Short-form adventure games have captured my heart for more than a decade. Whether it’s the watery depths of ABZU, blinking through the tears in Before Your Eyes, or confronting morality in Firewatch, I’ll get as much mileage through the few hours it takes to experience these stories as I would sinking dozens of hours into an open-world RPG. There’s a case to be made that the shorter the game, the less time is wasted. that’s absolutely the case in SEASON: A Letter to the Future, which I completed in one sitting. Despite a short playtime, it’s a journey that will stick in my mind for a while to come.

Within SEASON: A Letter to the Future, you’re tasked with doing one thing, capturing memories through sight and sound in your journal before a flood washes away an idyllic countryside vista in Tieng Valley. You are free to take pictures with a comprehensive camera at any point, and our nameless protagonist will dote on it if you snap the right photos. In addition, you can capture sounds to enhance the memory, whether it be a frog’s bellowing ribbit in a pond or the jingling of wind chimes in a cemetery. Contextualizing these moments in the detailed open-world of Tieng Valley incentivizes you to scour each and every piece of the map to get the lay of the land before it’s swept away.

Traversal in SEASON: A Letter to the Future is done through a bike. The bike controls adequately at a nice pace to get you where you need to go in a timely manner whilst being able to enjoy the view thanks to a dynamic camera that pans towards points of interest when appropriate. You also have a map that you can check at any time and there are little stops at most junctures with a “You are here” indicator.

Because of this, it’s quite easy to get lost in the mix through Tieng Valley. While your map has markers that color in places you’ve visited, it’s not blatantly obvious what you need to do at any given point. Nevertheless, I still managed to get all trophies except for one in my leisurely playthrough, as I was rewarded for fully exploring each area.

You won’t encounter more than a handful of characters across the entirety of SEASON: A Letter to the Future. The small cast lets them shine more in each conversation. Thankfully, they’re all well-thought-out and engaging enough to stick in my memory. They’ll help you understand the motifs and themes that SEASON so punctually incorporates, such as dystopia, perseverance through adversity, and the end of all things.

You’ll soon realize that memories aren’t just captured within your journal, but also within your mind. There’s so much more to it, but I’d rather the game show you. SEASON: A Letter to the Future is so powerful in its storytelling that a three-hour affair will be treasured for more than its runtime for ages to come. For those that savor a short-form story and view games as an art form, SEASON: A Letter to the Future lies in the must-play territory.

A PlayStation 5 review copy of SEASON: A Letter to the Future was provided by Scavengers Studio for this review.

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SEASON: A Letter to the Future

24.99

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Breathtaking Setting
• Masterfully Relaxing
• Strong Characters

Cons

• Easy to get Lost
• Stilted Character Animations