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The gameplay over the pretty brisk 2 - 3 hours is interesting, mainly because of the beautiful hand-drawn landscapes that are featured. You’ll need to manipulate the environment, raising and lowering hills most of the time, in order to move from place to place. The rules are generally quite simple and are each introduced to you organically before becoming mildly more challenging as you go. You can’t move the ground you’re standing on, you’ll fall down when crossing waterfalls, sheep will move when you bump them but not very far, and down the stretch to get through walls you’ll need to roll what I assume are barrels through them. For the most part everything is straightforward, and even if you get a little stuck the good news is that there are only so many ways you can manipulate the limited number of elements on the screen. Overall the puzzles are satisfying but then again there’s not a great deal of opportunity to apply some of the skills you acquire since the experience is on the short side. I’d say the moral of Old Man’s Journey relates well in a somewhat tangential way to my review thoughts. Your time is precious, so be sure to make the most of it and try not to give yourself things to regret. The further along in your own life and experiences you are the easier it is to recommend it wholeheartedly as its story will likely hit you quite a few ways right in the feels. The younger you are it is probably harder to justify since that shifts more responsibility to the adequate-but-not-incredble puzzle aspects of it. Old Man’s Journey fits well into the Switch library with its own distinct story to tell complemented by outstanding art and satisfying puzzles.
Justin Nation, Score:Nindie Choice! [8.0]