This game wants me to be amazed and emotional but it all feels so forced. The gameplay itself is just running back and forth from flowers that juice you up. You get a few abilities that help you do that in slightly different ways. It does not have the graphical fidelity for me to be in awe of anything it's showing me. There were a few times a bug or oversight resulted in me having to reload a save. One time I did things in an order that rendered progression impossible. Another time I got pushed below the surface of the water which created an inescapable ceiling. There is a sequel in the works and I can imagine it will be much better but at this time I'm not feeling inspired by the idea of playing more.

Meant to be a relaxing game however turned frustrating. Spirit of the North is like when you take an idie game like Journey, and take all the creativity and soul out of it.

The point of the game is to take a journey all the way across Scandinavia (I assume) to the to the mountain and stop the evil energy pouring out of it.

Along this journey, you are meant to solve puzzles to get you across. The biggest downfall of this game is how awful these puzzles are. 90% of the game consists of the same puzzle; where you need find a certain flower, take the energy of that flower and store the energy in some sort of keystone. And you will be doing this puzzle over and over again to the point where it just becomes boring and tedious.

I also played the PS5 version of this game which was shocking when I saw that this last gen game performs absolutely horribly on the PS5?? I played this game for free via PS plus however I still do not recommend it.

The art, visuals and music of this game are gorgeous. But that's all it has going for it.

If you don't read any other part of this review, just read this part: Instead of this game, play Seasons After Fall. I remember it much more fondly and less frustrating (it's a side-scroller, but it's not so clunky and lifeless, and it's based on the same folklore).

This game wanted to be great, I can tell. A lot of work went into the environment, but at the cost of filling those environments, setting a story, and basic mechanics. So many ruins with rooms, entrances, and crevices, and nothing inside them.

Right off the cuff, I'm trotting through a long, boring path of just snow and a few rock piles to indicate human activity. It took far too long, but eventually, I reach a place where I can actually do a thing, and that's pick up a fancy staff and bring it to a skeleton dressed as some kind of monk, prompting a spirit to release and a path to be cleared. Finally, something to do. So I spend a ridiculous amount of time looking around for more things to do instead of following the fox spirit who just showed up. After a while of finding nothing else, I figure I should just follow the path for now. This is another long and boring trudge through snow and ice, and what's worse is the snow dusts up right in the camera's view, obscuring my ability to look where I'm going (it's not smooth either, so it's just strobing a headache into me). Thankfully, the snow is not part of the game for long. I found a couple more staffs to give to dead monks, and none cleared any paths like the first one did (and none would again until the end).

If this wasn't long enough of an opener, the first big thing to do results in a cave-in and an extremely long trail to follow whilst very slowly limping through it. I mean LONG and SLOW. I found another monk, but no staff, and at that point, I couldn't be fucked to go on a hunt because I moved way too slowly. I reached a fox statue with a pool of serene water in front of it and I thought surely this will be magical and heal me and I can speed up so I can find that monk's staff. Nope. Pretty much a halfway mark of no importance. Eventually, I was healed and imbued with the fox spirit so I can perform a task (I assume, since there's no dialogue, narration, or direction on what to do or why I should even do it). But that task was not backtracking to find that one monk's staff, because I'm now blocked from backtracking that particular path. But hey, at least I have this brightly glowing sprite following me around and flying directly in the camera while I'm trying to look around for something.

Jumping was impressive, with great strides, until I needed to jump over a tiny rock or jump over a stream (or jump a short distance). No jumping or running in any depth of water, and sorry, you're too close to that pebble, you gotta back up and try jumping it again, but you can somehow speed-swim right through black sludge. You could walk/run up stairs, but god forbid you run into a ledge taller than an inch. The fox shakes off after getting out of the water at random, and it's annoying to have to wait for it to do that before you can move again. The structures and rocks you can/can't climb are very inconsistent through each segment of puzzles. It's like different people worked on each section and didn't bother to make sure they were consistent in their mechanics when putting it all together.

Getting spirit power from flowers was a pain, as they couldn't be collected, but only harvest one at a time (represented by the glowing marks in your fur). Whether you were able to harvest another yet or not, the annoying glowing sprite would bring your attention to the glaringly obvious flowers in the area, and you'd be prompted to hit the harvest button whenever you got near them. The controller buzzed every time you were near anything interactable and sometimes randomly where there was nothing - just a wall or a floor where developers forgot to remove that component (understandable if there's something on the other side or something, but it was never the case).

(ending spoilers here)
When I finally reached a place I thought was the end, I was so relieved, and then there was more. How the hell long is this game?? That happened twice. The second time, the little sprite turned red and I wasn't able to harvest any more flowers, so I had to recycle the powers I used (this was actually clever, puzzle-wise). But then I got to a point where I was lured into this area where this corrupt entity was weighing me down. Okay, I've dealt with this a few times at this point and it didn't seem too different. But then I just... died?? In (what I assume was) the middle of the damn game? Went into spirit mode to chase the sprite into the void, barked at it a few times, and then was transported to this spirit forest to wander aimlessly for who knows how long with no direction or any inkling of what the fuck to do at this point. This is the only almost-totally open world area to explore, but there is no way to know that if you get lost, you can just find one of the few fox statues to bark at and they'll northern-lights a path for you. I ran around for about 20 minutes before I got intensely bored and pissed that the fox's life just ENDED for no reason and now I'm stuck in this spirit forest. Apparently, you're supposed to find and greet all the monks you released, but fuck if I'm doing that. I'd wager I saved about half the monks, and I ran into exactly TWO of them (one 3 times while I ran around evidently in circles).

I assume I technically did finish the game, but at that point, I was fucking done and just turned it off and deleted it. This was supposed to be one of those relaxing wind-down games, but it frustrated me relentlessly since it began.

Despite being a bit buggy with the physics sometimes, this game was a BEAUTIFUL experience with stunning landscapes to explore, good OST and chill vibes. It truly gives that sense of melancholy and longing for something that has been lost long ago and also makes you realize the insignificance of man against the vastness of the world.

Regarding the level design, I think it's a bit flawed since sometimes the environment/narrative doesn't communicate well enough what the game expects you to do. For example, it's really easy to get lost in the last chapter, I would have loved to see more path indicators there, spent too much time running around without really knowing what I had to look for.

Ein kleines feines Indiespiel, welches hauptsächlich von seiner entspannten Stimmung und der naturbezogenen Atmosphäre lebt.
Gerade die Animationen des Fuchses sind wirklich beeindruckend für so ein kleines Entwicklerteam. Hier merkt man dass wirklich viel Liebe hineingeflossen ist. Die Geschichte gibt allerdings nicht wirklich viel her und auch die kleinen Rätsel hauen einen nicht vom Hocker.
Im Endeffekt lebt Spirit of the North davon, dass es ganz schön ist für ein paar Stunden als Fuchs durch Island zu wandern. Das ist der komplette Reiz und bei der Kürze des Spiels reicht das eigentlich auch völlig aus.
Die Kommentare von Einigen hier, dass die Steuerung frustrierend sein soll kann ich nicht so ganz nachvollziehen.

It has it's charm, certainly a beautiful world visually. But it's not polished.

You're constantly fighting the terrain (felt like I was playing Death Stranding at times) which sometimes could work in your favor as I found you could sometimes scale some walls and get to the next area without going the intended way. I did also manage to get to one area (the intended way) where I had no way to recharge the spirit, so had to reload to my last save.

Probably the thing that made it less enjoyable for me was how it didn't seem to respect your time. The biggest offender is recharging the spirit (which is a thing you're constantly doing). You can't just activate a flower and continue, you had to activate it then stand there while it opened and have the spirit recharge you. Key sections where the fox would become sick or hurt would slow the fox right down to a crawl while still making you walk massive distances like that. Falling into the water meant slowly dog paddling your way out and then watching the animation of the fox shaking before you could continue. Key scenic sections where you're just running forward, I get that I'm meant to be taking in the music and the visuals in those parts but I'm just holding forward in those parts and they just go on for a bit too long imo.

Last criticism would be that I found it a bit too directionless in parts.

Having said that, there were many moments and aspects that I also enjoyed. For a short game it was an ok experience.

Tepid puzzle adventure game that ultimately boils down to a superficial sight-seeing tour of pretty but soulless environments.
+ generally great-looking realistic graphic style with a few caveats: poor close-up textures, frequent clipping, and a lack of individuality
+ classical piano- and string-based soundtrack that accompanies every step as pleasant ambiance
+ no difficult hurdles to delay progression
- clunky controls hindering the constant platforming
- crude level design with a main path that is either too open and empty or overly narrow with invisible walls
- uninspired hidden collectibles
- not the least bit of interesting story or lore to be found
- wholly unsatisfying conclusion

This is a game that I want to love, but only like. It's setting is beautiful, the concept haunting, and the music perfect for the vast world you find yourself. However, a good number of points are taken away from the bugs and quasi-broken controls. Unlike in other exploration games, there really isn't many places for you to actually explore. The path ahead is pretty railroaded, though not always obvious. I completed the game because I was curious about the ending. However, I'm not sure I would recommend it.

Beautiful graphics and soundtrack, but really not much beyond that.

The world looks amazing but is much bigger than the game needs, and so feels very empty. Some games such as Journey can pull this off, but this game doesn't in my opinion, as you'd expect these environments to have things like wild animals in them.

The gameplay is also fairly tedious and mostly consists of finding walking sticks and jumping on switches to unlock doors. Again, I feel like adding more stuff to the world would really help here.

I can't express enough how good-looking and atmospheric this game is, but it has all the depth of an interactive desktop background. Disappointing, especially for this price.

The game is cute and it plays really well despite being jank

But holly fuck that Chapter 7 is like it's made by somebody else from whoever was making the first 6 chapters!
No real indication about what you're doing or where you're going (the game originally easy to read and have indications), easy to lost in the huge open space (there isn't a map/zone/chapter like that in the game). It took me sooo long to figure out and in the process I even got super lost AGAIN right at the very end of the chapter and had to do the whole chapter again...

The game already gets boring by the time you get into the chapter 7 but that chapter butchers the game a lot and makes me not recommend this game.

Spirit of the North has the proposal to bring the player the rest of the mind, where you are a free fox in the field, being able to run, seeing the beautiful landscapes around you, while following your journey. However, this is all broken with the mechanics bad, it's tiring to have problems jumping over a simple rock, somewhat confusing scenery, which can be a little difficult for people without a sense of direction, and a huge frustration of trying to access a certain suggestive area of the game and discovering that there is no it is possible to access.
In the end, I only recommend the game for its beauty and for anyone who has the patience to play.

Positive point: the camera is free, it may be possible to take beautiful pictures
Positive point: playing as a fox is quite rewarding