Wavetale launched on Google Stadia about a year ago, and now it’s out on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC. It’s a small adventure game with light-hearted combat, casual platforming, and almost dancing and playful movement – more on that later.
You play as a girl named Sigrid who lives in a flooded world where she lives with her grandmother on a small island. Their world is threatened by a polluted fog that has blanketed much of the world, but the two hold their ground by keeping the lighthouse running, stopping the menacing fog in the process. After several events that further threaten their entire world, Sigrid and her grandmother embark on a journey to end the menacing and polluting fog once and for all.
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As Sigrid, you travel the seas, solving a variety of simple puzzles while battling rudimentary enemies that seem to be related to this smog of pollution. Along the way, you’ll land on many small islands – some inhabited, some abandoned, and others with factories, watchtowers, lighthouses, and other structures. There was life here before, before the mist covered the world.
The big party trick in Tales of the Waves is how Sigrid moves between these many islands. This is done not on a boat, but on her own legs and feet, as Sigrid has the uncanny ability to run and surf on the surface of water and swim underwater at high speed for short periods of time. You almost feel like a human dolphin as you jump from wave to wave with ease, floating on the water at almost high speed. It works so well, you’ll actually never get bored walking around like this, even if you spend a lot of time doing it.
You’ll also spend a fair amount of time with Wavetale on the various islands, fighting simple enemies, solving small puzzles, flipping switches, and climbing these tall structures on some of the islands–which are almost simple puzzles themselves. You jump from platform to platform, using Sigrid’s magical fishing net as a grapple, and fly through the air to different locations, getting higher and higher. The combat system is simple, consisting of quick and powerful attacks, and enemies usually only need a few hits to disappear.
Wavetale is a very simple and relaxing game – I died once during a level when the camera got confused and I was overwhelmed by some enemies I couldn’t see. The gameplay is simple and not hugely varied, but it’s so relaxing to dance on the water and visit the various islands and their strange inhabitants. This can all be done in about 5-7 hours, depending on how many side quests and time trial challenges you complete.
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Wavetale has an engaging gameplay loop that’s actually a nice relaxing experience. The technical side isn’t all that exciting, though. The graphics are pretty good aesthetically, the rough seas look great, and the whole thing has a lighthearted and adventurous style that fits the narrative perfectly. Unfortunately, everything is a bit rough, especially when you turn the camera towards Sigrid and you suffer from severe screen tearing, where it looks like the image is almost torn in half. Nothing that would break the game or make it unplayable, but it doesn’t look pretty.
I’m having a hard time figuring out the sound aspect. Sometimes certain sound effects seem to be missing, and sometimes they are there – some sound effects are always there, while others seem to disappear completely. Unless that’s a deliberate choice by the sound designer – which I don’t know – it’s definitely quiet at times, which seems wrong. The soundtrack, on the other hand, is very relaxing – and then it’s always there.
Wavetale is a bit more complicated. The technical part is a mess, we hope Thunderful will optimize the technical part of the game soon, because behind the technical issues lies a pretty good little adventure game – even if none of them directly break the gameplay, it doesn’t look pretty, it kind of breaks experience.