LostWinds is a beautiful and creative launch to a franchise, but its gameplay elements leave much to be desired.
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The Good:
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> The simple gameplay element of commanding wind is fun.
> Good puzzle design near the end of the game.
> Beautiful artistic design and in-game wind interaction keeps you enticed.
> Ambient music perfectly fits the style.
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The Bad:
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> The game is not creative enough with its elements making an overall easy experience.
> The cave levels present a bleak design that makes you want to leave them.
> Much too short of an experience.
> The lack in-game cues make the game difficult instead of the actual puzzles and gameplay.
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Introduction:
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Toku, a simple boy, wakes to Enril, a spirit that harnesses the power of the wind. Toku seems to come from a family of adventurers and Enril makes sure that Toku is no different. Toku's town, Mistralis, has a history of being attacked by Balasar, an evil being. LostWinds is the tale of Toku overcoming Balasar and his minions.
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Gameplay: 8.5
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LostWinds allows you to directly control two characters at once, Toku with the nun-chuck, and his wind spirit Enril with the Wii-mote. Toku is a completely hopeless character that can hardly run, barely jump, and has no strength whatsoever. However, the power of the wind grants Toku to ability to float (and eventually fly) and manipulate objects around him such as fire, water, and rocks. The execution of these elements is almost flawless but because of the inaccuracy of your own hand, frustrations may follow. Remembering that time stops when you press "A" will relieve most frustrations however.
While the fundamentals of the gameplay are excellent, the game design fails to explore the best uses of these elements. The final two puzzles of the game scrape the surface of what is possible with these elements, but the short length of the game means that this potential is not explored.
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Difficulty: Easy
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One of the biggest letdowns of LostWinds is its difficulty. The simple game design fails to produce a challenging experience. Difficulty instead comes in with the lack of on-screen cues, mostly in the final enemies and final boss of the game. Certain enemies require you to pull them from the ground from a small nub protruding from the ground. This hardly looks like anything while playing and an on-screen cue could have relieve the frustration. This is an incredibly small gripe that most might have not encountered, but it is an example of bad design.
However, as said above, Frontier only scraped the surface for future possibilities of the LostWinds franchise.
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Graphics: 8.0
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The quasi-3D of this game is truly enticing thanks to some brilliant in-game wind effects and depth-of-field blur. The art is truly fantastic and the engine running the game is more than functional. Mistralis is gorgeous, but the underground caves lack the life that makes the game so beautiful.
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Sound: 8.0
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LostWinds has one fantastic track and it is displayed in several occasions. Luckily, this track is varied and intriguing. The other in-game music is calming and also good, but not memorable.
The sound effects of the wind and the people are well implemented and successful in what they are meant to display. Good sound design all around.
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Replay Value: 4.0
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Sadly, this game is three hours long. While the experience is great, it is far too short and does not offer enough to make you want to play it again. You might be enticed to go back to see the world and hear the music, but you will leave dissapointed because of the lack of new content.
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Overall: 7.5
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LostWinds is a fantastic game while it lasts, there is no denying it, but even at its ten dollar price tag, the game offers far too little and is too easy to be placed among the top-tier downloadable games this generation. Future LostWinds titles have an excellent base to start from and will hopefully be more difficult and present a longer experience.