Koira is a heartfelt journey taking you through the elements of companionship, survival, and artistic wonder.
Emotionally story-rich games are aplenty in the market, but when you add an adventure with cuteness to it, there are not many you can name. When Koira was first revealed back in August 2023, I was already intrigued to check it out, even though it was Studio Tolima’s first game.
There’s another reason behind it: DON’T NOD is among my favorite publishers. Having played Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, followed by Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, Koira reminded me of the cozy experience I had from Jusant. Not only is Koira an emotionally immersive experience, but it’s also a visually stunning and thought-provoking game, just what I needed to take a break from The First Berserker: Khazan.
Firstly, Koira’s visual appeal is truly remarkable. The hand-painted art style is stunning. The world is full of grayscale tones with vibrant flashes of color highlighting essential elements. This impressive artistic approach makes every frame feel like a living painting, and it’s not just for show; the colors are purposefully used to highlight emotional moments, creating a visual story that goes along with the story.
The developers’ design choice made Koira stand out because it mixes beauty and danger. On occasion, the world seems friendly and open, but there are also places where it feels hazardous. The game excels in this contrast, weaving stories through its environments to create suspense.
There are times when you stop to enjoy the beauty of the simple and profound surroundings you travel through. The game’s art direction, which enhances the entire experience, is among its best features. Trees, mountains, and a little area of the landscape seem to have been thoughtfully created, making exploration enjoyable.
Then comes Koira’s story, it’s simple, but it makes you feel things. From that point on, you and a puppy start working together in a way that isn’t likely. Though this world is magical and dangerous, you become attached to the puppy and the things around you as you move through it.
The story isn’t complicated or full of pointless drama. Instead, it focuses on the relationship between the main character and the puppy, with survival, trust, and short-life themes. You’ll like how it makes you feel things without using too many dramatic story twists or focused conflict. It’s the kind of writing that feels real and pure and sticks with you as you play the game.
Koira’s pace is perfect; it knows when to end without staying too long. Some people might not like how short the game is, though, since it’s not the kind of thing you’ll spend hours and hours on. There’s not much reason to go back once you’re done. You like that the shortness works in its favor, though.
You will love how each place is more than just a way to get from one place to another. Each one has its personality and charm. Each new place you visit makes you feel like you are discovering something new. It ceases to feel like a linear path and instead transforms into an adventure where each decision serves a specific purpose.
In terms of Koira’s world design, the approach here is unique. That being said, it’s not precisely an open-world game, but it lets you visit many connected worlds that feel big and dynamic. You’ll see dense forests, frosty mountains, and peaceful groves as you travel across the land. Each was carefully created to make you feel like you’re living in this world.
To move forward, you must often look for secret ways, carefully avoid dangers, or solve puzzles. It is an excellent use of the environment to tell a story without saying a word, making the world feel alive and reactive to your actions.
You will experience a delightful blend of exploration, stealth, and light puzzle-solving in gameplay. The stealth techniques help you guide the puppy through dangerous areas, which is one of the main game mechanics. You have to sneak up on enemies while dodging hunters and their dogs, which makes the game more exciting.
Every meeting in Koira is more intense when you are leading a helpless animal through a dangerous world. The game is not overly complicated, but it challenges you to think ahead, plan your movements, and use your environment to stay safe. The game’s puzzles are mainly musical and really set it apart from other titles. You use sound a lot to figure out how to do things, and musical notes are both a tool and a way to talk to people.
Not only is this feature different, but it also makes the game more interesting. The puzzles are easy but fun, and they keep things interesting by breaking up the gameplay. You often need to listen carefully to the sounds around you to proceed, and it is a clever way to integrate the theme of music into the narrative and the gameplay.
If performance is an issue, you can be confident that the game functions flawlessly across a range of systems. The game doesn’t need the most powerful hardware, so a PC in the middle range should be able to run it fine. This game doesn’t need fancy graphics because the art style is simple but works well. This is good news for people who play on consoles.
The experience would be just as smooth on a more robust system, with no noticeable frame drops or other technical issues while playing. It is a short game, with most playthroughs lasting around three to four hours, but the emotional weight and quality of the experience make it well worth the cost. This is an excellent option if you are looking for a game that offers outstanding value without demanding too much of your time.
On the plus side, the best aspect is the storytelling. Long after you’ve finished playing, you can still feel the woodland spirit’s tender and unadulterated love for the puppy. The game’s artwork is yet another fantastic feature. You do not often see a game with such a unique way of looking at things.
The hand-painted style is beautiful and draws you in, and the fact that music is used as a way to play and tell the story is a unique and creative touch. You find that the game’s short length is one of its many good points. It doesn’t drag on and never tries to be something it’s not. There are, however, a few small bugs that you run into while playing the game.
Most of these are graphics-related bugs that cause the graphics to freeze or look funny for a short time, usually when moving from one area to another. Sometimes, the puppy doesn’t find its way ideally, and you must reset a path or wait for it to come up. These minor problems don’t take away from the overall fun of the game.
Even though Koira has a short, straightforward story that doesn’t feel like it needs to go on any longer, the replay value is limited, but that is acceptable given that the game is single-player, which you think is the right choice for this kind of intimate journey. The solitude of the experience you’ll find in this game enhances your emotional connection to the story and the world, making it an experience that you truly connect with on a personal level.
Ultimately, Koira is unquestionably worth playing if you’re searching for a brief but powerful gaming experience that will make you feel something and keep you thinking long after you’re done. It is a stunning, poignant, and engrossing experience that demonstrates that sometimes less is more.
