Farewell North Review: Brilliantly Beautiful (Switch)

I’ve played a lot of games like Farewell North, an open world narrative puzzle game. When I started playing, I was thinking that it was just another one of those games, let’s see what we have. As I got more into it, I became more emotionally invested in the story and its characters, as well as its stunning setting. This game may only be a few hours long, but it’s guaranteed to stick in your mind for a while afterwards. I know it will for me. This review of Farewell North, a game by solo developer Kyle Banks, will look into why you should add this to your roster of narrative puzzle games.

Farewell North is now available on PC, Xbox Series X | S, and Nintendo Switch for $23.99.

Story – A Grieving Woman and Her Faithful Dog in the Scottish Highlands

Farewell North has specifically been written not just to be an open world exploration and puzzle game, but also a big focus on narrative. This game certainly features strong emotional storytelling. Set in the sprawling and picturesque Scottish Highlands, the story follows a woman called Cailey, who is accompanied by her dog Chesley.

Cailey has recently suffered a tragedy in her life, with the passing of her mother, and she is still coming to terms with it and struggling with the grieving process. Cailey inherited her dog Chesley, a beautiful and faithful Border Collie who worked on farms as a herding dog, with his former owner being a shepherdess. Cailey took ownership of Chesley, but being from the city, Chesley struggled with adapting to the hustle and bustle and found himself overwhelmed, even running away at one point. Throughout Farewell North, not only does Cailey try to manage her grief and look after Chesley, but Chesley in turn tries to help his owner through her tough times by being a loyal dog and just basically being there for her. It’s such a beautifully told story, exploring grief and bewilderment for both the human and the dog. 

When comparing this game to others, one that comes to mind is Inner Ashes, another narrative puzzle game with an emotional story. I think Farewell North was definitely on the same level as that, feeling that same investment in the characters and everything they’re going through.

I also want to add that I’m very pleased that Farewell North was set in Scotland, specifically the Highlands. I’ve only played a few games with this setting, and the game truly showcases its beauty. I also liked the fact that the game gives you the option to have Gaelic subtitles along with your regional subtitles to give it that extra Scottish feel. This game provides a genuine Scottish experience.

Gameplay – Exploring and Solving Puzzles

We’ve talked about the story of Farewell North, now let’s see if the gameplay holds up just as well. Luckily, it does. It may not be the longest game, taking just a few hours to complete, but the gameplay isn’t a letdown.

The Dog Is the Star

For the majority of the game, you play as Chesley, a gorgeous Border Collie dog. Seriously, he is amazing to play as and part of what makes this game so magical and memorable. It makes a change from playing as the human who gives commands to an AI dog. In the case of Farewell North, the dog is the playable character and the human is the AI character. In the context of this game, it works excellently, regarding the story and gameplay.

Chesley and Cailey share a special bond.

Chesley’s Abilities

As Chesley, you get to run around the huge open world areas. Chesley can improve his stamina by finding and following wisps of light. This reminded me of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (I have yet to play Tears of the Kingdom!) You can also climb ledges to reach higher-up points, and even jump big gaps. The game usefully displays an X where Chesley can jump up or across. Farewell North also features a touch of magic. Chesley can look through portals to discover previously hidden areas such as tunnels or fixed bridges. He can also collect magic flowers to unlock blocked paths, or in one instance, melt ice and snow. 

Chesley also has the ability to herd, required for game progression. From memory, the only herding I’ve done in video games is from Red Dead Redemption, so I thought it interesting to see how Farewell North would handle it. As it turned out, this game managed it quite well. Herding wasn’t too difficult or frustrating, as I feared. 

Herding isn’t too difficult in Farewell North.

A Standout Moment

For most of the game, Chesley is by Cailey’s side. However, there’s rather a poignant part of the story halfway through, where Chesley is suddenly separated from Cailey and has to continue alone. This is a recall of the time where Chesley moved in with Cailey in the city and felt so overwhelmed that he ran away. This part of the game is different, not just because you’re away from Cailey, but because your goal is to get to her. Unfortunately, Chesley’s efforts are hindered by his fears and bewilderment of the city, namely the traffic and strangers helping to look for him.

The traffic is cleverly represented by rushing blurs of light, and to get past them, Chesley has to use his bark to light up a string of lights to abolish the traffic. Then there’s the strangers searching for him. This is where the game is so clever. You know, as a human, that these strangers have no ill intention at all and are just looking for Chesley to get him home. However, since you are playing as Chesley, these strangers are actually a danger to him, or that’s how he perceives it. These strangers look for Chesley with flashlights, and anyone familiar with video games knows that an NPC with a flashlight is bad news. Hence, you have to avoid these strangers and sneak through them to progress in the levels. This part of the game was very different to the rest of it, but very powerful.

Farewell North is full of memories.

Travel by Canoe

Farewell North is an open world game with lots of exploration around the Scottish Highlands. Part of this exploration requires you to travel between islands via a canoe. For me, this served as a little break between levels. You have to manually row the canoe using the controls provided. For the Switch, you use ZL and ZR to paddle, holding one or the other to steer the canoe. The L and R buttons are then used to turn tight corners. It does take a little practice, but once you get the hang of it and find your rhythm, it’s quite relaxing and you can enjoy the scenery as you move between islands. Additionally, you can change the controls in the options to make them simpler if you find canoeing difficult. Beams of light in colors of orange and blue indicate docking points to guide your way.

If you don’t get on with the default controls, you can switch to the simpler ones.

Graphics & Audio – Outstanding Beauty in Visuals and Sound

The story and gameplay are the heart and soul of Farewell North, but it’s the visuals and sound that really brings this game to life. Simply put, they are breathtaking. It honestly makes this game feel magic.

Spectacular Visuals

The graphics may not be hyper-realistic like the big budget games you have nowadays, but it still gives off that wow factor. Seriously. The visuals in Farewell North are just incredible. I don’t like to give away spoilers in my reviews, but there was one segment in the game that was truly spectacular and just blew me away. The graphics definitely do the Scottish Highlands justice in this game. You can almost feel the cold radiating off your TV screen as you venture across a field or climb a mountain.

Chesley is also beautifully put together. He doesn’t look off or uncanny. He looks and breathes so realistically. His animation is also on point. In fact, all the animals in the game look spot on, and the humans as well.

Playing as Chesley is a joy with the beautiful animation and stunning scenery.

Gorgeous Soundtrack and Spot-On Voice Acting

I love the soundtrack that accompanies Farewell North. It perfectly aligns with the beautiful story, gameplay and graphics. It really grips your heart and feelings of the Scottish Highlands. It’s one of those musical scores that you’d want playing in the background while you’re working or just chilling out. 

There’s a fair bit of voice acting as well, primarily from Cailey. She’s essentially the voice of the story, the one who speaks about how she’s feeling, where they’re going, why they’re there, etc. The voice acting isn’t wooden or stilted, like it’s obviously being read from a script. The voice actress portraying Cailey did an excellent job evoking her emotions, sounding very much like someone clearly struggling through grief and trying to stay positive for Chesley without hamming it up and sounding over-dramatic. There are a few other voiced roles, such as the strangers looking for Chesley and the farmer Cailey meets. They too carried out a good job.

Farewell North was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch with a key provided by Mooneye Studios.