Season A Letter to the Future is an atmospheric third-person game about preserving a piece of the past so it can live on into the future. Developed by Scavengers Studio, Season is only the second game the studio has created, right next to 2020’s battle royale release, Darwin Project.
The game tells the story of a young woman traveling the world, recording the life and culture of the people that lived in the world before the season ends and everything is lost forever. It is mostly seen through a third-person perspective with optional bike segments in between locations.
Our female protagonist, upon being told of a prophecy by her friend that the end of the season is coming, embarks on a journey to preserve the past before it is lost. Her ultimate goal is to travel the world, record everything she sees, and deposit that knowledge inside the illustrious museum vault where future generations may have a window into the past.
Season A Letter to the Future mostly sees the player interacting with objects, taking pictures, and recording audio clips from various locations and people. All the information you memorialize is recorded in your journal and arranged in whatever way you see fit.
You will spend the majority of the time observing your surrounding, carefully taking down notes on anything noteworthy, and coming up with conclusions on what they might have been. There are only a handful of people to talk to in the game but interviewing them is the most captivating part of the game. The characters are so well-written that you feel drawn to this world.
I don’t want to give too much away but all I can say is that there is an element of sadness and acceptance to all their tales. Thankfully, with a little help from us, they are able to come to terms with their past and ultimately let go.
The game has this sort of cell-shaded look that is simply beautiful to look at. This art style matches perfectly with the bike segments. I can spend considerable time on the bike going around the entire map and not feel tired of watching everything go by.
From what I can tell, the characters don’t appear to be speaking. Whether that was a conscious design decision or not, it didn’t matter to me. The expressions and gestures are what sold me to the whole thing. Heck, it even started to feel like this game’s unique style, the more I thought about it.
Since this is more of an atmospheric game, background music is few and far in between. But whenever it comes up, it comes with a melodic tune. Actually, in context with everything going on around it, it comes off as haunting most of the time.
If I have somewhat negative to say about the game is that the game just ends abruptly. At first, I was surprised at how the game ended. I was actually expecting it to go a little longer. But it didn’t. I didn’t even get the sense that I was close to the destination. It was like I was in the first location in an RPG and I was leaving for the neighboring nation.
After giving myself another moment to reassess everything, I came to the realization that this was fitting. I wanted to explore more and meet other people, and in the excitement of all that, I forgot about the prophecied end of the season. Maybe there will be a sequel one day, I can always look forward to that.
The game also comes with a bit of jankiness. You can get stuck in certain places but you can simply head back to the main title and continue where you left off. This is not uncommon with many indie titles, and I can confidently say that the story far outweighs such shortcomings.
Season A Letter to the Future is a short, yet beautiful tale about holding on to what’s important. Sadly, there are mysteries here that are yearning to be solved but time wouldn’t allow it. But If you’re the kind of gamer that likes to play at a slow, meaningful pace, to understand the world your characters live in, and to know what makes that world tick, then you’re going to like this game.
