A pretty darn good indie take on Pikmin, The Wild at Heart takes these mechanics and throws them in the pot with a very charming art style and a heartfelt story. Having one big connected world to explore and new areas to unlock as you received new Spritelings is a very good addition to the formula as well, something that I hope future games of this vein iterate upon.

There is however some tension between the game's relaxed aesthetic (even in more dangerous looking areas) and the day/night cycle which pretty much enforces a time limit on your adventures which can be frustrating at times. You can still venture around after dusk but you're met with severely overpowered enemies and most crucially there's very rarely any reason to do so. Maybe with a bit of tinkering that could have been remedied but as it stands it makes a lot of the light-giving items obsolete as the simplest solution in every case is to just camp and wait until morning.

Thankfully that's the only real issue. The puzzles work well and while combat is simple, I don't think it needs to be too involved here especially as you're able to skirt around some areas to avoid battling which is very welcome when you just want to trek through the visually and aurally gorgeous world for a bit.