Now, I do want to stress that I had pretty high fever while playing A Highland Song so I was probably a bit off my trolley, but while it is an absolute beauty of a game, I really didn't enjoy this as much as I had hoped. I played through it twice, once sort of learning the ropes and getting to the uncle late, and then a replay where I understood the game better and got there on time. I hated the game on my first playthrough, probably because I wasn't entirely up to speed on how I should play the game, but also because it's pretty glitchy on Switch so I had to reload my save several times because I would die and not respawn or the ground would just disappear under protagonist Moira's feet and she'd just fall in perpetuity. But I was probably also a bit annoyed by the constant rain, everything looking the same, and having to replay the fairly long (though charming if only ran through once) rhythm sections when I realized I needed to backtrack. Switching between different layers also felt sort of bad, and Moira having the grip strength of Nathan Drake but the stamina of Alan Wake while climbing cliffs certainly didn't help matters much either.

I certainly learned to enjoy the game more on my second playthrough when I met more people on my journey, understood the map mechanics better (you actually have to get to the peaks and point out paths to be able to progress in the game, which I somehow beat the entire game without realizing previously. I blame the fever.), and learned to better appreciate getting lost in the beautiful setting and the struggles of traversing across the mountains, which required a bit of planning and getting to know the landscape. Still didn't love the constant rain, every collectible being yet another scrap of a map, or not really being given time to appreciate the world since I was going against the clock (and I usually don't dislike timers, but this one just felt a bit antithetical to the gameplay of exploring and discovering the highlands to me), not being able to interact with things while Moria or her uncle were narrating, and the ending when you get to him on time is just terrible. Actually reaching the lighthouse is one of the most beautiful moments of my gaming year, however.