I almost never play solely narrative games but the style of Fall of Porcupine reminded me of Night of the Woods; the last narrative game that I played and enjoyed. This week I take the role of a doctor in their residency in a nice, quiet town that has absolutely no secrets and no murders. This week is the prologue to the Fall of Porcupine.

Fall of Porcupine is a narrative game from BUNTSPECHT.GAMES and developed by Assembled Entertainment. The game will release sometime in 2023 for some amount of currency, so far for the Switch and PC.

You take the role of Finley, a doctor doing their residency in the town of Porcupine. The hospital is understaffed and underfunded but the Fall Festival is soon and people will make their pilgrimage to enjoy the solstice. As people enter the hospital, it is clear that something is not right when a patient goes missing. The story delves deep into the hardships of a healthcare system that often enough neglects many people. It is real and it hits kinda hard, honestly.

Fall of Porcupine really reminds me (and a lot of other people who had played the demo) of Night in the Woods. The animation, platforming, and even the art style are all so beautiful. Even now, in the prologue, everything is so crisp. Platforming is integrated sow ell within the game that, during the demo, I just figured that platforming wasn’t necessarily a main mechanic of the game. Diagnosing patients is sure as hell a mechanic in the game. As you make your rounds, being directed by a grumpy head doctor, you take a moment to listen to the patient about what symptoms they have, it is up to you to have an answer to their woes, and sometimes a small little mini-game is needed to properly help them. It is actually quite fun listening to patients about what ails them and taking a stab at what the correct form of medicine would be correct.

I am pretty sure that later on medical Wordle is a gameplay element to properly diagnose patients.

Let me say this again, this game is beautiful. So many god damn colors that mix so well with each other, for example, when you enter the town to meet a friend, you see how far the trees have changed color and how the town is getting ready for the festival. As you enter the deep forest to look for something special, the moss-covered ruins against the backdrop of changing trees are stunning.

The sounds are nice and are quite diverse when entering other areas of Porcupine. The bar sounds different than the city center and that sounds different when spooky moments occur, sound different from the sentimental moments. Everything from the sound department is top-notch so far.

Fall of Porcupine is an interesting game. The cryptic story is given to the player bit by bit through the townspeople and Finely’s friends. The story beats work so well that when the climactic ending comes, it hits harder. The game looks absolutely beautiful, I love everything about it, and the gameplay is enough for me. I thought that what was going to get me to like this game was the story, but after playing the demo once for myself and another for my wife, I have found that The Fall of Porcupine just has everything for everyone and, so far, it does everything very well.

I’m really excited for when the game releases.