and the limited resources they were working with, I think it's pretty impressive. There's so much love clearly woven into this game, and I hope it helps many Ojibwe youth to connect with their culture and non-Ojibwe folks like me to better understand and support their Native neighbors.