I was very glad to be wrong about that, but I wish the pacing had not made me doubt it at all. I thought I might not get all four seasons until just before the end of the game and never get to use them to their full potential. You only begin with access to winter, and you pick up summer when you reach the town in the second region (which will be roughly one to two hours into the game if you take your time). It also set an expectation that I would not have access to all four seasons. It went on for so long, though, that I began to wonder if the game had large, themed dungeons at all. The first few hours of the game are spent on story setup and easing you into mechanics. It took me more than three hours to reach the first full dungeon, the Summer Temple. ![]() However, I must also follow this with my first critique: it takes longer than I would prefer to reach the first full dungeon. ![]() The main objective is to collect Light Cores, but you have to play for a few hours before the main quest really begins. It’s not an exaggeration to say that you can view any area of the game in four different ways. You can have three seasons opened in spheres in any area (with the fourth season already being naturally in the area), and you can activate them anywhere. There are few restrictions on what you can do with the seasons. I really enjoyed messing around and seeing what would happen when I mixed-and-matched the seasons around. It opens up an incredible number of possibilities for exploring and interacting with the world. I will start by saying that I think the developers made a great decision by giving the player access to all four seasons before the first full dungeon. Manipulating the seasons to solve puzzles is fun and feels great! You will use all four seasons to travel across Valdi, fight enemies, and solve puzzles. This manipulation of the seasons is the main gameplay hook. For example, you can temporarily rebuild the melted ice bridges in Yule by creating a winter sphere in the place where the bridge existed. To do that, Ary uses the Medallion of Seasons, which can override the season the area is currently in to create a sphere of another season. When the guardians of each region call a meeting to solve the problem, Ary, the daughter of the Winter Guardian, sneaks out of town, takes her father’s place at the meeting, and sets out to restore balance to the seasons of Valdi. The same events are happening across the entire world of Valdi, with each region in chaos after their way of life is disrupted by an unfamiliar season. Just a little girl on her way to a secret Guardian meeting.
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