Night In The Woods – Nindie Spotlight – Nightmare Eyes!
Night In The Woods is one of those games where you just sort of walk around and talk to people. I think that’s called a “Narrative-based adventure game”, if you’re feeling fancy. If you’re into those kinds of games, like me, you have to play Night In The Woods right now, and there is no excuse not to. If you aren’t really someone who plays that sort of thing, there’s still a lot that Night In The Woods has to offer. From amazing art to the incredibly moving story, funny and unique characters and the brilliant soundtrack, there is always something in this game to keep you completely engaged from the mysterious start to the fantastic ending.
So without any more introduction, let’s talk about Night In The Woods in today’s Nindie Spotlight!
In Night In The Woods, you play as college drop out and cat person Mae Borowski, who has just arrived back in her hometown of Possum Springs. You don’t discover why Mae dropped out until near the end of the game, so even your own character is shrouded with mystery right from the start.
On return to your home, you meet back up with your childhood best friend Gregg the fox, his boyfriend Angus the bear, and another friend Bea the crocodile.
The game focuses strongly on how much Possum Springs has changed since Mae has been gone, which ensures that you as the player aren’t dropped into a world that’s completely familiar to your character. Some shops are gone, some new shops have arrived. Your friends all have jobs now, while you’re still living with your parents. Gregg and Angus are moving away when Mae hasn’t even started thinking about where she’s going in life.
At first, everything feels pretty normal. You walk round the town, catching up with friends and neighbours. You can pick to hang out with either Bea or Gregg every day, allowing you to learn new things about them and unlock different branches of the story. You go to band practice, playing your bass guitar in a really cool way that requires you to press exactly the right buttons at exactly the right time. Overall, Mae’s life is pretty normal, until things take an unexpected turn for the worse.
As the whole of Night In The Woods revolves around the story, there really isn’t much more I can say without spoiling it. What I will say is that the story of Mae and her always supportive friends is so engaging and even slightly relatable in a weird way. With a bunch of different dialogue options, story lines, and secrets to find, I doubt any two playthroughs are truly identical. The creepy bits are creepy, the funny bits are funny, and the deep bits make you question the entire meaning of existence.
Night In The Woods is absolutely packed with awesome mini-games as well. Stealing pretzels, building robots, and searching for stars are just a few cool extras that give the game a lot more depth. Around the start of the game, every night when Mae sleeps you go through some creepy dream sequences. These involve running around a blue and unnerving version of Possum Springs looking for four musicians. Although these are fun to play through, they won’t make much sense until later on in the game, so enjoy the experience rather than questioning the meaning.
Night In The Woods is, in my opinion, a perfect video game. Although some people aren’t big fans of narrative-driven games, I still think everyone can find something to love about the experience here.
There’s a lot of really good representation of the LGBTQ+ community, which is always nice to see. Whether you’re focusing on the simple yet stunning art, the beautiful quotes from the characters, or anything else the game can offer, I hope that anyone who plays Night In The Woods loves it as much as I do.
There is your Nindie Spotlight on Night in the Woods! Join us next time for another brief look into the Nintendo Switch’s best Nindie titles. What are some of your favorite indie games? Let us know in the comments below! Thank you for visiting Nintendo Link.
