Quick Review: LostWinds

Among the four elements, we tend to underestimate the power of the wind. This game seeks to change that.

LostWinds is a creation of Frontier Developments and was released on Steam on March 24th, 2016. However, the game is a little older than that, as it was originally released as a WiiWare title in May 2008, explaining some of the cursor-based controls.

A world so colorful, even the caves have colorful stones.

In a bright and colorful world, a young child named Toku gets lost in a cave and finds a magical stone. The stone contains the spirit of Enril, a wind deity who once helped seal the great evil Balasar with the help of her fellow elemental spirits. However, the barrier of Balasar’s prison is growing weak, and Enril cannot do much while she is trapped in this stone – her range of ability is limited. Toku must therefore carry her stone around and use her many wind-based abilities to prevent the return of this evil beast!

Do you believe you can fly?

This platform title feels a bit like a Metroidvania – you start with very few abilities, and gain more as you progress, therefore making more areas available, and so on. You control Toku moving left and right, and he jumps using Enril’s power. Examples of powers unlocked later include the ability to carry items and fire around thanks to the wind, and a vortex that traps an item in midair, allowing Toku/Enril to toss it with force at enemies and barriers. The world itself is rather small, but its 24 areas and their intertwined entrances (see the map below) can make it a little tricky to visit, even if you get rid of all the obstacles. You’ll also have to do a bit of backtracking all over the place as you gain new abilities, which is normal for Metroidvania-like games, fair enough. The world is also quite pleasant to visit as well and feels whimsical.

With how simple it is, you can call it Baby's First Metroidvania.
Which is fair, everybody needs to start somewhere,
and a smaller game is a good starting point.

Omnomnom. Then destroy the remains.
Nobody can have this big fruit after me!

The game is a bit on the short side (although, to be fair, all the games covered in Quick Reviews are), but very fun and a treat to both watch and experience. It’s very cute. The difficulty is just right, perhaps a little on the easy side; I didn’t struggle in a lot of places. My biggest struggle was when I missed some information on how to do an important ability (the vortexes), and had to look up how to do them (turns out, it requires the right-click mouse button when all of the previous abilities used the left-click one). There’s also a side-quest involving 24 statues, one hidden in every area, and gathering them nets an achievement. The in-game map helpfully shows which areas have statues that Toku hasn't found yet, which makes seeking them a lot easier. All of the other achievements are progression-based, so you get them by playing through the story.

Winc can carry fire, water and stone boulders.
It's the superior element!

The original WiiWare version likely involved holding A and moving the Wii remote to create Enril’s wind-based effects. I can imagine that one issue with that version, which can also be felt in the PC version with the Wii remote swapped for the mouse, is that sometimes the game will detect multiple targets that can be influenced by the wind. If, say, Tuko jumps near a boulder, the boulder might follow along, even if for some reason you’d want it to stay where it is. There's also the imprecision of relying on the mouse to do a lot of things in the game, but that's thankfully not too bad.

No1 Tuko, stop moving, I am trying to control the ball
now! Stop! You're in the way! Augh!

In short: Very few flaws, a definite recommendation. If you buy the game, play it, and enjoy it, then know that a sequel was made, subtitled Winter of the Melodias.

LostWinds is available for 9.99$.