Product Info

Platform

Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

Publisher

Electronic Arts

Developer

Zoink Games

Genre

Action, Adventure

Players

1

File Size (Minimum)

2.1 GB

Release Date (NA)

Feb 16, 2018

Purchase From

eShop

PSN Store

Microsoft Store

Fe is a magical world where you communicate by singing with forest creatures and even plants to help fend off mysterious, hostile entities known as the Silent Ones. As one of the most unique-styled 3D games out there, it will grab you and pull you in, but it will not hold your hand.

The game’s story is completely told with visuals and animation — dialogue is nowhere to be seen — but learning what is happening is self explanatory. The Silent Ones have invaded the forest and have begun to take it over. It’s up to you as Fe, a fox-like creature, to journey out and bring the ecosystem together to stop the creatures once and for all.

Sing Together

Controlling Fe, you will explore the forest and communicate with other creatures and plants by singing with them. When communicating, wavelengths will begin to appear between the two, and you will need to match wavelengths in order to successfully befriend them. Accomplishing this requires the player to move their motion-enabled controller forward and backward. Once synced, your new friend will open new pathways, bloom berries, guide you to your next destination, or even fight for you.

However, you can’t just randomly go up and believe that you can befriend them in just one shot. Some creatures will ignore you, attack you, or even throw you off if you try to climb on them. To earn their trust, you have to meet certain criteria and accomplish objectives. For example, when Fe returns stolen eggs back to the mother bird, she’ll acknowledge you and thus the other birds in the forest will accept you as well.

Fe isn’t a game where you go and brawl; it’s a platformer that requires thinking and solving various scenarios. Since Fe doesn’t fight, you’ll have to put your stealth skills to the test if you are trying to maneuver around the Silent Ones or even deadly forest creatures. At other times, you’ll need to find someone or something to fight for you, like a bear.

If Fe happens to get captured or die during a confrontation, the game will turn black and reload before your encounter. Fe will not end the game after a loss or after so many lives; it’s a game that wants to you to keep trying until you get it right.

Collect Them All!

Fe will start off with simple movements such as jumping and grabbing. As you progress, your fox-like creature can learn new moves such as gliding and jumping up trees. To learn these skills, players are required to search and collect pink-colored crystals that are spread across the forest. Some are in plain sight while others will require you to do some deep exploration.

The game will indicate to you when you have enough crystals earned to learn a new move set, so you don’t need to worry about memorizing how many you need. Once the player has the necessary amount of crystals, you’ll need to adventure to a temple-like platform, transporting Fe to confront a gigantic tree quite similar to the Deku tree in the Legend of Zelda games. The tree will then grant a power to Fe, which is essential to have if you want to continue your adventure.

When learning a new skill or a song, you can travel back to areas you’ve once explored to find new areas you could never get to before, but doing so feels more of a hassle.

Show Me the Way

The game will offer tutorial icons when you first start out or learn a new skill, but afterward, you are on your own. There is no dialogue or anything to help point you in the right direction; it’s all based on exploring and problem-solving, making it a unique 3D platformer.

Some areas will become off-limits until you progress far enough to solve clues, learn new skills, and befriend new creatures. However, players should not have to worry about drifting too far, though you can easily become lost when exploring. For example, if you fall when climbing across mountains, you’ll have to figure out where you landed and how to get back to where you were. The game does have a map you can view, but players can easily spend quite a few minutes just figuring how to get from point A to point B.

Soothing and Colorful

Fe’s soundtrack isn’t heavy or have a fast beat. Its score is like a lullaby — soothing and refreshing — making it flow with the game’s forest theme. The game’s music, story, and the style of gameplay is like a mixture of Super Mario 64 and Studio Ghibli’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

While exploring, colors will begin to change as you enter different areas of the forest, and when learning a new skill, a secondary, neon color begins to flow with the forest, giving it a unique flair. For example, you’ll adventure through a purple-scheme forest, and once you learn the glide ability, Fe and parts of the forest will then have a neon-green-colored highlight.

There aren’t really any lengthy loading times while playing; the most noticable is when you first start up the game but that’s it. Afterwards, it’s pretty smooth when adventuring through the forest.

In terms of game length, it’s a fairly short adventure that can be completed within five hours, but it’s an enjoyable one. Even taking the $20 price point into consideration, the experience in such a beautiful, stylized world is worth the price of admission.

Summary

Fe is an unique-styled game that lets you explore to your heart’s content and will test your problem-solving skills. If you enjoy a dialogue-less game with no guidance, Fe is the right game for you.

A Nintendo Switch review code was provided by Zoink! for this review.