It is nice to be able to go back to games that I missed and play them. A lot of the time there are games that I want to play but another, more anticipated game of mine releases, and the older game gets lost in the void of my Steam library. This week’s game is one of those game and man, did I miss a gem. A story about war, the effects of pollution on the world, and accepting that loved ones are gone.

This week is Wavetale.

Wavetale is an action-adventure platformer from Thunderful Development and Publishing. The game was released for the PC and all modern consoles in December 2022 and retails for $30.

The apocalypse has submerged the world in water and has made traditional travel impossible. Wavetale takes place in Strandville, an apparent once great area that took the brunt of the “end of the world.” A war was fought and the result was a fracture of the earth crust that exploded and caused the cataclysmic event that changed the world that Sigrid, a young girl whose grandmother runs the lighthouse, has always known.

A lighthouse stands as the only defense against a mysterious fog that threatens the inhabitants of Strandville. This time the fog is beating back harder than ever, sending out more and more deadly fog monsters to heckle the Strandville and the surrounding settlements. These “Paws” are to blame for the fog and its assault on the world. Sigrid takes up the mantle as Strandville’s savior when she falls into the ocean helping her grandmother fight off the fog and gains the ability to essentially “walk on water” from a mysterious creature that cannot breach the surface of the water. Sigrid takes this newfound ability to finally combat the fog and eliminate it for good.

Wavetale’s story is presented to the player in a manner that shrouds most of the past in mysteries. There are a lot of people that remember the war and what they lost and who is to blame. As the story unfolds it becomes a story of forgiveness and what it takes to move on from old grudges.

It’s a nice story and I gotta say that some parts got me.

Gameplay is boiled down to only a couple key elements: Traversal, and combat. Moving throughout the open sea is exciting more so because there are tubes that boost Sigrid’s speed and distance covered everywhere. It makes traversing the massive open sea incredibly fun and stylish. While on your way through the open sea, there are little islands to explore on your way to the main objective, while the bigger, city-center islands provide much more platforming and combat (early on).

The named island city-enters are usually very vertical and at the base are swarmed with bad guys to beat up and the reward for beating up the baddies is usually a fetch quest for sparks to put into the lighthouse to beat back the menacing fog. Each island has its own set of platforming objectives, for instance, one island requires you to glide to each stack to hit a generator to power each of the three stacks before being able to power it up or cleaning a whole tower before it can be turned on.

The little islands are fun to explore as they usually tie into the larger objectives. There are times when you will have to collect special objects or fulfill side missions for currency and that stuff is often found on the smaller islands.

The system works and most of the larger islands that you visit have a gimmick that keeps Wavetale’s platforming from getting boring.

The combat takes a back seat to the platforming only because it is pretty basic and really does not involve much thought to beat up the baddies. Sigrid is armed with what looks like to be a fisherman’s net to beat up the fog monsters with and the combat really boils down to mash the X button and sometimes press jump and mash the Y button to do a ground pound. The smaller enemies take a few hits to defeat while the armored enemies take more and the sea striders require a little grapple interaction to then beat up.

The main boss fights are far more exhilarating than the regular fights. The sea monster that roams the seas spreading the poisonous fog is reminiscent of the Shadow of the Colossus enemies as they tower over this puny world and its inhabitants, they require much more finesse to tackle than the smaller enemies. Though there is not a stamina meter in Wavetale, it does requires some paying attention to combat the giant sea serpent. Little indicators to notify the player that they are able to grapple are often shown to shoot the player toward another obstacle.

The combat fits Wavetale really wells but it does leave more to be desired.

There is a notebook worth of stuff to collect to make sense of this sea-faring new world. First-hand accounts from the war, notes from neighboring islands, and letters addressing issues all really make the world of Wavetale feel more real.

There is a currency to collect to buy cosmetics in the store. It’s all fun stuff that makes Sigrid look ridiculous.

Wavetale is such an inviting-looking video game. It is so colorful and the animations really are quite nice. The ocean is such a gorgeous blue that is accentuated with a school of fish when charging a jump. Notable areas and interactable objects have a deeper color to them to let the player know that they can interact with them in some way.

The orchestra music really flows well with the game. The music is nice and soft and when the situation ramps up, so does the music. There is one really nice melody that I liked so much that I still remember it and hum it on occasion.

Wavetale is a good video game with a fun world to uncover. The price point for the content is really steep. I did not realize that Wavetale retails at $30 which blew my mind. I played the game for about three hours and felt satisfied with my time with the game.

The traversal and platforming are really fun and the story is decent enough to be the selling points of the game, but the length and combat really bring down the game.

7/10