This game came as a complete system shock. About an hour from here is a town with a name that's a barely disguised synonym for "Possum Springs", and I may or may not have lived in the real life analogs for both "Hunwick" and "Bright Harbor". So, you can imagine my surprise when starting this up and seeing so many deeply familiar things appear on screen. Here we go, Smelters, am I right?

Night in the Woods completely nails the sense of ennui I feel only more strongly with every subsequent visit to my hometown since moving out: things are recognizable on the surface, but underneath have been weathered by the passage of time. Favorite hangout spots and local businesses replaced by big corporate brands, institutions once newly built now fallen into disrepair, the childhood homes of friends under new ownership as everyone has gradually moved away to start their own families - and a feeling of "stuckness" in everyone who still remains. You can really sense that this game was written by someone who lived this, by someone who feels this ennui in the very stardust that makes up their atoms.

Based on that alone, I was destined to connect with this game. The fact that it's also heavily inspired by Twin Peaks and features a boldly unique art direction paired with a bangin' soundtrack slots Night in the Woods comfortably into the realm of "totally my shit". Beyond that though, everything about this game lives up to its hype as an indie darling and I simply cannot recommend it enough - especially if you've ever felt the crushing weight of living in a former labor union town well past its prime.

gregg rulz ok

Sights & Sounds
- The art direction of this game is excellent; I love how the bold color palette allows the simplified geometry present in the character designs and environments to really pop. Despite the consistency, I never got bored of looking at the game in spite of multiple playthroughs
- I loved the music as well. The diversity in Night in the Woods's soundscape lends quite a helping hand to the complex and sometimes difficult themes the game addresses. You can hear a variety of musical influences mostly geared towards indie, alternative, and classic rock. Some favorites in particular included the Monster Magnet-esque stoner jam "Space Dragon" and the seemingly Motörhead-inspired "Pumpkin Head Guy"
- Having played bass for several years, I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on the sonic lower end. It's more than just roots and fifths!

Story & Vibes
- You play as Mae, a cat who's just returned home after dropping out of college for reasons she doesn't want to explain. Night in the Woods follows her story over the course of the following autumn season
- Thankfully, she's joined by her friends Gregg, Bea, and Angus (and a host of other wonderful side characters) to aid her with the struggles she faces in returning home
- I'm being intentionally vague with the story because it's such a great experience. If you've managed to avoid spoilers, please do yourself the favor of going in blind. Pretty much every aspect of the narrative was high quality, from the unpredictable wild ride of a plot to the masterful treatment of sensitive themes. There's so much more to depression that merely feeling sad, and Night in the Woods depicts those nuances poignantly and brutally
- It's not all negative energy, fortunately. Night in the Woods has a great sense of humor ("It's called body positivity, Bea, read the internet"). For every soul-crushing moment the game hits you with, there's at least 10 good laughs to follow to help lighten the mood
- I feel like I can't say enough about the characters in this game and how worth it talking to everyone is. Talk to everyone every chance you get, and explore to make sure you talk with everyone. Some of the best scenes in the game can only be experienced by investing time with more than just your core friend group

Playability & Replayability
- The central gameplay loop (with some day-to-day variation) in Night in the Woods goes something like: 1) Have a weird dream, 2) Wake up and talk to your mom, 3) Explore Possum Springs and talk to everyone you see, 4) Go to band practice and play a rhythm game, 5) Hang out with either Gregg or Bea, 6) Go home, talk to your dad, and go to bed
- Note how #5 says Bea OR Gregg. Hanging out with one of them will prevent you from hanging out with the other for that evening, so you'll need two playthroughs to see all the scenes. Don't worry, though, either choice is really good, but I'd maybe recommend hanging out with Gregg when you're given the option the first time if you plan to someday 100% the game
- I love the platforming elements here, especially the Mario-like triple jump. It's worth exploring Possum Springs' rooftops and power lines once access to them opens up. You'll miss out on a wealth of good content if you don't
- The rhythm game is a standout, but note that it can get really hard (particularly on the song Pumpkin Head Guy) if you're trying to play with a controller. I didn't feel like installing the game on my computer or connecting my keyboard to my Steam Deck, so I just mapped the face buttons to the shoulder buttons and let my Frequency/Amplitude muscle memory guide me
- There's lots of other little mini games (some of them recurring). I liked the variety and dose of silliness these injected into my playthroughs
- Normally, I wouldn't really consider 100%ing a story game that requires multiple playthroughs. Luckily, all of the side content is optional, so you can just power through the main story and see the Gregg/Bea scenes you missed in the first one. In all, getting all the achievements requires two full playthroughs and two partial playthroughs

Overall Impressions & Performance
- I first played through this title in 2017 not long after it released, and I always knew I'd want to return to it again. The writing was so good and the characters so memorable that I knew I'd wind up fully completing it someday
- If you've ever struggled with issues of confidence or identity or faced an uphill battle against anxiety or depression, Night in the Woods will likely resonate with you. Even though I can't relate entirely to Mae (I'm not a homebound, self-destructive, bisexual, college-dropout. Or a cat), the game managed to strike a chord. Several, really. I recognize my bias will show in my rating, but I connected to the story in a way I didn't expect
- Aside from the rhythm game being sometimes difficult on one or two songs when using a controller, the game is a great Steam Deck title

Final Verdict
- 10/10. If you only ever play one game about animals dealing with personal problems, be sure it's Night in the Woods

This game isn’t for me and that’s okay.

Honestly this game is the furthest thing possible from my tastes and I was really only pushed to play because it happens to be my significant other’s favorite game. I can’t even say I’m disappointed since I more or less got the experience I assumed I was going to get from the general look of things. The presentation with the animal people living in what looks to be a rust belt is nice to look at though it's far away from my preferred aesthetic in video games, but at least it looks crispy good even on the nintendo switch. Most surprisingly it has a very memorable soundtrack with me even humming some of its tunes even when I’m not playing it. In terms of its presentation and production value, there really isn’t much to complain about as its definitely something that looks and sounds good. How does it play though? I might have some issues.

So the main character is essentially this cat creature girl who returns to her hometown after dropping out of college. From there you can usually hang out with either Bea or Gregg while some main story stuff plays out. It's a serviceable formula that works well in its setting as lots of lore details about possum springs are sprinkled coloring the background for something really interesting going on for sure.

My issue is that some of these characters just aren’t very likable to me at all. Most of the NPCs I talk to on my way to either of those two characters just don’t have much interesting things to say at all to the point where I kind of gave up talking to them by part 3. Mae and Gregg’s dynamic feels insufferable to me as they remind me of “le quirky young adults who wanna live life to the fullest” which I found juvenile without a decent payoff even at the conclusion of Gregg’s story. Bea was definitely more interesting though as her level-headedness clashed well with Mae’s obnoxiousness. Mae herself was just too aggravating to watch as her personality and a lot of the actions towards the end of the story to the point that I just don’t really care what happens to her.

Honestly, the first three parts of the story were just sort of slow and monotonous to me with occasional good nuggets of interesting dialogue such as Mae and Bea arguing about how Bea should live her life or when Mae’s mom snapped at her. The real meat of the story feels to be all squished into part 4 when some plot heavy stuff occurs. Wish they built towards this more because besides the mystery itself I’m unsure if they ever foreshadowed characters even being part of this twist but maybe I’m wrong there. Nonetheless the trippy stuff was pretty cool and the epilogue was actually a nice closure that wrapped a nice bow thematically to what the game is really about.

Do I actually like Night in the Woods? Eh sorta, the fact that I completed means I had enough good faith in it to keep going, but I’ll probably never revisit it again since so many things it does just rubs me the wrong way but maybe some might find it more endearing. It's definitely put together well and I can see why it's beloved by certain folks out there and more power to them. For now I’ll stick to what I like.

Night In The Woods opera dentro de uma lógica de repetição, o looping de dias e a repetição das rotinas dos personagens servem como uma representação do tédio ou da imobilidade que envolve a cidade, na mesma medida que a narrativa é feliz em estabelecer uma ideia de desesperança e falta de perspectiva dentro desse universo, tal pessimismo e a ideia de um apocalipse econômico em curso leva a imagem de um espiral, Night In The Woods dá voltas em torno de sí, se consome, e então acaba. É sobre o fim do mundo, mas também pode ser sobre reunir com seus amigos e aproveitar enquanto ainda estamos aqui.
Night in The Woods também se propõe a retratar uma geração ainda a ser entendida, o jogo embarca na leva de produções estadunidenses que tem como fundo social os reflexos da crise financeira de 2008 e o adensamento das políticas neoliberais, e é nesse contexto de desamparo social que surge uma geração imobilizada, equanimente distante da revolta e do bem-estar, mas a pergunta que a obra nos deixa é "Até quando?". 
É um jogo cheio de coração, em todos os sentido, é cheio de raiva também, gosto do quão claro quanto ao seu posicionamento ele é. Por mais jogos com a coragem de Night in The Woods.

The main character of NITW, Mae, is incredibly rude, immature, and irresponsible. This game is Mae's story, rather than the player's, and that left a huge disconnect between what was happening in the game and how I wanted the events to unfold. There were dialogue options, dialogue sequences, and events that Mae carries out that paint her as a selfish idiot. Having a despicable main character isn't damning on its own, but what really grinds my gears is that many of the selfish things Mae does are either retroactively made out to be justified, or they are hardly acknowledged and she faces no consequences for them.

Beyond my gripes with Mae, the game is sometimes obnoxiously slow paced. The routine of walking left for a few minutes each in game day to start the next scripted event, the lack of a run button, dialogue that doesn't relate to any existing characters or plot threads that also isn't funny, insightful, or interesting, corridors with nothing to interact with and no interesting visuals. It felt like my time was being wasted many times throughout the game.

The pacing of the story is also very strange and I found it unsatisfying. The first half of the game is mostly exposition for Mae's life and hometown, which is fine, but then out of nowhere the genre of the game shifts from a slice of life walking sim into a mystery narrative based game. The thing that ruined the last quarter of the game for me was that it felt extremely disconnected from the rest of the game. The mystery has next to nothing to do with any of the existing characters and entirely derails the narrative focus away from Mae learning what she should do next with her life and how to improve herself as a person. This leads to a very confusing ending where Mae hasn't actually grown at all and leaves the entire story feeling pointless.

There were definitely some good moments in the game, but they are far outnumbered by the boring or frustrating moments.

This game is hard to really explain without spoilers, but there's this sort of realism and grounded feel this game has that makes it stick out so well to me. All the characters have such depth to them, and throughout the journey you see them struggle and grow and learn to be better. I love the community feel this game has. Exploring the town each day, talking to various people, building a routine, before and growing to care for the small town had me wanting to play more and more. This game really is something special and I can't really recommend it enough. Go in as blind as possible for this!

Awfully boring, Horrendous, hurtful. 9 hours of this crap. Honestly, I just didn't drop so I could talk with a high level of certainty.

Gameplay? Reading a bunch of texts with small talks and holding your analog to the left. This should've been a visual novel, I swear. It's a goddamn walking simulator

Story? Dude, a cat with 20y that dropped college and represents depression and anxiety in a dumb way It's not a great plot. "oh there is a cult", OMG, BEST STORY EVER.

Characters? Mae? annoying, dumb, stupid. Bea, the most reasonable one, the one I don't feel like dying when reading the dialogs. The rest? meh

If you're one of the people who write "oh, this cat is literally me"... Man, Your life is sad and nobody likes you. Life is not this game, you won't have friends who will save you from a cult acting like this. STFU and go do something meaninful with your life

I'm sorry, I don't usually trash talk games THAT much, but this one...

The ending arc is as jarring as everyone understandably criticizes it, but any narrative hangups I have are completely numbed by how good the mouthfeel, aesthetic, Bildungsroman, and little details are.

Every now and then I remember an apocryphal story I read somewhere about someone leaving Pixar's Coco down south when they saw an old granny crying "it's true! It's all true!" in Spanish as she exited the theater. That was me, but instead I exited this game crying over how beautifully it nailed the feel of rust belt PA. (Pretend I was screaming "yinz! yinz!" for full effect)

The Hero's Journey is a narrative trope, common in mythology, where a seemingly ordinary character is thrust into a world of the unknown. They face perilous trials, battle their inner demons, and overcome the odds. And, when their journey is complete, they return to their home, changing for the better and facing the future with optimism. But what happens when the hero fails? They still return home, but without the victory, without the lesson. Enter Mae Borowski. In the 2017 hit indie title Night In The Woods, Mae, a recent college dropout, returns to her rust belt-inspired hometown, Possum Springs, in an attempt to recapture the familiar. But not all is how it seems, and though she was only gone for two years, this isn't the town she used to know.

Night In The Woods was a product of the post-indie boom; as a late 2013 Kickstarter project, it amassed its funding in less than 24 hours, and quadrupled its goal in weeks. The reasons are immediately apparent; NITW is an utterly gorgeous game. It's glowy, color block artistic style is instantly enticing. It naturally takes place during autumn, and beyond the innate narrative symbolism, it creates the beautiful backdrop of Possum Springs. The music is wonderful; it's just the right amount of nostalgia. If there's one negative about this game, it's the actual gameplay. It's hard to define NITW with a genre-let's say, a narrative focused walking sim & adventure game-but its game design doesn't always quite reach the heights of its characters. Exploring Possum Springs is, on the whole, a delightful time, and there's a dense amount of secrets to find and characters to meet. After the nth time through it, though, the exploring-even while finding new things-begins to feel like a routine, and you wouldn't be unique for wishing for a run button or a fast travel mechanic. Loading screens are also more prevalent than they should be, and even though there are some mini games to break up the monotony, it can still feel like moving around sometimes takes too long.

It's clear that Night In The Woods was a narrative-first experience, and while that may have left some shortcomings in the gameplay design, it creates a fascinating world to get wrapped up in. The themes of NITW are as plentiful and varied as its memorable cast. Mae's flaws and the flaws of her friends so strongly reflect the town they are living in, and it makes the game's setting feel as another character-or, rather, a summation of all characters. Possum Springs is the archetypical failing small town; once a booming economy fed by coal mining, it's slowly been bled dry of resources and inhabitants. It's dying, slowly but surely, and everyone knows it. Buildings are boarded up, businesses are closing, and the town is heavily reliant on mega corporations to keep things afloat. Just like Mae, the town can't adapt to modern times. It harkens back on "the good old days", when everything made sense. Mae's juxtaposition among her friends, who she seeks out as an anchor in a dispassionate, ever-changing world, initially only alienates her further. Times are changing, but Mae isn't.

One of the bigger points of contention for some players with NITW is its ending; specifically, the cult revealed in the final act, which sacrifices drifters to an eldritch horror in exchange for supposed prosperity of their hometown. And while it's true that the pacing is a bit off, the dichotomy between Mae and the cult is perhaps the game's strongest narrative punch. Mae's struggles throughout the game are predominantly ones of disassociation; she feels disconnected to the world at large and those in it. It's these feelings that motivate her entire story. And yet, when she's at her lowest, fully willing to sacrifice herself to an uncaring void, it's her friends that provide a reason to keep going. While the cult will accept any collateral damage caused as a means to an end in order to return things to the past, Mae takes an active role in facing the future. By acknowledging the universe's indifference, she commits to finding life worth fighting for.

In Night In The Woods, you can never go home again. Or, at least, not to what you think home is. And maybe that's okay. Because maybe what we think are the glory years are just photographs heavily coated in nostalgia. Home is what you make it, where you make it, and cosmic insignificance doesn't equate to personal insignificance. Mae's story will no doubt resonate with many, and even though she is just a character, her words are still real. If the world has no meaning, then at least we have the capability to create meaning ourselves-to create our own home. In an increasingly detached and decaying world, Mae takes agency as her own storyteller, and NITW shows us how to follow her lead, how to create a home worth defending. And sure, the woods are scary. But they're worth facing. And you don't have to do it alone.

Well, a lot of this game’s intent went over my head. I can appreciate it for what it is in hindsight, but a lot of what impresses me the most evaded me on my first playthrough.

Its themes on mental health and capitalism are apparent yet the overal message is a little abstract. I’m fine with this, but it certainly impacted my first playthrough and made the ending fall kinda flat for me. Delving deeper (thinking more about the game and reading what some people have had to say about it), I really like what Night in the Woods has to say, and how it has to say it.

By far its greatest strength is its worldbuilding, and how its world is presented.. The game looks like I’m playing a children’s story book, which fits perfectly with Mae’s idealistic, forever-young view of her life. She seems to hallucinate as the changing views of her childhood friends and dying town contrast her own immature view of things. Childhood friends, who have matured more than Mae in her 2 years off to college, are navigating their feelings through their disparate, desperate situations. Greg can’t goof off as he wants to move to the big city with his boyfriend and Bea’s responsibilities continue to pile as her depressed father grows older. Possum Springs can no longer live up to its legacy as a mining town and opportunities are scarce.

It isn’t all bleak in Possum Springs, there are plenty of things to do and keep track of. Night in the Woods controls well enough and animates fluidly enough for a mechanically and tactilely fun game, despite its simple loop. There’s also enough varied content you can explore to find and miss out on day by day. I find that Mae’s gameplay of platforming across a makeshift jungle gym of telephone poles and rooftops; talking and listening to people; maybe partaking in some activity they’re doing, is fun! Specifically, jumping around the town like its a playground, with its storybook art-style, makes for a fascinating atmosphere, reflecting and adding to our understanding of Mae’s plight.

And yeah, perhaps some of the finer details went over my head, but Night in the Woods has a phenomenal atmosphere, one that is felt in its story, regardless of how deep you dive. Where its more abstract ideas fall by the wayside is towards the end of the game, which seems understated - and is! But this understated ending sat better in my mind with time. And certain moments that I felt led nowhere, I now see the point of.

Overall, I had a good time with Night in the Woods. I appreciate both its smaller moments and broad strokes. Its use of capitalism and religion in metaphors is a real strong point, even if I couldn’t immediately see what it was going for. And in hindsight, through a little bit of digging (I am not the smartest), I really do love how its themes come together in the end.

deliberated and I think this is ultimately pretty fair -- I don't think a 2nd playthru focusing on Greg (as much as I liked him, Bea is clearly a more rewarding character to prioritise my friendship with) will ultimately change too much. I very much enjoyed my time with this but upon sitting on it I don't think it's ultimately that... fulfilling. I like the twists and I do like the angle it tackles notions of self, loneliness, fear, all the stuff the cool gamer kids care about, but I don't think it's all together that realised, for lack of a better term. The lack of proper gameplay features doesn't help but I'm not knocking it for it. It's just that, likeable as these characters are, this game does ultimately still feel very indie -- in that many of these characters speak the same, regardless of age, a la Life is Strange maybe (which I also DO enjoy).

Would love to rate this that teensy bit higher, and it's fortunately short enough to make the idea of NG+ appealing, I just don't see my feelings changing.

Sometimes it's easy to write a review of the game, you just say what you think about the game. With this one I needed to try few times.

This game story is really good, it touches many aspects of our lives, like what does it mean to be adult, how to be a good friend or a good person or why sometimes there are no good choices. Maybe we will not get straight answers from this game for our problems, but it can change something in us.

Main characters of this game are well designed and you can feel their problems of everyday life from our lives as well. You should play it twice for full story of them. Secondary characters are also great and most conversations are really interesting.

Note, that this game is mostly a story, there is no "combat" and in the most part no one is rushing you, so take your time and explore.

Night in the Woods made me relive the worst years of my life and I loved it. I wasted two years at the University of Pittsburgh before the marijuana faded away and all I had to show for it was a streak of black outs and insurmountable student debt. Those hazy memories bias me to more closely relate to a protagonist as deeply flawed and, at times, unlikeable as Mae Borowski. But, even without history coloring my experience, the writing from Infinite Fall's Bethany Hockenberry and Scott Benson imbues its world with tremendous empathy and slice-of-life details rarely seen in video games. It deserves to stand alongside works from other media like Bojack Horseman, Scott Pilgrim, and Ghost World--places where the surreality of the world masks our deepest wants, hopes, and fears. Never before has a game so clearly spoken to me personally and spoken for me generationally.