Koira

Video games are designed to be a form of entertainment, but they can also tell emotional and enchanting tales. The folk over at Studio Tolima has looked to explore this in their latest indie adventure, Koira, a short and artistic story that follows a forest spirit who comes across a lost young puppy and finds itself becoming the guardian figure of this loveable and pure creature, guiding it to safety through a world at the grips of mankind-induced horrors. It's a tale that explores environmental impact and the cruelty of human nature and all through hand-drawn art work and very basic gameplay structuring.

Looking at the narrative for starters, Studio Tolima does a wonderful job at evoking emotion from the player with this story. It's a bit Disney or Pixar in nature, with limited complexities but a firm grasp on the key threads that pull at our heart strings. If anything, DreamWorks' The Wild Robot is probably one of the better recent examples of this story, as it sees an unusual protagonist mentoring and protecting a helpless creature, ultimately forming a strong bond along the way, one that is tested when some of the protagonist's deep-rooted tendencies creep out, leading the character on a journey to change and better themselves. Again, it's not creatively exploring new territories at all, but the idea works, and effectively at that.

As per the gameplay, I find this more uneven. Koira is not a game with much mechanical depth, in fact a large portion of it simply revolves around moving through colourful landscapes and interacting with optional extras. Think Abzu, The Cub, or even Planet of Lana, three other games that tend to trade mechanical complexity for environmental and artistic flair. There are moments that add a small amount of puzzle solving to the equation, typically surrounding interacting with the world in very minor and basic ways to generate musical notes that can be used to resonate with spirit statues, but these puzzles are generally very straightforward and you frequently breeze through them without a thought.

The other area that Studio Tolima expands the gameplay element is through stealth. There are times where you need to hide in bushes to evade humans and guard dogs, perhaps even distracting them by throwing a stick at a windchime, all to continue progressing. While these moments fundamentally work, it should be said that Koira does have bits of instant-fail stealth, and these moments are without a doubt some of the games weakest periods.

The gameplay and mechanical depth feels like a means to an end in this project, a way to slightly elevate the storyline and narrative to keep fans on their toes. It's not the most memorable part of the experience in any sense, and oftentimes I do wish for more in this department, as frankly the optional chances to build a snowman or play hide and seek with the puppy don't quite cut it.

But here's the thing, the limited gameplay works in tandem with the dialogue-less (and even text-less) story to create an emotional and light experience that you want to keep chipping away at. The pacing is strong, and just as you get too comfortable and begin feeling safe and happy, terror or tragedy strikes to shake things up. It goes from being almost meditative and calming to being frightening and heart pounding, and this balance does work in the game's favour well and leads to a memorable and tight three hour experience.

Otherwise, the additional strong element that Koira has going for it is in its audiovisual direction, as the adventure is stunning, vibrant, and lovingly animated. The hand-drawn aesthetic works in the game's favour and the soundtrack and audio intricacies just add to the emotion in a fitting manner.

At the end of the day, Koira achieves exactly what it sets out to accomplish. Studio Tolima has created an emotionally complex and memorable story that stands out for its narrative and audiovisual direction. It lacks a bit from a gameplay perspective, serving up mechanics that either feel overused or simply don't quite draw in the player, but otherwise, for a short two-to-four hour story, Koira does enough to leave a lasting impression.