Fe (2018)

A few weeks ago we were talking about how some games have a very ‘obscure’ lore that leaves a lot to interpretation (I think it was about Limbo, but I’m not sure). Somebody said something like “if a story can mean anything, it means nothing”. I firmly disagreed with that, but Fe is the game that made me think that maybe, just maybe, there’s a little truth in that.

I liked Fe, it’s a fun little game exploration/stealth game with nice, different visuals, but I didn’t get any of the plot and it really did no work in getting me interested in it. There’s no spoken lines and everything is ‘explained’ via weird flashbacks and pictures in runes. As you guessed, it’s not very clear what is going on. Well... I mean, you’re a weird animal that should help other animals to defend against weirder creatures that put them in even weirder cages. That’s all you need to know to enjoy the game.

But there’s more. The runes and flashbacks point to... something that happened before but it’s not clear. I guess it’s possible to stop and analyze every clue and get an idea of the plot, just like other games that are celebrated for this ‘obscure narrative’ —Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Limbo—, but the game never gets interesting enough to encourage that. I didn’t find a community of players online dedicated to unravel the plot of Fe. This is an actual case of a game that can mean anything and then means nothing.

Well, kinda. The developers have said that they wanted to create an ecological message, but then, why make it so convoluted?

Last week, we received a review code of this game for Nintendo Switch. Problem is... this game was released two years ago! We reviewed the PlayStation 4 version then.

After investigating a little, it seems that this was because Fe is finally appearing on the Colombia eShop. fun fact. Most people in Colombia don't use the Switch eShop. The games there are more expensive (thanks to our government taxes on digital goods) so most people just create an american account.

Anyway, I wrote a few paragrpahs about this version and added them to the PS4 review. It would have been weird to write a new review about a game so old.

Edit: On a second thought, I guess 'non-gaming-savvy' audiences (kids, older people, casual gamers) probably use local accounts on the switch and the Colombia eShop , but they aren't the main audience of our website.