SEASON: A letter to the future

We doubt that many indies more beautiful than Season will pass through our console this 2023. Season is a contemplative experience that helps to break the rhythm of modern society and serves to rest and heal the soul. It's a pity that the controls are so bad and that the game is empty of meaning and message. As if you were passing a beautiful postcard through Instagram and filling it with hashtags and pose.

Season's ability to tell small human stories is admirable amidst its calming gameplay, even if it doesn't fully explore its big talking points.

More than anything else, Season is about the vibe it cultivates. Asking you to pause, actually look and listen to your surroundings, not just as a way to work on your journal but as a way of life. It is certainly a beautiful experience, one I couldn’t help but reflect on even after I’d put it down. But outside of that, it is a little bit short, and there doesn’t seem to be too much in the way of replay value. If you’re down with that vibe, you’ll find this a very relaxing experience with some entertaining worldbuilding and a few mysteries for suspense. However, being pretty much a one-off experience more like a movie may rub a lot of gamers the wrong way.

Quotation forthcoming.

Once you do find the paths you need to take, the story is over before it ever got going. The game's opening makes it feel like your character is embarking on a quest, but that journey ends after one stop. In that way, Season is structured like spring. You barely realize it's here before it's already gone.

Season: a Letter to the Future is strange. When everything works perfectly and you find yourself in front of one of the stupendous landscapes that make it up, which tell long stories without the need for many words, it is a work of art that leaves you speechless. The freedom given to the player to define the shape of Estelle's adventure and literally bring the season's sunset diary to life is a breath of fresh air, but not strong enough to take flight and the story ends up stopping after a few bars, interrupting a speech suddenly, giving the impression of having left something unfinished.

I cannot remember the last time I played a game I enjoyed this much that left me this unsatisfied when it was over. Because I did really love everything about SEASON: A letter to the future, from the incredible art direction to the wonderful sound mixing to Maureen Adelson’s restrained performance as the Protagonist. This is a game that has moved me in ways no other has, but no matter how much it gave me to think about, when it was over, the only thought in my head was, “Is that all there is?”

Season: A letter to the future offers plenty of moments of low-key beauty and, at its best, makes you truly feel part of a unique and enigmatic world on the verge of great upheaval. Unfortunately, the game’s abrupt ending and reluctance to make meaningful statements about the subjects it brings up may leave you questioning what it all meant. While an often-pleasant slice of virtual tourism, as a complete game this one feels a bit underseasoned.

Every system in SEASON seems to just be encapsulated by highs and lows. There will be something I'm really enjoying like the act of cycling, but then simultaneously an annoyance or disruption will creep in and spoil it. That is not to say there is nothing to enjoy within SEASON - quite the contrary, with the form of a great game clearly here. Aspects like the haptic feedback and active preservation excel within the game, but there is far too much clasping on the brakes to get the rhythm going, even in such a short game.

A poignant, slow-paced but ultimately shallow exploration of memory and legacy in a changing world, that also manages to be the world’s first cycle-based walking simulator.

Season’s unwillingness to paint the world in anything but the broadest strokes (“The country’s expansion caused a war. Internationalism was breaking down”) and penchant for flowery but meaningless language may have been influenced by a troubled development history. Part of Season’s development cycle was marked by allegations of workplace harassment and disorganised leadership, which became public in 2021. The game is enamoured with ideas of community and culture, but in appropriating real culture and removing it from context, it robs itself of its own message.

Season is an extremely chill game about leaving home for the first time, touring the world on a bike, and recording the wonders you find along the way. Also, the world might be ending, but no one is letting that ruin their day. While it’s filled with scenes of beauty, Season’s awkward pace and muddled message leave it feeling a little undercooked.

It has some pretty visuals and solid voice acting, but at the end of the day, there’s really not much more here than trying to give historical import to snapping that perfect Instagram moment.