By removing the linearity of its predecessor, Spirit of the North 2 is both better and worse than the previous game.
I quite liked Spirit of the North. It wasn’t amazing, but it was a solid adventure game about a spirit fox trying to cleanse a land of an evil force. This sequel is a brave and ambitious attempt to expand on what the original had, but in doing so it loses a lot of the pace and gentle exploration that was enjoyable.
You once again play as a spirit fox on Fox Island in a nonspecific, northern land. Through some careless exploration, you inadvertently raise the spirit of an ancient warlord that tormented and destroyed the other tribes in the region. The only way to bring peace back to the land is to awaken and soothe the spirits of those ancient tribes in the hopes it will put the old enemy back to rest. There’s more plot regarding the history of each tribe, their connection to their spirit, and major players in the tribe itself that can be found in scrolls hidden throughout the land too if that’s your sort of thing. Themes on respect, grief, and reconciliation are hit upon throughout the plot both in text and interactions between animal spirits that you meet along the way.
Now, the previous game had similar themes, but this was presented in a much more linear way. Your fox would go from level to level, completing traversal puzzles in semi-open areas. You could explore to find secrets if you wanted, or you could mainline it through more regions with the fun, if occasionally janky, movement system. Spirit of the North 2 does away with that and gives you a very large open world to explore. Your goal is to find your way to the temple of each tribe and bring peace to the raging animal spirit within each, often by making use of a newly acquired skill.
There’s an almost Legend of Zelda feel to this, with you utilising your new skill in a few different ways to master them before taking on a boss that requires quick use of that skill. It’s a fine system, and in fact it works fairly well here. A lot of the abilities are recycled from the previous game, but your raven companion also acquires some that help you along the way, so some things are fresh. You’ll be gliding and teleporting around a temple as you solve puzzles involving moving blocks and lighting sconces. It’s tame, but enjoyable. These are by far the strongest elements of the game which, interestingly, more closely resemble the first game in the series.
It’s the stuff outside of these temples that feel like substantial misfires. Whilst the open world certainly looks pretty and provides quite a visual style across its various biomes, it’s just so devoid of anything interesting. Other than the temples and attached areas, there are a few scattered settlements and puzzles that provide you with crystals and that’s about it. You can spend crystals at obelisks to reveal more of the map like a 2010s Ubisoft game, but the places identified on the map are rarely something worth visiting. Considering how large the map is, the vast expanses of nothing are very frustrating.
Worse though, is how difficult it is to reach any of these places. Whilst this is an open world, there really does feel like an insistence on you going to places in a very specific way. This being a northern land, it’s a fairly mountainous region meaning navigation can become a real pain. It may well be the case that you simply can’t reach something as you don’t have a specific ability yet, but you won’t know that until you’ve wandered around every nook and cranny of a cliff face for ten minutes which just isn’t fun.
You at least have a vague idea of where to go by the red swirls in the sky, but even these aren’t guaranteed to be the right direction. Because of how unclear the terrain is, I determined that one red swirl wasn’t accessible yet and I ended up wandering around for half an hour before realising that there was a cross point between two cliffs if I could glide far enough. I died quite a few times trying to go around a number of different routes to get somewhere else.
Oh yes, there’s death now. In fact, Spirit of the North 2 has leaned into Dark Souls a little, with you dropping all your crystals on death and needing to retrieve them from your body after respawning at a statue, which might as well be a bonfire. Considering how painful some of the traversal is, I was fuming when I found the last statue I rested at was ten minutes ago. There’s a skill tree too, which feels unnecessary as they give you things that feel needed from the outset like lower fall damage and the ability to hold more wisps, which are an item you need to unlock temples. Heaven forbid you should arrive at a temple without enough wisps and have to hope some spawn randomly as you wander aimlessly. You could use the fast travel system to go to a vendor and buy some I suppose, but the fast travel points are so few and far between that the idea of doing so was less than appealing, even assuming I had enough crystals to spend.
It really feels like the devs have tried to bolt on a bunch of mechanics from popular games of ten years ago rather than building on what they were already doing well. There are still elements of this here. When the launchers work properly and you manage to traverse half the map as a spirit fox, it feels great. Puzzle solving in the temples is simplistic, but satisfying as new areas open up and new abilities become available. These things feel like they’ve become better, but all the extra bolt-ons feel like needless bloat.
I will say, the visuals are still really strong. The animals look great and my kids loved that there was an option to customise your fox as well as new fur colours to unlock. Seeing different parts of the island was a treat too, from the bleakly beautiful beach you wash up on at the start, to the frozen peaks of the mountains, the world never failed to look amazing. Animations are lovely, particularly on your fox, with so many little details like keeping a paw raised at the ready or shaking around a tasty bug that you’ve caught. The lack of shaking when you come out of the water was a shame, but that’s a tiny gripe. I have to praise the sound design as well, both in terms of the beautiful soundtrack and ambient noise, especially the weather.
It’s a shame that the gameplay elements were such a let-down to me. The lack of proper direction meant I found myself frustrated, and the scale of the often empty world left me walking along for extended periods with nothing to do. Fans of the original probably won’t enjoy Spirit of the North 2, which is a real shame. I applaud the ambition of the devs, but it’s come at the expense of what made the previous game enjoyable.
Spirit of the North 2 is available now on Xbox, Playstation, and PC.
