A big little adventure for an incredibly charming mouse
When Moss originally hit the PSVR back in February of 2018 I was blown away. What really excited me about VR gaming then, was the possibility of new twists on old favorites and man did Moss deliver. A combo 3rd person/1st person action-adventure title, starring an adorable little mouse, with an engaging story, a beautiful world, and clever puzzles? Yes, please and thank you. It was immersive in a way few games really had been before, and I really thought that VR was going to take over in a big, bad way. The little interactions in Moss, between Quill and the Reader, us, were so effortlessly charming and earnest.
Her little dances after a hard-fought battle, looking up at us after a difficult section of gameplay, waiting for a high five before moving on to the next screen, it all felt so brand new. The sequel, Moss Book II, hit in 2022 and further pushed the envelope of what VR gaming could, and should be. So, one could imagine the trepidation I felt as Polyarc announced that both Book I and II of Moss would be reworked into a standard display experience for modern consoles called The Forgotten Relic. Thankfully after finishing the game, I can say I had nothing to worry about.
MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: PlayStation (reviewed), Xbox, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99
The Forgotten Relic is largely unchanged from the previous VR titles. The main concern obviously is the camera and the loss of the ability to “look” around the playfield as the Reader. Thankfully this has been handled by wonderful camera work that always puts the focus exactly where it needs to be. The game opens within the same library as we are introduced to Quill, tiny mouse, big adventurer. As her reader we are given the ability to interact with her world as the story unfolds. What used to be done in VR is now controlled by the right thumbstick and the right trigger, a design choice that works incredibly well. The ability to interact with objects, enemies, and Quill herself is intact and feels just as satisfying as it did in VR. Movement is controlled with the left thumbstick and combat/jumping/dodging with the face buttons.
It may take newcomers a minute to get the hang of the controls, but the game itself does a wonderful job pacing its early sections and giving players the space to figure things out. It’s a welcome choice as once the game gets going, it really never lets up. Almost every room is either puzzle based, combat based, or a mixture of both with a few sections left for exposition. Those storyline bits remain some of my absolute favorite parts of the game. The narrator, Morla Gorrondona, who has been in a ton of stuff you’d recognize, delivers the lines like a parent reading a bedtime story to their kid. She does “voices” for different characters in the story but never in a way that you cannot tell it’s her. It’s very effective and lends the entire experience a real fairy tale atmosphere.
The story itself is surprisingly mature and may seem at odds with the overall look of the game at first. We learn that the kingdom of Moss has been taken over by the Arcane and evil snake named Sarfogg. The king is killed and the leader of his kingsguard, Argus, leads the survivors away to safety with the help of the Champion. This Champion, made powerful by a mysterious artifact known as Glass, is injured in the battle with the Arcane and dies soon after the people find their new home. In his final resting place a tree grows, covering the Glass that gave him power. Later, Quill is out adventuring and finds the Glass beneath the tree. This glass connects Quill to us, the Reader, and off we go together. We make our way to Argus, Quill’s uncle, who is none too happy that a Reader has chosen Quill to be the next champion. He rushes off but is captured by Sarfogg forcing us to head out and save him. And after making our way through lots of clever little puzzles and combat sequences we get to the final showdown with Sarfogg.
It’s a very well-done sequence of platforming that is very satisfying to run through. After defeating Sarfogg the game ends and we are set up for Book II. The story takes place immediately following the events of Book I and sees us attempting to gather more Glass to defeat the evil owl Tylan, an excellent creature design. Along the way we meet a fellow adventurer Sahima, who fights with a Chakram instead of the usual sword like Quill. Without spoiling anything her section is really well timed and very emotional. As we reconnect with Quill we gain a few new combat abilities that lead to some interesting puzzles. The final sequence in Book II is really something special with a shifting perspective that works just as well on a flat screen display as it does in VR. The ending feels earned, a rare feat in a lot of modern games. It is hard not to feel emotionally connected to this world since we have been integrated into it so well. It’s not often I roll a tear playing a videogame but Moss got a few out of me.
The only real downside to the Moss experience is the combat. While Book II does a lot to alleviate some of the tedious feeling surrounding the combat sections, they seem to go on a bit too long in my opinion, especially towards the end of each chapter. The boss fights are clever and interesting and really fun puzzles to solve; the regular combat is a mix of slashing or bashing the same enemies over and over again. The Arcane army may be strong, but they are not very well diversified. There are a scant few different enemy designs which, while interesting in their own right, get rather old after the umpteenth time seeing them. That said, the rest of the world is just so engaging that it doesn’t really matter in the end.
The transition to standard screens has done nothing to limit just how pretty this world is. Moss is gorgeous and really nails the sense of scope and scale we feel as an outsider looking down into a tiny world. I was just as hooked playing through this collection as I was when they released in VR. I sincerely hope that Moss finds its audience with this release. The world of Moss is rife with potential. Quill is about as endearing a main character as there is and there is room for so much more. Polyarc have done a wonderful job translating a VR experience to standard screens and deserve a ton of love for doing so.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.