Reindeer Story Review

 Reindeer Story is a turn-based RPG developed and published by Azzie and Smoggysoft. Inspired by Paper Mario, the Mario & Luigi series, Final Fantasy I through IX, and DELTARUNE, this game promises to bring RPG-style excitement to the festive season! You know, it is a little awkward to review this game in the middle of October, but I say… whatever. I don’t really celebrate Halloween, I’m Christmas all the way! So, is Reindeer Story a nice gift to receive on Christmas Eve, or is your gift money better spent on rent and your own presents?

Heroes come in all shapes and packages.

Jack Frost has stolen the six Grand Presents from Santa’s Workshop and the fate of the holiday season rests in the balance. You play as Lux the red-nosed reindeer where he and his friends, Robin and Wendigo, go on a quest to stop Jack Frost and prevent an Eternal Winter. A simple story that doesn't get more complicated than that. I should warn anyone looking to pick this up for some holiday fun, as for a game themed around Christmas, it has some surprisingly strong language and crude jokes that I didn’t expect from a game like this, not afraid to use words like “bastard” or “ass” and make jokes about nuts. If you're looking for a more family-friendly experience, proceed with caution. Although, with the language options of “Dummy” and “Jingle”, maybe it can be a little more appropriate. What are these languages? You may ask. Well, Dummy crashes the game while Jingle makes every single word either “Jingle” or “Bell”. I’m going to assume they’re going to add more languages later down the line.

Now let’s set off on a grand adventure across the world, which is diverse with biomes representing each season, from the cold festivities of winter to the scorching hot sands of summer. While you’re out exploring, you can jump, ram (which doubles as a sprint), and shoot beams from Lux's red nose to interact with the environment. You’ll even get access to a snowmobile which, to be honest, isn’t great to control. It’s far too fast and the control scheme is a little weird, which can lead to some frustration. Hazards will reduce the party’s health, so make sure you have plenty of healing items and drop a save before a platforming challenge. And that’s not mentioning Jack Frost’s forces scattered throughout the world, ready to take you down; so let's talk about the combat next.

Battles are fairly easy to understand. You have three options to choose from: Physical skills, Special skills, and items. Once you select an action, hitting the confirm button at the right time will enhance it, such as increasing damage or the effectiveness of an item. Once you’re done, it’s your opponent's turn. One of your party members will be selected to dodge their attacks in real-time in a quick bullet hell mini-game until you run down the timer. Some attack patterns are tricky to dodge though, but you can always bring up your guard to halve all damage temporarily in exchange for movement speed. However, don’t think you're completely defenceless. Z-Skills allow you to act on an enemy's turn. It’s quite generous because as long as you have some meter, you can do it whenever you want. It’s a cool feature that keeps you active and mindful in every single encounter. There are even unique mechanics in boss fights. It’s very fun.

Enemies also have weaknesses, based on what colour they are (red, blue, green). Based on what attack you choose, you either deal more damage or less. Now, I did find a slight problem: what if you’re red-green colour-blind? It’s not too much of a problem in the grand scheme of things but it would be nice if there was a colour-blind option just for optimal festive beatdowns.

Think carefully, Christmas hangs in the balance!

Speaking of optimal beatdowns, let’s talk about your party: Lux, Robin, and Wendigo. All three party members are highly customisable as you can equip them with a variety of skills via baubles found or bought throughout your adventure. You can even change your Z-Skill. The only limit is your equipment, which has slots and levels so you’ll need to think about what skills you’re bringing into battle. I liked that the game uses smaller numbers for stats instead of going into the hundreds or thousands. When you get really big numbers, it's much more impactful. Plus, given the battle system, you’re encouraged to try and dodge instead of tank hits because you don’t have the room to make a lot of mistakes, even when playing on Normal difficulty.

Now, on my playthrough, I ran into a few issues. The first equipment shop wouldn't let me buy anything but cookies for some reason. There weren’t even any cookies in there! It’s weird, but not as being able to interact with multiple things at the same time, even while in the menu, changing your equipment.

This is actually a harrowing jump.

I found Reindeer Story to be a nice game overall. It can be surprisingly naughty in terms of difficulty and writing, but I enjoyed the majority of the ride. The entire game takes place over six chapters, taking only 10 or so hours to beat, with a New Game+ mode, optional content, and a bunch of secrets to discover to tide you over until Santa comes to your town (or not, if you don't celebrate Christmas).

Reindeer Story is releasing on the 1st of November so if you’re feeling festive this holiday season, why not pick this up?