Moomin Valley

Snufkin: Melody of Moomin Valley reflects the story of a series from the 90s, Moominvalley, which was adapted into books, comics, cartoons, anime, and now into a game.

Being more focused on children, the narrative revolves around the Moomin family, who live in an enchanted place and deal with the events and reflections of daily life. Each episode tells a different story and conveys a life lesson at the end, like a fable.

The Moomins are like cute hippos, always together. In the game, the main character is Snufkin. He is a wanderer, something that becomes clear at the beginning of the game, but is not deeply explored at first. Snufkin only walks around because the Moomins are animals that hibernate, and while they do that, the protagonist takes the opportunity to explore.

On one of his walks, he encounters beings truly scared by an important factor that is worrying everyone around: Moomin Valley is in trouble because of a new, very strict forest ranger who plans to destroy the place for his own benefit.

Moomintroll and Snufkin

The Moomins game is a great work with open world, fun (and easy to complete) puzzles, and a feeling of calm and belonging to that story. It is a title that will relax you as you seek to discover everything about Moominvalley, Moomin Valley, and the characters.

Being a game inspired by a story published some time ago, the new title is very focused on narrative, something that brings context and setting to the work and enhances it based on the progression of the stages. Little by little, through missions and dialogues, you will discover more about the show and your real goal in the game, simultaneously.

We have a book with all the missions, in progress and completed, that show a path to follow. But it's not that simple, some missions are a bit vague in their objective, or it is even a distant goal that will be completed only some time later, after exploring a lot.

Like the first task received: to meet a friend on the Moomin Valley bridge. It's a big mission, if not the main one of the game, that will take a long time to be completed and will remain in the book throughout our journey.

With that, along the way, we meet incredible characters, which are a striking feature of this story. All of the Moomin fiction features characters with strong and unique personalities, well-defined and differentiated from each other, which helps in the construction of the game's narrative and the purpose of each episode, and, of course, also helps us in our goal.

Like the entire work has a factor that leads us to learn something new at the end of each episode, the game is no different. After completing each phase and task, Snufkin and his friends "talk" to the player through dialogues among themselves, commenting on the location they are in and what has just happened, as if to teach something.

In another mission, we must name a creature we find and that decides to accompany us. It seems simple, but only some time later can we finally complete and name Teety-Woo (translated in Brazilian Portuguese as Titi-Uuh), as he liked to be called. And it's funny how this name came about through onomatopoeia, a sound that a paw made when happy to reunite with its cubs.

The feeling of seeing a work, which was previously only designed to watch and read, turn into a game is very exciting. It makes us have expectations for the product to be released and when we see that everything was done with care, it is a very good feeling. Both the cartoon, the books, and all the adaptations of Moomin received positive reviews, making the game highly anticipated for fans of the series.

I really liked the fact that they produced a game with this musical bias, because the game's soundtrack is simply perfect. Calm, relaxing, making you think about everything and at the same time making you forget a little about the outside world, just like in the cartoon.

A positive point, even though it is not a difficult game, is the automatic save feature. A new player, who came through the series, may want to try the title and not be very used to this style of gameplay. Therefore, being a puzzle game, there are some traps that make us have to restart that stage, and starting from the beginning would be a bit tiring for someone new to it.

Furthermore, our main objective revolves around Moomin Valley, needing to reunite with our friend and, in the middle of the journey, restore the valley and help the animals living in the region. There are some projects being done, by humans, that are devastating nature, and Snufkin is the one who will take care of that.

His main weapon, in fact, is a harmonica! He uses it to "charm" the animals with his melodies and take them out of a trance. By playing music and passing through specific bushes, we gain experience and level up. There are animals that require us to play a song at a higher level, as if compared to practicing and evolving in a musical instrument in real life.

I really liked this mechanic because it was nothing aggressive due to the atmosphere that the producers wanted to insert, besides making total sense. Snufkin evolves more and more with his harmonica and provides good sounds that the animals like and are captivated by him, making his mission much easier.

Charming and relaxing

This title simply has one of the best soundtracks I have ever experienced. All kinds of sounds were very well produced and thought out, especially when it comes to music. I love games with calm music that accompany me throughout the moment, taking me to a completely new universe.

Snufkin's music: Melody of Moomin Valley totally matches the title's proposal, being totally calm and cheerful, bringing a very comfortable sensation when listening and playing. Just like the ambient sounds, which are also light and accurate.

Another point that I loved, by far, was the game's art. It is a very unique style, showing the individuality of each character, environment, and products, using various colors, shapes, animations, objects, clothes, and even different types of strokes.

With that, the video graphics also proved to be perfect. Considering that the game requires a minimum of 8 GB of RAM, Intel Core i5-3570 processor, and GTX 780 video card, and I played on a PC with 16 GB of RAM, Intel Core i5-9400F processor, and GTX 1050 Ti video card, I did not experience any bugs or glitches, the game ran perfectly.

I can say that Snufkin: Melody of Moomin Valley is a very visual and auditory work. All the content produced was exceptional and very well crafted, and it was certainly what held me most in the game. I didn't feel annoyed at any time while playing it, even when I got lost, because I knew it would be easy to solve the problem and that I was in a comfortable place.
 

We thank Raw Fury for the key to Snufkin: Melody of Moomin Valley for PC.