Spirit of the North 2

Foxes. I love Foxes. They get a bad rap a lot of the time, but foxes are cool. I have a couple in my garden, and I usually love good fox game! Endling – Extinction is Forever, Tunic, Metal Gear Solid, and Super Lucky’s Tale. But I must confess, I never played the first Spirit of the North, but after playing its sequel, I’m keen to check it out. So I’m coming at this review as a newcomer to the series, but from what I’ve played, heard about the original, it should be a fan-winning sequel in my books!


A little disclaimer for this review

Reviewing games is sometimes a tricky business. I got my code from the publisher (thank you, publisher) a few days before the release date. Enough time to play, but Spirit of the North 2 is quite a massive game, 20 hours or more worth of game here. During my playthrough before the release date, the game had its rough edges, but a patch has come about which should address a lot of stuff. I didn’t have time to revisit much of the game, but some things were dealt with, others not so much.

So, your time playing this might vary, but this review is based on the time I spent with the most in Spirit of the North 2, and that is prior patch.


Where the Fox may roam, they are free

Spirit of the North 2 takes us into the paws of your very own fox in a majestic isle where human life has long since gone. I made my fox, a big boi named Mulder (if you get the reference, we can be friends), off I set on my adventure with my crow friend by my side.

What starts off as an ordinary day, waking up, doing a fox stretch, a fox cry, and finding a magical staff that has to be destroyed in a volcano, turns into a chaotic turn of events. Mulder, after finding said staff drops it’s conveniently into the dead hands of an evil mage, who’s resurrected, and decides to corrupt the island and bring about death and fire.

After making a daring escape, it’s up to Mulder and Crow to venture through the island, ridding the evil corruption, freeing trapped spirits, and snacking on anything and everything a fox would snack on.

The best way I would describe this game is mostly a chilled, explorational experience, filled with a wonderful sense of discovery, calm, puzzle solving, with an occasional and highly intense boss fight to liven things up a bit. You are a fox, remember, not the DOOM Slayer, but you do have some tricks up your sleeve, and the spirit of the island resonates with you, granting you some special talents that will help you out.


Some foxes are pretty, some foxes aren’t so

Let’s address the presentation first. As said, I did experience a game which needed a lot of polishing to be fair. Nothing was game-breaking, nor anything that truly disrupted my time enjoying the game. But Spirit of the North 2 needed some more time just to tweak and refine the grander world around you.

My main issues were a lack of audio in many places, such as the bottom of water falls being silent, certain animal allies being oddly silent (the raccoon shop keep being the main one), some stuttering and frame rate drops in game and in some cutscenes, and the occasional missing texture revealing the Unity style grey square pattern. There’s also a bit of jank with the movement at times, and various animations didn’t feel complete or rendered correctly. It’s little things, but there were quite a lot of little things.

As I said, there was nothing major that disrupted my game, with the only exceptions being some annoying invisible walls, and where one enemy who swims in the waters around the island, managed to swim on shore and eat me … a big fish clipping onto the beach is not what should happen I believe. Or after the patch, my map became fully covered again with fog, which I removed in my playthrough.

But saying all that! This is a beautiful-looking and sounding game, in all honesty. The art direction, the level of detail, the craftsmanship in the world building, the density of wondrous nature around you, and just the sheer number of environmental biomes, the world building elements here are simply staggering. I had a lot of Elden Ring vibes while playing, as each new section of the island brought about a new mystery, as I saw giant monoliths scattered along a beach, a system of underground mines filled with skeletons and blood red thorns, decaying castles rotting away due to funguses, and stunning vistas where the sun would set and bath everything in a warm glow of orange and yellow.

You will spend a lot of time in Spirit of the North 2’s world, and every step is just beautiful to observe. The music elevates the atmosphere with a bittersweet sadness, looming over you with hints of isolation, but hope for saving your fox friends. There is so much conveyed through its music and small animations in cutscenes, since there is no dialogue (of course, as animals can’t speak English or Spanish). But there are plenty of scrolls detailing the island’s lore, which is something I’m not normally a fan of, but the writing is very engaging, with some compelling backstories and history to the islands and the clans. Plus, the scrolls aren’t overwhelming to read, thankfully.

The story itself might not be the most innovative, or even the best handled in the grand scheme. But I liked the emotional weight to the actions and repercussions felt on the island, the themes of regret and forgiveness are powerful ones, which left me with a few questions long after the game was done. And while the rough patches are there, and the annoying bugs are still mostly present, I can’t deny what is polished, and the core elements of the presentation are simply stunning at times.


Foxy business

The one thing I thoroughly enjoyed most about Spirit of the North 2 was quite simple. It allowed me to be a fox in the most mother foxing way possible! Plus, it has dungeons, puzzles, and a big killer fish I loved teasing to come and eat me … and it did a few times. It’s a bit like Zelda, if you were a fox … wait, that’s Tunic! Okay, so it’s a bit like Tunic, and while nowhere near as amazing, Spirit of the North 2 has its vibe, and it’s a good one.

The goal is to traverse the island, making wonderous discoveries, learning of its past, gaining new abilities that allow you to progress further and mainly to free the island of corruption. The latter is done through helping the spirits of the island, those whom the various clans worshipped and are now under the influence of the evil mage who has awoken. What follows is a classic Metroidvania template for gameplay, where you explore, discover new skills, and other useful items, allowing you to level up, access locked areas, and complete main objectives before moving onto the next main section of the map.

As mentioned before, there are a lot of Elden Ring vibes here, as the island is full of small and big discoveries ranging from snake-themed temples, beautiful coves, abandoned cities, and mountain fortresses full of treasure. I couldn’t believe just how much there was to find, even wandering off across a meadow, or along a beach, and a short trek through the forest brought me to something new. It is worth the treks, as trekking is a little fox across a massive map is a lot of hard work. Thankfully, there are portals around the island; maybe a couple more were needed, and the map could have included a more detailed, zoomed-in version for more helpful guidance. But what is there for accessibility, tracking, and fast travel is fine. Plus, the world motivates you to go out and search, being so brilliantly fascinating to explore.

As you might expect, you won’t be slaying demons or holding dual pistols like it’s a John Woo film. You will be doing foxy things, in a foxy way. You can jump, let your spirit exit the body to solve puzzles, and make that horrible fox scream noise they do when mating… if you know, you know. But there is a lot of traversing, pushing objects into place, carrying things in your mouth like a fox does, and avoiding all supernatural dangers.

The first few hours are simple, never scratching that lateral itch with the game's host of puzzles and dungeons. But once you gain a couple of the main abilities, around the third main area of the game, things do click into place, and problem-solving becomes vastly more interesting. It takes a bit of time, but Spirit of the North does open in terms of meaningful exploration and problem-solving. With some great platforming sections and high-octane boss encounters to match.

There are "Souls" elements here, with dying removing the currency you gathered so far and leaving it in the place you were last. I’m never a fan of this mechanic, but it can work in the right game. Yet, Spirit of the North never feels like it needs this mechanic, since there is hardly any combat, and the overall mood is much more relaxing for a game. Even then, it’s not about fighting, but more so lateral thinking. And this is all fine, I love the chill vibes here, but adding this Souls-like mechanic was unnecessary.

You will die from a misstep while platforming and during a boss fight. Or like me, annoying the big killer fish in the water around the island. But it’s just not needed at all, and adds nothing being here personally. And while I love the absence of combat, I wish the game had a little more edge and threat at times. There are no enemies, just those fight encounters, and the big fish. I would have found it a little more exciting while wandering back and forth to have random encounters, maybe a random stalker enemy appear to create some tension. But again, this is a chill game, and that’s fine by me.

While Spirit of the North might not be mechanically interwoven as Tunic or Zelda, I love the vibes, the chillness to exploring, and more importantly, how meaningful and enriching the exploration and problem solving become in the journey. The world is amazingly crafted, character progression elevating the gameplay to become even more engaging and thoughtful, and having that cosy heartfelt vibe while being a fox is some of the nicest, relaxing, yet challenging gaming time I’ve had this year.


Overall?

Going into Spirit of the North 2, you should know about the various small bugs and presentation issues upon release. It’s only fair I let you know. I am hopeful, these issues will be ironed out, and soon there will be a smooth gaming experience. And it should be played as Spirit of the North 2 is a stellar gaming experience. So much, I have to check out the first game.

There’s such a fulfilling experience here with the meaningful and vast exploration, clever problem solving, and the chilled approach to adventure gameplay makes it one of the most approachable and enjoyable games this year so far. I acknowledge that I didn’t like the souls-like elements here, and that the first couple of hours are quite simple and uneventful. Plus, some more tension and drama in the world would have been nice to have. But what is here is quite brilliant, to say the least, for this Fox adventure.

Highly recommend checking out Spirit of the North 2, and now, I’m off to check out the first game.


++ Beautiful mix of chilled explorations gameplay, problem solving and intense set-pieces 
+ Nice presentation with great musical and art style 
+ Enriching and meaningful gameplay progress 
+ Nice Fox gameplay 

-- The large number of "small" bugs
- The first couple of hours are quite slow   


The publisher kindly provided a review copy of Spirit of the North 2