Woodo from The Monk Tales and Daedalic Entertainment is a relaxing puzzle game built around wooden objects and light spatial association. You play as Foxy, a young fox who leaves her familiar city life behind for a summer in the countryside, where she discovers a very different way of living. Learn more in our Woodo review!
Woodo is a cozy diorama puzzle game where you assemble wooden scenes piece by piece. As you place objects in their correct spots, each scene slowly fills with color and comes to life, revealing charming animations and small surprises. Follow the story of Foxy and Ben the frog through a series of interconnected dioramas, each capturing a unique moment from their shared adventure.
A Summer in the Countryside
In Woodo from The Monk Tales and Daedalic Entertainment, you’ll get to meet Foxy, a fox who is used to her online city life, with the internet and all the entertainment and convenience that come with it. Needless to say, she isn’t particularly thrilled when she finds herself spending the summer in the countryside, away from everything she’s familiar with. Her time there is spent with Ben, a frog who lives a very different kind of life. At first, Foxy is understandably annoyed about being outside her comfort zone, but as she gets to experience the countryside and learn more about Ben’s lifestyle, her attitude gradually starts to change. The story is narrated and unfolds in small pieces as you continue playing, giving you a little more context as you make your way through the different scenes. It’s a simple story, but it fits nicely with the game’s relaxing nature.
A Relaxing Puzzle That Keeps Evolving
Woodo keeps its core gameplay simple. Wooden objects appear on the screen, and you can pick them up with the X button before moving them to their designated locations within the scene. The tutorial is particularly clever, as it uses the game’s own logo to teach you the basic mechanics. It’s a small touch, but I appreciated how it introduces the concept without stopping the game for a traditional tutorial.
I particularly enjoyed the first few scenes, where you’re guided through smaller sections and have a set number of pieces to place. As you progress, the game gradually changes how you approach each scene, asking you to pay closer attention to your surroundings. This creates a nice jigsaw-puzzle-like progression. You start by finding the obvious pieces, then slowly work your way toward the ones that require more observation. By the second half of the game, some objects can be very well hidden, making the process of searching through each scene much more satisfying when you finally spot what you’re looking for.
Some objects are also locked behind smaller sections of a scene, requiring you to complete one area before gaining access to others. The built-in hint system becomes increasingly useful as you progress, especially when you’re certain something is still missing but can’t quite figure out where to look.
The camera is controlled by pressing and holding down a shoulder button while moving the analog stick. It generally works well, but since the scenes are relatively small, moving the camera around them takes some getting used to. It didn’t feel completely natural to me at first, and this becomes more noticeable as the game starts hiding objects in harder-to-find locations.
I also noticed that after playing for around 30 to 45 minutes, I started feeling slightly nauseous from the constant camera movement around small scenes. This is obviously a personal experience and won’t necessarily affect everyone, but it’s something worth keeping in mind if you’re sensitive to camera movement.
A Beautiful Wooden World
The wooden block worlds are beautifully designed, and the visual aspect of Woodo is definitely one of the game’s highlights. Each scene has a charming handcrafted feel that works perfectly with the game’s overall atmosphere. Woodo also runs at 60 frames per second, which helps keep the experience smooth as you move around the different environments.
The soundtrack is another great fit for the game. It’s mostly made up of relaxing piano music composed by Donald Roberts, and there’s even a bonus section in the main menu where you can listen to the soundtrack directly. That’s a great little touch, especially for a game designed around such a chill atmosphere.
The game has a Platinum trophy, with a trophy list that includes 8 Bronze trophies, 10 Silver trophies, and 6 Gold trophies. Some will be unlocked naturally as you progress through and complete levels, while others are earned for completing specific feats. Unfortunately, a few of the trophies appear to be bugged. I completed the requirements for some of them without having the trophies pop up. The good news is that closing and reopening the game allowed me to unlock some of them, but others would have required me to replay an entire level, which can take more than 30 minutes. This is something that the dev team can hopefully address with a patch.
Final Thoughts
Woodo is a charming and relaxing puzzle game that gradually turns its simple object-placement mechanics into a satisfying search through beautifully designed wooden worlds. I really enjoyed how the gameplay evolves throughout the experience. What starts as a straightforward introduction to the mechanics slowly becomes more like working through a real-life jigsaw puzzle, with the satisfaction of finding those last few pieces becoming more pronounced as the game progresses.
The camera isn’t quite as comfortable as I’d have liked, particularly during longer sessions, and the trophy issues are an unfortunate blemish. Still, the relaxing presentation, enjoyable soundtrack, and clever progression make Woodo an easy recommendation for players looking for a chill, low-pressure puzzle experience.
Woodo is out on September 16 on PlayStation 5 with a $19.99 price tag. You can also go ahead and get the Woodo – Endless Summer Edition for $24.99, which, along with the base game, also includes the Supporter Pack DLC, as well as the Soundtrack Pack DLC. These will give you access to the following:
-Woodo Original Soundtrack: 39 songs from the colorful world of Woodo
-3D models, ready to print, for you to print your very own figurines of Foxy and Ben
-2D print templates for a poster of the in-game village map and a set of stickers
-Two extra colors for your in-game cursor-hand: “Foxy Orange” and “Ben Green”
-A sticker on the in-game map expressing our gratitude
A smartphone or other QR code reader will be needed for you to access some of this DLC content.
Disclaimer
This Woodo review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Daedalic Entertainment.
