I was looking for something cute and cosy to play after feeling a bit braindead from work and that's exactly what I got.

This is a simple and wholesome game to spend some time in. All you essentially do is swim around and clean up the ocean one area at a time. Along the way you find cute little creatures that you can feed, and depending on what they eat they might grow up to be different types of creatures. In that sense, there is a slight creature collector element to this game that involves you experimenting with what you feed them. The ocean cleansing is definitely the main focus though.

There is of course a lesson here, that there is peace and some level of reward from taking care of our surroundings. It encourages you to think a little bit about the impact we have on our environment and how much work it takes to undo careless mistakes. This game has an obvious theme and message, but what is nice about this game is that it's not too pushy or depressing with it. You are just someone there to do their part, clean up and make the planet a better place for the wildlife. Although I understand why they are done, there are no lectures here. The game keeps things light, which I feel at a time where the world feels chaotic, is appreciated.

The controls were a little unintuitive at first playing on the Steam Deck, but I couldn't really be bothered to try and remap them and before long I got used to it so it was a bit of a non-issue for me.

The graphics are cute and simple, which I enjoyed. By default the game is set to have a slight pixelation to it, but in the menu somewhere there was a choice to turn the pixelation down so I opted for that. I actually didn't even try it with the pixelation, I forgot to turn it back on to see what it was like.

The music is quite nice, it's very chill but has a bit of a 70s/80s twang to it? I'm actually not great at identifying which decade is which so i'm not sure which one it is.

Overall the game felt quite short despite me spending 9 hours in it. I enjoyed every second of it so it must have just flown by and felt shorter than it was. If you're the kind of person that enjoys those oddly satisfying "cleaning" games like PowerWash Simulator or Viscera Cleanup Detail I think you'll enjoy this as well.

Very cute game, I especially like that you have both HUD and the little diver's HUD represented on it's body. The loddles are adorable- the only crtiscm is that you might not remember what fruits you have fed them, so it would be nice to see a small sequence of previously eaten fruits, and maybe a in-game guide on how to breed each loddle (not in an obvious way- maybe you need to collect cards or something in-game lore wise). Overall, a very sweet and enjoyable experience, I'm very proud of this indie team.

i backed this on kickstarter and it was so worth it, this is such a fun, cute little game! if you liked slime rancher, you'll like this; if you like cozy games where there's not really any stress involved, you'll like this. if you're a completionist like me it'll be a little bit more time-consuming, but unlike when i played the bulk of the game, there are now excellent guides on things like getting all the loddle types. this is one i'll keep installed for days when i just need an hour or two of accomplishing something straightforward, like clearing one area of pollution and trash.