Windbound is a survival action-adventure game developed by 5 Lives Studios and authored by Koch Media for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Stadia. Unfortunately, while the visuals of Windbound are stunning, the gameplay is almost painful to experience through, creating an incredibly disappointing experience.
In Windbound, you play as a girl stranded within the ocean. To locate the right path to wherever you originated from, you must visit numerous islands, unlocking their secrets and progressing past sea monsters.
One from the first letdowns with Windbound is the story. In a way, Windbound honestly may have been better if it hadn't attempted a story whatsoever coupled with relied completely on the survival aspect of the game. Nothing from the story is coherent, other than “girl is shipwrecked, fix it.” There's some kind of narrative happening with the monsters and some tapestries that appear among chapters, as well as the lifetime of me, I could not tell you what any one of it means.
Plus, as a survival game, Windbound's default mode implies that if you die, you start over completely. Not right from the start from the chapter, but right from the start from the game. This would have been fine whether it was a roguelike. Like a game having a narrative through line, however, it made dying incredibly frustrating. Dying in survival games should really challenge you so that in your next run, you perform a little better. While this element is still present in Windbound, there's a massive difference between being delivered back Twenty minutes and gaining knowledge from your mistakes than getting delivered back four, five or even six hours.
Of course, there is an easier way of players who don't want this experience, but the game actively discourages you against picking it. The easier mode restarts you against the beginning of the chapter rather than the beginning of the game, but the text makes it clear this is the inferior way to play.
Windbound gets increasingly disappointing came from here. The survival mechanics feel hollow and, at times, completely unnecessary. I wanted to dive deep into the game, learning the ins and outs of building, forage and hunt to survive, but everything felt too unequal. Not in the manner a survival game should, either.
I rarely felt like my wherewithal to take down a pet was my fault. Often, my weapons were simply not effective and I couldn't build better ones because regardless of what island I visited, none of the materials I needed existed. After i did have the ability to kill something and get food, it would sustain me, but barely.
My strategy turned to foraging, searching for berries or things that were dropped on the ground just to keep my meters up. This wasn't particularly hard, though, and made the survival aspect of the game irrelevant, leaving only sailing and exploration for me to dive into.
Unfortunately, as beautiful as the world is, it's empty. There isn't much to see, and also the islands you find all have the same. Each chapter felt just like a repetitive slog, trudging through empty oceans and unexciting islands to climb towers, find items and gather food.
Again, though, at least the world was visually attractive to take a look at. Windbound is the best extension of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker with its cel-shaded, vibrant colors. Additionally, the background music in Windbound is beautiful too, with soft, touching piano pieces that capture the atmosphere of drifting with an empty ocean perfectly.
Overall, though, Windbound's visual and atmospheric aesthetic cannot save the gameplay. I wanted to love Windbound like a fan of survival games and cel-shaded visuals, but the world was too empty and uninteresting to help make the adventure worth it. The survival mechanics were almost unnecessary, making the trek with the world feel much more pointless and empty of computer should have. Windbound is an attempt to combine narrative, survival, exploration and aesthetic into one package and fails on every count.
Windbound is available now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Stadia.
