SEASON: A Letter To The Future Review for PlayStation 5

From a relatively new developer, Scavengers Studio, comes a very unique title called “SEASON: A Letter To The Future.” This experimental title is all about atmosphere, ambiance, and just basking in the beauty of the world around you. When this game was shown at a PlayStation State of Play event, I didn’t know what to make of it, there was a distinct style to the graphics, making everything almost look like a 3D oil painting, which does look stunning. But at its core there seemed like a title that had a very interesting mystery and something very meaningful it wanted to say to the audience of gamers. Fortunately, upon playing this game, it is indeed just that, and does it marvelously.

You play as a young woman named Estelle, who has never left her small village before to embark on a very interesting task. The season is about to change and the world as she knows it will be changed, so it’s up to Estelle to preserve this point in time by accumulating “keepsakes” in your journal. The mystery of what has happened in the past and what will be happening in the future is a very enthralling thing to learn about. There’s a very somber tone throughout, just knowing all this beauty you’re witnessing could be wiped away by some apocalyptic event. Estelle being tasked with this job is also really interesting, because since she hasn’t left her village before everything she experiences is for the first time.

So how does a game like this play? It’s essentially a road trip bicycling game, where you have access to a camera to take photos as well as an audio recorder to capture details of the areas you’re exploring. The game doesn’t really tell you how to play or really what to do to an extent, there isn’t even a Hud on the screen to muddle up your beautiful views, so filling up your journal with what keepsakes is mostly up to you. Once you collect enough keepsakes for a specific location you earn conclusions as well as stamps to decorate the pages of the journal. The dialogue is very well written, as well as the overall mystery, it’s evenly spaced out through the story keeping you hungry to uncover more. There is a lot you can do, so for completionists, be thorough! The biggest sell for “SEASON: A Letter To The Future” is actually not what it says, but what it doesn’t and how it makes you feel. Along with the music, playing the game is very relaxing, cycling around is just chill and almost therapeutic to a degree. I often had to stop and take screenshots so I myself could record some of the beauty I was witnessing.

There are a lot of themes at work here, preservation of the past, not making the same mistake twice, fear of change, being able to let go and move on… all done in a very beautiful and simple way, almost to a minimalistic sense, that make you fill in the gaps with your own imagination. As far as negative things, I don’t really have anything bad to say here. I suppose riding the bicycle can sometimes not be the smoothest experience, also wanting to look at your map can be frustrating since you can’t just push a button to look at it, you have to stop yourself on the bike, and take out the map to have a look, something that could be a bit tedious to players with a difficult sense of direction. All in all, I believe the developers set out to do exactly what they wanted to accomplish with this game, and it was a wonderful seven-hour experience.

9/10

For more information, visit: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/season-a-letter-to-the-future/

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Nick Navarro

Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87