Seed of Life is supposed to be an emotionally charged narrative puzzle-platformer adventure, but does it live up to that description? As I delved deeper into our main character’s journey, I started to question the validity of that statement.
Before we go too far, I’d like to point out that Seed of Life was developed by a small indie team going under the name of MadLight and published by the fairly well-established Leonardo Interactive in August of 2021. As far as I know, MadLight consisted of only two people, so being able to churn out a game with any stability and of this magnitude is very impressive in my eyes. While I tried to keep that in mind during my review process, I do have to look at the actual fun component and mechanics of the game, so I’m determined to give Seed of Life a fair turn – just the same as all the rest of the games I’ve had the pleasure of playing.
A view of Cora’s cottage in Seed of Life.
To begin our story, we play Cora, a resident of the ravaged planet Lumia. Aliens have come to their world and taken all of the life essence, Lumium, and in its place the world is decaying. Taking note of the entries left behind in her grandfather’s journal, Cora takes off after her grandfather who has seemingly left their cottage in search of what he refers to as the “Seed of Life” which is the only hope of saving Lumia. Their world of Lumia is dying, and he has gone to reignite the Seed.
Cora reads her grandfather’s journal.
After getting the distressing news that she needs to go after her grandfather, we get to take control of Cora, but there doesn’t seem to be any urgency in her mechanical controls. She walks along at a leisurely pace inside their home, and you can even tap on a lantern or two, just for some achievement hunters, but it doesn’t feel like time is of the essence. At first, this, coupled with a flat, exposition-heavy narrative given by our voice actress didn’t have me very excited to go on this quest. The camera control is awkward and movement is jolting, which is a terrible sign for the platforming events yet to come.
One of the first pedestals encountered.
Upon exiting the home, we are told again that the sun is dying, and we don’t have much time left before Lumia perishes. Picking up into a slight jog, a very, very slight jog, we’ll have to find our way across the river to start looking for the Seed. There are more spots scattered here and there that give optional bits of lore with more voice acting. However, with only one or two lines of text on the screen at a time and Cora’s slow manner of speech, I’m already starting to dread the pace of our story. You can skip the dialogue, but I do actually want to know the lore and the story behind why our world is dying.
Honestly, I think that the story would have benefitted from dialog box with at least three lines on the screen at a time, with absolutely no voice acting at all. Just put in your standard blip gibberish that so many visual novels or old school rpg games use for text voice and call it a day. In my opinion, that would have been a vast improvement. But, we can’t do anything about that, and after listening to a few more droning voice lines and tapping a few more lanterns, off we go.
I don’t know what he is, but I love him.
Once outside, our journey truly begins. Scattered around the area are places of alien technology that house warm, rippling, lumian pools. We’re also greeted with not-so-friendly glowing purple energy shields. In classic puzzle/platform style, to dismantle the shields you’ll first have to find their appropriate pylon and disconnect the “petal” powering it. The petals are sure to be important later, so you can just pocket them for now. This is where a good portion of Seed of Life’s puzzles start out. To progress down further paths, you need to lower the shields, and to do that you might have to put your thinking cap on. But before you do that, you’ll need to make contact with the strange voice that’s calling you from the first alien pedestal.
Nar attempts to communicate with Cora.
Wouldn’t you know, that the voice belongs to an AI that calls itself “Nar”, a Nymurian that wants to see our planet saved. Nymurians are the reason that our planet is in the shape it’s in: they invaded it to steal the lumia. With that being said, you wouldn’t know that, but we would. It has been reiterated more times than I care to recount by the time we get to actually meet one. From here on out, you will bind with an ancient artifact called a Talisman and hunt down capsules that give you varying types of powers needed to traverse the growing darkness and what is left of Lumia.
The darkness is another mechanic that I just don’t care too much for. While it’s somewhat visually and narratively interesting, it’s obnoxious to deal with until you obtain the sprint capsule later. Cora runs at such an excruciatingly slow pace, that I wish we could have just had a better, more natural sprinting ability at the beginning of the game. Just a default, improved sprint would have added so much quality of life to movement and traversing the world.
Edging closer to the sprint mechanic, ever so slowly.
Unfortunately, there’s not much in the way of character development or story to be had except in the very beginning and the very end of Seed of Life. While it is visually stunning, and the particle effects are gorgeous, graphics will really only hold your attention for a short while and it just doesn’t do too great of a job masking the tedious gameplay. Even the music is pleasant, with lovely environmental sounds and ambiance. However, even with the beautiful music in the background, playing as Cora felt more like performing a chore rather than playing a game. There was no real emotional incentive to move forward (especially with the unfortunately lackluster voice acting performance) and there just wasn’t any natural motivation to want to continue playing.
Not the thorns!
Seed of Life had a ton of potential and surprised me in so many ways for what just two developers came together to create. The foundation of the story was interesting, and the world was truly stunning to walk through, but it unfortunately just couldn’t grab hold of me and fell apart when it came to gameplay. It has been a year since the game was released, and I would be seriously interested in seeing what MadLight developers have been working on in the meantime. I genuinely hope that the negative reviews haven’t pushed them away from making games, because, despite Seed of Life‘s hiccups, they have a tremendous amount of talent. While it wasn’t the game for me, you can certainly try out Seed of Life on Steam for yourself, and you might even luck up and catch it on sale.
A code was provided by PR.
