Sometimes I feel bad for developers that release games late in the year. Most of the time by December you’ve already got your Game of the Year picked out, and you’ve already blown your game budget on a sale of some sort. This is particularly tragic in cases like Wavetale, where an indie developer creates something truly magical.

Wavetale is an Action Platformer where you play as Sigrid, a girl in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a force known as the Gloom. Most of the world is underwater, and what is left struggles against the Gloom, which consumes everything it touches. Sigrid lives with her grandmother after the death of her father and the disappearance of her mother. However, one fateful day will put Sigrid on the path to finding the truth about her mother’s absence, the Gloom, and a mysterious shadow companion that allows her to walk on water.

Wavetale’s key mechanics involve Sigrid’s shadow companion, who allows you to surf on the water to reach various destinations. Armed with Sigrid’s net, you can grapple, swing, double jump, and glide. All these platforming mechanics feel absolutely amazing to execute, and Wavetale just feels like a joy to play. The combat isn’t all that spectacular, it’s your standard beat-em-up style with a combo attack and a ground pound.

As you explore, you can collect currency that is used to unlock new hair colors, hats, and outfits. These don’t do anything beyond cosmetic changes, but it is nice for some visual variety. Other than that, there are quests to do for a little extra story, and books to pick up that add to Sigrid’s journal, which fleshes out the world a bit more.

The main reasons you’ll want to play Wavetale are the platforming and the story. The story seems simple at first, but it hits hard in places, particularly in regard to family legacies, what we leave behind, and how we respond to loss. I finished Wavetale in about 6 hours, but I missed a few side quests, and I didn’t even attempt the time-trial races. With that content included you can probably play through it in about 10 hours.

After you finish the main game, you get to enjoy free play mode. This lets you pick up any quests you missed, find any missing people, and just lets you surf and enjoy the open-world environment. I wish the game had given more visual variety to the areas, but what is there really gets the story across and makes its point.

The voice acting is well done, and the visuals are beautiful on PlayStation 5, though the lighting did get a little weird in a few places. There is just something about the gameplay though that feels solid and serene. Surfing over the water is so much fun that I didn’t even notice there wasn’t a fast-travel system to shorten the longer trips across the world.

Overall, Wavetale is a great Indie gem, and I hope that its late release doesn’t cause people to miss out on it. I absolutely loved my time with it, and most of the complaints that I listed above were nitpicky, minor things at best. If you get a chance, pick up Wavetale. You won’t be disappointed.

A PlayStation 5 review copy of Wavetale was provided by Thunderful Publishing for this review.

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Wavetale

$29.99 USD

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• Fantastic Mobility and Gameplay
• Smooth Controls
• Fun Characters and Voice Acting
• Colorful Open World

Cons

• Can be Completed in About 6 Hours
• Minor Lighting Glitches