Farewell North

Genre: 3D Platformer / Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Farewell North, released in 2024 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, is a game with 3D Platformer and Puzzle-Platformer elements, but it feels closest to games like Flower and Journey, where things like mechanics and difficulty take a back seat to an emotional audiovisual experience. In this game specifically, players mostly take the role of a dog, Chesley, and occasionally his owner Cailey, as they travel around the islands of a Scottish archipelago after the death of Cailey’s mother as she tries to seek closure and move forward through her grief.

Before moving on, I should note that the screenshots provided by Nintendo.com are not a good indication of the way the actual game looks on Nintendo Switch – these were clearly taken from another platform running the game, and the Nintendo Switch version features lower resolution and more sparse foliage like grass. Having said that… this is still an absolutely gorgeous game on Nintendo Switch.

Players explore the game’s 3D world colored in mostly monochrome with a slight blue tint, as if the world were covered in snow, but also both Chesley and Cailey are shown as largely white figures most of the time. Chesley’s bark briefly brings a burst of color to the world around him, and players’ interactions with the environments can have longer-lasting effects. The way environments become transformed with life and color when you do this is really striking, and the game uses it to good effect to highlight its beautiful natural landscapes. By contrast, Chesley and Cailey are not quite as beautifully-rendered as everything around them – they don’t look outright bad, but definitely don’t look as impressive.

The game is fully-voiced, and Cailey’s voice actor does a decent job with the more emotional beats of the game’s story. Players really get a sense of how Cailey is struggling with the loss of her mother, and how in turn Chesley is concerned for his owner. This is all backed by a lovely subdued instrumental soundtrack that underlines the game’s emotional themes, with your actions interacting with this music. In particular, I’ll highlight Reluctant Return, Farewell North, On the Water, Race to the Dock, Herding Sheep, Looking for the Lost Lamb, and especially the moving vocal theme My Heart’s in The Highlands and the mix of orchestral and vocal in One With the North.

Compared to the story and presentation, the gameplay here… well, it seems like an after-thought. It’s not bad, but it often feels like you’re going through the motions, going wherever the shining light leads you next. You do have bits of Platforming that are not very good, and puzzles that aren’t especially challenging. But mostly this gameplay seems like a way to slow down the player and pace out the game revealing its world and story. And this would be fine (Flower and Journey were much the same way, as well as Nintendo Switch games like Gris, Abzu, and Sky: Children of the Light. However, for Farewell North, the lacking Platforming, confusing canoeing sections, and occasionally unclear goals do all detract from the overall experience.

However, overall Farewell North is still a beautiful experience, and while I do think the unsatisfying gameplay drags it down a bit, it doesn’t change that this is a wonderful game all the same, with a moving story and a moving audiovisual presentation. If those are the elements you value most in a game, even over the gameplay, then this is a game you will not want to miss.

tl;dr – Farewell North is a 3D Platformer and Puzzle-Platformer that has players moving through an emotional story of a woman and her dog visiting Scottish islands after the death of a beloved family member. The gameplay here is fine but nothing special, but this gameplay isn’t really the point. This is more about the moving story and beautiful presentation, and in that regard this game absolutely succeeds.

Grade: B+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Winner:

Best Song – End Credits (My Heart’s in The Highlands) by John Konsolakis (feat. Siobhan Miller) – Early into Farewell North, players are introduced to the vocal theme My Heart’s in The Highlands, essentially hearing its first verse. This is finally reprised in the game’s ending, and while it was already powerful the first time you heard it, it takes on a greater meaning in the final moments of the song, when Siobhan Miller’s lovely vocals sing the line “farewell to the highlands, farewell to the North”, representing a conclusive parting not only with the homeland in the game’s title, but everything that has come to represent. It’s an emotional moment, and one that is made far more powerful by this song.

Runner-Up: Best Misc. Game, Best Music, Best Graphics

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