Spirit of the North

Spirit of the North is a visually beautiful and atmospheric puzzle-adventure that perfectly captures that chill, GRIS-like vibe. It's easy to pick up, relaxing to play, and offers a straightforward 100% completion that won't overstay its welcome. That said, the experience isn't flawless. The soundtrack leans on a handful of repeated themes, and the jumping controls can feel frustratingly clunky. Hunting down the "Kindred Spirits" achievement was more annoying than rewarding. In short: a beautiful, meditative journey held back by awkward platforming and repetitive music, but still well worth it for fans of atmospheric indie gems.

The game is very beautiful and atmospheric. The music is chill. There are puzzles, collectibles, and progression based skill unlocks. You get to run around as a cute fox. But... the direction of the story is very open and leaves a lot to be desired at certain points in the game - namely, sometimes it isn't intuitive how to progress. Not that the puzzles are hard, but the game doesn't give a good idea of what you're trying to accomplish. Some areas are more open than others and traversing across them to find nothing is tiresome. The kindred spirits achievement is redundant and a chore. There are multiple places with bugged texture that you can get trapped on with no way to get unstuck other than restarting at the last checkpoint. I even found one puzzle where you can remove flowers out of order and the water level rises so you lock yourself out of the last one (have to restart). Overall, it's a quick, chill puzzle game if you can catch it on sale, but the kinks make it very hard to recommend at full price.

Игра очень красивая и расслабляющая, но иногда просто не понимаешь что нужно сделать, поэтому залезаешь за подсказками в интернет)

выглядела интереснее чем оказалась на самом деле. Мне она показалась довольно скучноватой, просто бегаешь, прыгаешь и проходишь небольшие головоломки. В целом игра то нормальная как бы, посидеть почилить в ней можно, просто ожидания были слишком завышены

I did enjoy this game... But it was very very frustrating. There were many times where I had no idea what I was supposed to do or where to go because the game does not lead you in a way that makes it clear. Some parts are almost too much open area with very little sense of direction (Especially at the end, like Chapter 7 or 8) I wouldn't recommend it unless you are okay with that. I'm very disappointed that I expected this to be a 3-4hr gameplay based on review times, but it took me 6 hours. I did sit around and screenshot some cool things here and there and enjoy the nature. But there was at least two moments where I was spinning in circles for 30 minutes with no clear idea where to go next. Everyone is complaining about the fox sounding like a dog barking, I'm pretty sure it is a fox bark btw, but yes foxes do make many more sounds. I think they could have spent a little bit of their budget on expanding their bark sounds. But this didn't stop me from spam barking to save my sanity at the lack of direction. I will admit I had more fun spam barking the whole time than I did with the majority of the game play. Think of it like clicking a pen, it's fun when you are doing it, not so much hearing someone else do it. Also there was a point when I was messing around and got crushed by a boulder which put me in the spirit world, but when I returned to my body I fell through the map.. and kept falling... and falling. And there was no way to recover the save without restarting from the beginning of the chapter. No 'unstuck' feature or command to use. I did try and replicate this (probably spent like 30 minutes doing this) and I was unable to. But I did get a different funny glitch of me getting stuck inside the boulder! To which I also had to restart the save to fix. Also, I got the "Fox? Or Flying Squirrel?" by falling through the map - which was kind of funny but I wonder how it was meant to be achieved. I'll probably update this review later to make it more cohesive. But the game lacks direction. And I was unable to enjoy the story because I had no idea what was going on. Also why doesn't the lil whisp fox spirit give any sort of direction when needed? Sometimes she'll help you find a Shaman or Staff or guide the way to one end. But if you lose sight of her or don't pay attention you're outta luck because she won't do it again. Also the game doesn't make it clear when you enter a zone that you cannot return to the previous location. There were two times I had the Shaman Staff with me, and ended up bringing it with me to a whole new chapter because I was exploring and didn't realize I could no longer return to the previous location to give the Shaman his Staff. I also once set a staff down because you can't 'bark' to get the spirit essence from the flowers or whatever if you have a staff in your mouth, and I left it there while trying to unlock the next part where the Shaman was, and when I unlocked the Shaman location, I went back to the staff, but there was no way to get back to that Shaman. So I had to proceed with the storyline. I think I only got like half of the Shaman the first playthrough, especially because I didn't realize it was progressive and linear in a way that made it impossible to return to the previous section/chapter without completely restarting the game.

I got this expecting a cozy, peaceful walking sim where I get to be a cute little red fox trotting around the Icelandic tundra, and for the first hour, it’s absolute magic. The environments look gorgeous, the orchestral piano soundtrack will make you ascend into another dimension, and there is zero dialogue or HUD—just you, a glowing spirit companion, and sweeping snowy mountain vistas. Reconnecting lost shaman skeletons with their wooden staffs to put their souls to rest actually felt surprisingly serene. Then the platforming sections start, and you realize this fox handles like a wet shopping cart on ice. You’ll spend twenty minutes trying to make a simple jump across a river, fall into two feet of water, and watch your fox swim at the speed of a dying turtle. Once you finally crawl back onto dry land, you're locked into a 5-second "shaking the water off fur" animation that you cannot skip. Do that 40 times in a row while trying to solve a puzzle that involves barking at magical blue flowers to power up runestones, and your peaceful zen energy rapidly turns into pure rage. Also, because there are no map markers or directions, you will spend half your playtime aimlessly running across massive, empty meadows praying that you’re heading toward the right glowing rock.

This game tells a good story without using single word. There is no talking , there is no narrator, there is no texts… And yet it tells a good story . My only complaint is that this fox barks like a dog… Its a chill game that you will finish within few hours even doing 100% (took me about 5 to 6 hours , just played on deck offline and it didnt track time properly) . But its worth it , beatifull enviroments . Sometimes you need to look around and figure out what to do and where to go , game dosent hold your hand , but its part of its charm . Also works flawlessly on steamdeck 9/10

В игре половину времени не понятно что от тебя хотят. Лиса передвигается медленно, с застреванием в текстурах, странным прыжком и перемещением в полете которым тяжело целиться. Последняя глава - отдельная проблема в которой я растеряла весь свой интерес к игре. Просто гигантский лес в котором не понятно что надо сделать, не понятно где. В итоге открыла гайд и 15 минут бегала в лабиринте деревьев. Как это игрок должен найти сам совершенно не понимаю.