Sometimes you know what to expect when starting a game. Other times things, take you by surprise. Wind and Leaves definitely caught me by surprise. Check out our Wind and Leaves review!
Stranded in a barren landscape, you are the only being capable of mastering the ancient art of growing vegetation. Journey across the Steppe to gather ancient dormant varieties. Learn to read the signs of the various climates, awaken old landmarks, and grow your own forests in this VR flora builder.
· A flora builder: Grow a verdant forest from nothing and create different tree species to adapt to the various biomes and weather.
· A world’s past to uncover: Explore an intriguing ever-changing world on your stilts, a locomotion system specifically made for PlayStation®VR. Stumble on ancient structures and awaken them to discover their secrets.
· A VR Symphony: Enjoy a stunning VR experience featuring player-grown trees backed by a living soundtrack that reacts to the world around you.
After watching the trailer for Wind and Leaves from Trebuchet to see what I was about to get myself into, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what the gameplay would be. I figured it would be a chill experience, planting trees and growing things. While it has this to offer, it’s that plus so much more. You’re going to need two PlayStation Move controllers for this one, so charge them up so that you can dive into Winds and Leaves!
The basic gameplay loop has you wandering around a wasteland as you try to bring it back to life. At first, it gave me some Flower vibes, which is not a bad thing! While sharing themes with Flower, Wind and Leaves is such a different experience as you are playing in PlayStation VR and need to be very hands-on. The game does a great job onboarding you early on, showing you all of the gameplay mechanics.
Your life is directly linked to the green. You will start to lose it if you wander too far away from greenery, so what do you need to do is plant trees as you go, creating a path of green to keep you alive. It’s not just that simple to plant trees. You need to collect fruit to plant, and you need to make sure that fruit in that soil will grow as well. Once you’ve planted the tree, you then have a device that moves time forward so that they’re big enough so that you can repeat the process.
It’s a really interesting gameplay loop that leads to some really chill gaming sessions, not worried about shooting people or hacking slashing away. Growing the trees is really neat, and as time moves forward, you see the world flash around you through night and day, which is very cool. You can also climb trees. It’s a very unique experience on PlayStation VR!
There is a story as well, but you really have to look for it. There are clues in the environment that will let you know what has happened to this world, motivating you to bring it back to its former self. You will find different biomes which will change what you’re planting, or maybe you’ll need to cross fruit together to get the right product to grow in different soil. It’s a process that instantly clicks with you as you progress through the game.
From a visual perspective, Wind and Leaves has a very interesting art style focusing on low poly visuals giving the world a real muted tone. It’s a look that works perfectly for this chill experience, allowing you to focus on the world around you at all times.
Wind and Leaves is a super chill game with an easy gameplay loop that will keep you coming back. I had a great time with it. My only complaint is the run time can seem a bit long, but complaining about a meaty game on PS VR is a rare occurrence. This is a unique experience that you should check out and one that will take you around 10 hours or so to complete, which is definitely longer than expected! Winds and Leaves is out on PlayStation VR with a $39.99 price, and if you hurry up, you can advantage of a 20% discount.
Disclaimer
This Winds and Leaves review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by Trebuchet.
