Video Game Review: Wavetale

Developer/Publisher: Thunderful Games

Genre: Platformer

Reviewed On: PlayStation 5

Also Available For: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC

If I had a nickel for every game that came out in 2022 about exploring the flooded ruins of a city that hit me out of nowhere and very quickly became one of my faves, I’d have two nickels, which – what are the odds, eh? Between Submerged: Hidden Depths and Wavetale, I might almost start to think I might just be biased towards games like this – but I honestly doubt it, because Wavetale, like Submerged, really is just that good.

Wavetale is the story of Sigrid, a girl being raised by her grandmother in the ruins of a town called Strandville after a watery apocalypse. The game opens with a massive wave of gloom – a dark and toxic substance that gives rise to nasty animate globs of itself – washing over the region and Sigrid making friends with a mysterious sea creature that lets her surf across the ocean’s surface without need of a board. With this incredible new ability, it falls to Sigrid to clear Strandville’s remains of the gloom and free its inhabitants from horrible cocoons of the stuff.

There’s more I could explain about the game’s premise, but I shouldn’t. Not only would doing so rob you the reader of the joy of seeing it unfold for yourself, I really don’t need to because Wavetale’s world, when encountered by way of the game itself, is immediately fascinating. The writing is exceptional at conveying a great deal of information about what’s going on and what the vibe of the story is going to be in a very short amount of time while leaving enough unsaid that the player is instantly hooked. To be frank, I guessed much of the arc of the story in the first twenty minutes of what is a fairly short game (it took me around four hours to get through everything), but it presents itself so cohesively and heartfully you can’t help but feel you’re supposed to, and it’s all the more impactful for it.

And, of course, it does very much help that the voice cast do a phenomenal job of bringing the characters to colorful, emotional life.

However, it feels a little odd that the voice acting in Wavetale is so well delivered and mixed given that other aspects of the game’s sound design leave something to be desired. Aside from the dialogue and a wonderful soundtrack composed by the incredible Joel Bille, the sound mixing all feels a bit disconnected and weightless. The thwacks and smacks of combat with the gloom creatures are particularly affected by this problem, but traversal and ambience are also unsatisfying.

Speaking of which, the combat in Wavetale is extremely simplistic and easy, which would be fine if it didn’t lack a sense of impact in both sound and motion. As it is, it feels more than a bit unsatisfying, and is definitely the game’s weakest point. Fortunately, the easiness of it means it represents a very small portion of the game, allowing the surfing and platforming to take center stage in terms of the gameplay. The platforming is okay, but the surfing is wonderful, and I’m grateful that the chore that is the combat takes a backseat to it. Wavetale’s field-of-view effects are in a real sweet spot that grants gliding across the surface of the water a real sense of speed and elegance, a satisfying mechanical core that truly carries Sigrid and the player, in more than one sense, from one narrative beat to the next.

Despite being just as simplistic as – albeit more satisfying than – the other gameplay elements, the surfing doesn’t have time to get old before the game is over due dually to Bille’s, again, lovely score and the equally lovely visuals of the world Thunderful created. Both work in tandem to give different moods to the surfing/game in general at different points, sometimes serene and contemplative, sometimes stormy and urgent, with graceful transitions between. The character art is also wonderful, with a unique and weird shifting style to the faces that has to be seen rather than described and which reminds me so strongly of a comic artist’s style who I cannot for the life of me put my finger on. They’re on the tip of my tongue and have been for weeks.

Regardless, I feel very strongly that Wavetale is, despite its technical flaws, an extraordinary and special game. The schmoovement more than makes up for the combat, but honestly? Even for how much I loved schmoovin, it feels utterly unimportant compared to the charm and emotional resonance of the story and characters, which by themselves make this one worth playing. To put it in the abstract, this is the kind of game where you finish it and it makes your heart feel like its drifting peacefully through calm waters, staring up at a bright blue sky.