Windscape – Switch Review

Review by Nicola Warren

Are you a fan of Zelda? Golden Axe? Or even Secret of Mana? Well lone creator Dennis Witte is, and it was with these games in mind that he set out to create a game along the lines of these great titles but without the worries of in game time pressures and story restrictions. Given to us by Magic Sandbox and published by Headup we have Windscape!

Windscape is a first person Zeldaesque modern exploration adventure game in which you play a female protagonist named Ida. Ida is a young girl who lives with her mother and her father on their farm in a world made up of floating islands high up in the sky. The game starts by running a few simple errands for her mother and father just so you get the basics of the game which consist of collecting herbs and various vegetables from the farm to then make a simple stew which you later find is in fact a recipe to regain health and heal. Once these couple of tasks are complete you are then sent on your first errand where you can start to explore the world you live in, Yet it soon turns into a quest where it is Idas fate to find the evil in her world which is causing the islands to shatter and plummet from the sky.

The islands are free roam areas in which you can make your way around at your own time and leisure. Initially the scenery seems quite rough around the edges and personally the style of it is not one which I like very much, but the longer I played the game the more I came to appreciate the beauty of it, from the wind blowing the trees, the falling blossom and even the movement of the grass. You will also come across several different kinds of Lairs and Dungeons within the game which have more of a puzzle fighting based theme to them which brings a nice spritz of freshness to the game on occasion which really makes you put your mind to it. As you make your way to around the island you will need to gather different kinds of resources to craft weapons, cook foods and produce spells and you will soon come to learn that a lot of the items you find in the wild become necessities for your survival. You will also start the game with a basic weapon which is a club, but don’t worry you can upgrade it as you progress through the game so it will do more and more damage, but if a club isn’t your style later down the line you can start using a bow and arrow but be prepared to do a lot of practising to get the hang of how to use this effectively. There are plenty of health totems and save points scattered around the islands so make sure you heal and save at every chance you can get as you are going to be confronted with various enemies as you travel around, from simple things like bees and wolves to much bigger enemies like ogres and dragons! The developer has also made sure that you meet a lot of very quirky NPCS throughout the game who will each tell you a different life story which will always lead to you doing an errand or two for them.

The idea of the chosen world is lovely and not your typical scenery which you encounter in every other game of this type, Windscape has a very nice and peaceful aura and I couldn’t really find any bugs in the game apart from the controls can be overly sensitive at times which can grow to get quite tedious. Windscape is set in a peaceful world full of hidden wonders and I can see it being a very addictive for those who like to immerse themselves in this specific style of game, sadly at times I felt it getting a little repetitive though and the boss fights could have been somewhat more difficult as you can just keep side stepping around them and hitting to win the battles, Also with the long travel distances between errands and areas the game can start to feel a little lonely.

Overall, I give Windscape 6/10