Hoa

Hoa is a spirited adventure with a relaxing atmosphere. While I wish it were longer for its launch price (with optional challenges), I’m confident I’ll replay it. The desirable aesthetics combined with goal-driven gameplay are too enjoyable a combination. Did this puzzle platformer go unnoticed by you this summer? It’s never too late to give it the attention it deserves.

Young players still green to the simple story ideas and to platforming fundamentals will find absolute magic in Hoa. The orchestral score and hand-painted backdrops have the power to whisk imaginations away like nothing else. The tried-and-true design of a modern platform game, while unsurprising to seasoned players, will delight budding gamers getting to know the genre. Apart from its closing stage, Hoa is a paint-by-numbers platformer – and the painting is exceptional, even if everything stays carefully inside the lines.

Unravelling the narrative and exploring the carefully crafted world in Hoa is both satisfying and rewarding. Fans of puzzle games like Flower or Journey will find the same sense of peace and emotional fulfillment, while those who enjoy Studio Ghibli-inspired art like the Nino no Kuni series will likely appreciate the hand-painted characters and backgrounds. Hoa is a puzzle game worth playing multiple times, as every new journey through the magical landscape reveals further details, and remains just as delightful as the first playthrough.

Hoa is a little audiovisual gem that invites us to live a relaxed adventure where the goal is to enjoy the journey, with no more worries than letting go and living the experience. Forget about enemies and great challenges, just let yourself be lost into the beautiful atmosphere.

Hoa is short and contains rather basic platforming and flawed controls. However, Hoa is also one of the most beautiful video games ever made, with preposterously strong visuals and music that will be remembered for years to come. It's up to you if the latter can make up for the former, but personally, I would recommend this game to almost anyone.

Hoa asserts itself as a nice little independent parenthesis, at the crossroads between the gameplay of Ori and an artistic direction at studio Ghibli. The latter is also a success in every way, whether in terms of sets, chara design or animation. A colorful dreamlike epic galvanized by Johannes Johansson's musical composition. Unfortunately if the visual is inspired and inspiring, it just lacks a dose of challenge and innovation in the gameplay to make the platform unforgettable. Two elements that can only be found in the conclusion of the work, enough to leave regrets.

Hoa looks to offer up a relaxing experience first and foremost though, and because of its amazing aesthetics it largely succeeds in this aim – but it’s still hard to overlook its lack of ambition in the gameplay department.

Hoa is a beautiful but brief puzzle-platform adventure that made for a relaxing evening’s worth of entertainment. It features no major physical threats nor any puzzles that are particularly obtuse, so cruising through its hand-painted slices of nature gave me a pleasantly zen-like experience. It’s a shame that the substantially more inventive final sequence wasn’t fleshed out even further, and I wish there were some additional reasons to explore its small selection of environments. But otherwise Hoa is a breezy little jaunt that’s all chilling and no killing.

Hoa is short and, at times, you’ll be forgiven for forgetting you’re even playing a game. That’s not all bad, though: Hoa gives you room to breathe, to escape into its spectacularly-painted world for relaxation rather than challenge.

Hoa doesn't do anything strictly wrong. It is not broken, or bad, or worse still boring. It's a delicately enjoyable time in a whimsical land, with a simple story of a child wanting to return home. The issue here is that it doesn't do much that's different, either. It's the kind of platforming you've seen in 2D games infinite times before, and you will likely experience again and again. It's short, it's sweet, and if you simply want to turn your brain off and not experience anything particularly new, it's not the worst path you could tread.

It’s a shame Hoa doesn’t try to do more with its fantastic art design, as its non-challenging puzzle/platforming mechanics have already been employed more successfully by contemporaries. It might be beautiful, but Skrollcat Studio’s title offers a quietly milquetoast experience that reaches its anticlimactic conclusion before it has time to blossom.

Beyond such exquisite splendor from visual and musical perspectives, Hoa proves simple, if not simplistic, just like the adventure's minimalist, ephemeral nature may reflect the lack of original ideas. A nonetheless passionate tribute to Skrollcat Studios' wondrous inspirations.

Though nothing impacted gameplay (likely because there isn’t much to speak of), there were several instances of stutter that really marred the beautiful presentation on display. I understand that there is certainly an audience for the type of light gameplay experience that Hoa provides, and so long as you understand that going in you will at the very least be in for a treat with its visual and auditory splendor. And should you have someone who would benefit from how easy it is to play, Hoa could be the perfect fit, not to mention an excellent way of building admiration for the dying world around us.