Pine Hearts Review

Pine Heartscan be described as a cute little metroidvania that involves exploring the camping sites around the mountain trail of the titular Pine Hearts. Playing as Tyke, you travel by train to the trail that you and your father visited when you were a child. With cute little characters (they kind of look like Tic Tacs with limbs) and some amusing dialogue, it’s hard not to relax.

With one single large map to explore, each area is interconnected. The downside of that is there is a bit of a loading time. Sometimes, Pine Hearts would lag a little when I went to a new area, and there were some moments where one character would disappear and then reappear at a random point in the Caravan Park. While this wasn’t a dealbreaker for me, it was a little bit jarring when you’re travelling around one area.

But, like I said, that isn’t the end of the world. Personally, I enjoyed how each area was interconnected with one another until you could reach the summit of Pine Hearts. Tyke apparently lived or holidayed there a lot as a kid, and with it, he starts to remember how he and his dad explored the park. You can get new items, such as shovels, fishing rods, bug nets, and hammers, by doing quests and talking to different characters. There are some fun little adventures, including one where you have to find a mysterious cryptid in the area and scare off some crows that have taken over the Caravan Park.

Upon completing each quest, which you could check the progress of in your dad’s old journal, you would be given water droplets. You need to collect a certain number of each water droplet to unlock a new memory, and each memory will give you a new physical ability. These abilities include: leaping, pushing trees down, lifting rocks, and climbing. To do any of these, you need to follow the timed controls on the screen, which involve moving your joystick in specific directions when prompted and holding the bottom face button.

Tyke isn’t allowed on the trail until you’ve completed all the quests. When you’ve unlocked a memory, you’re presented with a childhood memory of Tyke’s, which includes some child-like pictures that he drew as a child. These pictures, combined with how Tyke remembered his childhood memories, allow you to see the different ways he views Pine Hearts as an adult when compared to back then. In all honesty, I really enjoyed the memories, especially when they included stealing dinosaur eggs, fighting goblins, and escaping a sea monster.

Of course, his adult quests are a lot more mundane in terms of the people you meet, but you can collect specific items for a camper or even mow the lawns of the local golf course. Each minigame is short, but it’s still a lot of fun. It was hard not to like the characters, and Tyke’s story was compelling. Upon reaching the summit, I thought that we would have to deal with using more of the abilities he’d gained, but instead, we explored the summit with a mixture of his childhood drawings. It was clearly a game focused on giving Tyke closure, as it was the last time he’d spent with his father before he passed. So, while it was a cosy game, it was, in a way, bittersweet.

When considering Pine Hearts as a whole, I did notice a few things that could be a little jarring. Notably, a few lagging bugs, but otherwise, they weren’t too alarming. However, I did find that there were times when I did a quest, but the quest wouldn’t disappear from the journal or be marked as completed; this pretty much led me to believe that I wasn’t done with one quest and I would have to travel across the map all over again. Considering there’s no fast travel here, it was a little bit frustrating. Especially because the map isn’t the easiest to navigate, so there was a lot of random running around. Considering you’re already set on the default high speed, it could take a bit of time, and I wish that there was a way to go even faster, especially when going from one side of the map to another.

Overall, I enjoyed Pine Hearts, especially in the context of reconnecting with fond childhood memories. The music is calming, the animations are cute and bright, and the style is simple yet unique. If I ever need to chill out and relax, I think I’ll return to Pine Hearts again, as I don’t think playing it once will detract from the experience.