Fe is the best game I’ve played so far this year, which given all the great releases in this still young 2018, is something I don’t say lightly. And it also has been one of my favorite experiences on the Nintendo Switch to date.
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The video game market is saturated with unoriginality. And thus, uniqueness is an increasingly scarce commodity, which is why Fe held onto my attention from start to finish, because it truly felt like a fresh, new experience.
Fe’s distinctiveness is one of its greatest qualities, but perhaps not it’s chief asset. The best thing is the tranquility it manifests. We can all agree life is sometimes pretty stressful, which makes a large swath of games unappealing at any given time due to either their gameplay or story demand. Video games are simply not always the most relaxing hobby.
Fe’s beautiful, almost-blurry presentation evokes a feeling of being in a dream. Its gameplay is simple enough that you don’t have to think about it, but not simple enough that you will bored, which is its own type of irritation. And it has soothing music that consistently transported me to it’s world, and blocked out all the noise of life.
Jumping effortlessly from treetop to treetop, soaring through the skies on the back of a giant bird, or amassing a following of lizards to all sing in a beautiful harmony, no matter what I was doing in Fe, I was often awe struck and overwhelmed with idyllic emotions.
Fe is excellent at transporting the player to its world, and seemingly navigating them through it from plot point to plot point. Rarely do game’s feel cohesive in this fashion, like a a single experience rather than multiple experiences loosely tied together.
And while Fe is a great game on any platform, it is especially at home on the Nintendo Switch. The unique portability of the hybrid console turns Fe into a transportable happy pill. In fact, the combination of Fe and the Nintendo Switch came in big twice this week as I played through it.
The one time, while I was out of the house, it helped transform me from an anxious wreck to an unfazed, equanimos state. The other time, after a long and stressful day, I sunk deep into the couch exhausted, with a raging headache, and no motivation to do anything but stare at a blank wall for hours. But then I turned on Fe in handheld mode, and went from uncomfortable to relaxed and headache free. Games rarely do that for me.
That’s the beauty of Fe, especially on the Switch: you can pick it up whenever, wherever you are and pump some sweet serenity through your veins. What I’m basically saying is — Fe is a drug, but with no downside, just a pure and powerful dosage of tranquility.
Oh, and it’s a fantastic game, too.
