The Wild at Heart
Summary
The Wild at Heart is an action adventure game where you use these little creatures called spritelings to collect items, solve puzzles and help out the population in the forest you've found yourself lost in.The Wild at Heart on Steam
So what do you do
You play as Wake and his best friend Kirby who have decided to run away together only to promptly get lost in the vast forest right outside their home, with no way back. Initially you play only as Wake and before he's reunited with Kirby he meets an old man who introduces him to Spritelings, essentially the main mechanic of the game.
Spritelings are little forest spirits that come in several different types (fire, ice and spiky for instance) and whatever you throw them at, they'll help you out with, whether that's fighting dangerous forest creatures, gathering more seedlings for you to hatch to get more spritelings, or carrying twigs to create bridges and items to help out the villagers of the forest.
The Wild at Heart is strongly inspired by Pikmin, and I guarantee you'll enjoy this game if you like the Pikmin series. The Spritelings even die as brutally as Pikmin do when you mess up. God, those screams
Aside from Pikmin death the story is quite simple but really charming, as are all the characters you meet who dwell in the forest aside from the Spritelings. And throwing Spritelings at tasks with wild abandon is fun as hell to boot
When should I play this game?
Spend some time The Wild at Heart if:- You like Pikmin (like cmon i cant word it differently this game is the pikminniest game that ever pikmin'd outside of pikmin)
- You like narratives about family and discovering yourself, and making your own decisions
- You like adventure games with minor management elements