When you're wandering the woods in search of answers, what does the fox say? Meet Leah, the furry, endearing protagonist of Foxtail. Her unassuming visit to Grandma's house deep in the forest leads to a whirlwind adventure involving family secrets and wistful nostalgia.
Inspired by the "games of yesterday" such as Legend of Kyrandia, King's Quest, and Monkey Island, this point-and-click mashes old-school design with the smoother high-tech animation available to modern developers. While playing, I was also reminded of other games near and dear to my childhood, including the Reader Rabbit series, Barbie Rapunzel, and Homestar Runner's Peasant Quest. The juxtaposition of primitive pixelation to incredible detail offers a unique cartoonish style; as Leah passes by a raspberry bush, players observe how comically gigantic the berries look relative to the foliage. Inventory items may initially seem inappropriately big, but one may soon realize that an enlarged size is necessary to discern these plain objects from amongst the pixelation.
Similar to many traditional adventure games, the story of Foxtail develops throughout gameplay as Leah gathers items, chats with other characters, and discovers new locations. A characteristic special to Foxtail is the rich repertoire of commentary available when clicking on items and scenery. Unlike many adventure games that provide players with the same line over and over again when an item is selected repeatedly, FFoxtail will often continue to enrich the story or background context with successive clicks.
On the whole, Foxtail is thoroughly enjoyable; however, a couple features passed down from the games of yore should be tossed. Arrow direction and navigation can be awkward and unwieldy, and background scenery containing faux paths and abundant shrubbery - which conceals true trails -- leaves players unsure of where to go. In addition, once a spot or item is clicked, Leah must take a languorous stroll to the exact area selected before examining or taking anything. If players need to get from one side of the map to the other, they will unfortunately have to wait for Leah every inch of the way. A teleportation map and ability to examine items without walking to them would have benefitted the user interface significantly.
Foxtail, with all its endearing elements of old-school adventure, is available on Steam and Gog.com for $7 USD. If you have the change to spare, it is worth taking this half-day excursion.
Windows:
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Linux:
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You should maybe take the "free" tag off of this.
"background scenery containing faux paths"? mis-spelled "fox" there :-)
I'm not sure. I think it's 'faux' in the sense of artificial.
I will ask to the reviewer.
Hi Elmo,
This is a great learning opportunity for you. Please see the definition of "faux" below:
faux
fō
adjective
made in imitation; artificial.
"a string of faux pearls"
not genuine; fake or false.
"their faux concern for the well-being of the voters didn't fool many"
"Fox path" would be absolutely silly :)
It's one of the most beautiful games I've ever played...not only reminds of Legend of Kyrandia etc. visually, but some puzzles have different solutions like mid-90s games! The game will be huge, this is the first chapter only and took me about four hours to finish it. Now I'm looking forward to the next chapter, I hope it comes soon.
Update