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In Selfloss, an old man fights mystical creatures to help those in need while also coming to terms with his own past.
The action-adventure Selfloss was developed by the Kazakh development team Alex Goodwin Games, which only consists of three people, and published by Merge Games and Maximum Entertainment at the beginning of September 2024 for the PC (€24.99 on Steam) and the Nintendo Switch (€29.99 on the eShop; currently reduced to €20.99).
In a world inspired by Slavic and Icelandic influences, we take on the role of Kazimir, who appears to be the only surviving human after a war with the giants. The old man uses his magical staff and a rowing boat to solve puzzles and fight the creatures of the Lich – the game’s main antagonist. In between, the protagonist gets confronted by his traumatic past in short dream sequences. From time to time we find scrolls and cards which tell us more about the rich fantasy world and its inhabitants. The core mechanic of the game is the titular self-loss ritual, with which the wounds of loss can be healed. This requires the essence of a fish and an item that was particularly important to the departed. Kazimir sails through the varied game world in order to help other creatures with the ritual and ultimately to be able to find peace himself with the help of the orca.
We take control of Kazimir from an isometric perspective and follow a linear progression. However, the game includes larger areas in which we can roam relatively freely. We can use the magic staff as a sail for our boat, shoot rays of light and use it to dash to overcome obstacles or fight opponents. We also fight smaller and larger groups of opponents on foot, solve arrangement, switch and escort puzzles and master short platforming passages, although we can only jump at predetermined points. Combat is generally not very challenging, but due to the janky controls we repeatedly encounter problems that disrupt the flow of the game. The boat’s boost and Kazimir’s punch can only be triggered at irregular intervals, which causes irritation in fights, and jumps aren’t very predictable – fortunately, these passages do not take up the majority of the game. If we die because of the game’s glitchiness, we don’t have to replay too much, since the game auto-saves at regular intervals. The spectacular boss fights are varied, but the game does not break with standard video game techniques such as the three-phase system. While the puzzles are overall interesting but not very challenging, it can be a bit frustrating that the game only accepts a particular solution to a puzzle. Kazimir’s leisurely running pace can be attributed to his advanced age, but it does turn the expedition into a test of patience from time to time.
The decent looking desaturated low-poly graphic style with pastel tones fits well with the melancholic atmosphere of the game, which is supported by the deep growling sounds of the fantasy language of the speaker and the creatures as well as the orchestral score by Arigto. Overall, the image looks a bit soft, but it’s not as noticeable in motion as it is in the screenshots. On PC, the game appears to be limited to 60 frames per second, as we haven’t found a way to achieve higher frame rates. The game runs almost consistently smoothly, at least with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, a GeForce RTX 4070 and 32 GB of RAM. You will spend around seven to nine hours with the game, depending on whether you limit yourself to the main progression, which is usually relatively clearly laid out, or explore every nook and cranny of the game world and collect all 22 cards.
Final Thoughts
Selfloss is a decent atmospheric narrative action adventure from an isometrical perspective with varied gameplay, although we don’t always have 100% control over it. If you’re looking for a melancholic narrative experience in the style of Spiritfarer, Arise: A Simple Story and FAR: Lone Sails/Changing Tides during this cold, dark season, you can’t go wrong with Selfloss.
The publishers provided us with a PC copy of Selfloss which we used to take the screenshots.
