Creatures of Ava - Creature Hoarding
Creatures of Ava feels like a PS2 game wrapped in PS4 graphical clothing. It's a little clunky on the controls. Some animations and character models can be a little stilted. The screen is cluttered with UI indicators that can't be turned off. It's cartoonishly bubbly, with a lot of character motivations being "for plot reasons". It also has heart and gumption in all the ways that matter, amid aiming for the sky in what a small team can accomplish.
This 20 hour adventure is filled with everything I was hoping for in an ambitious open world, third person indie game. None of the PS2-ness already mentioned is a detraction - if anything, it gives it more appeal. Which made it all the more difficult to pinpoint why I just couldn't gel with it's brand of intrepid alien world adventure.
Creature's of Ava's most interesting sticking point is its unique take on creature collection. Rather than subjugating creatures that were once free and forcing them to do your bidding / fighting to the death with other creatures, they work symbiotically with you through music to affect the environment in positive ways before being beamed up to safety via little helpful teleport droids. While combat style mechanics are still present, they are focused on helping/calming distressed or infected animals, rather than wanton violence and destruction. It's functionally the same - you're shooting a thing while dodging incoming attacks from it - however the framing makes a world of difference.
In a quest to save as much as possible from a dying world, protagonist Vic knows the world of Ava is falling apart. Her mission is to try and Noah's Ark as much of the local fauna as possible before the entire planet succumbs to a disturbing blight overtaking the land. There's obviously more twists to this tale as the story progresses, but the main loop of taming groups of (wonderfully alien) wildlife and essentially uploading them to your cloud-ark remains the same throughout. Before said upload, you can also take control of each creature, using their own novel abilities to affect the environment - breaking down obstacles or uncovering hidden items, for example.
This creature collection aspect of the game is less Pokemon Blue and more Pokemon Go, with creatures being more or less respawning tools that you must collect 5-10 of before progressing. It's a choice that no doubt was made for design reasons, but I can't help but feel it flattens the mechanic to exactly that - a mechanic. You're not trying to hunt down 20 specific once-off creatures each requiring and providing unique twists that build connections - instead, you are finding that cookie cutter creature to perform this action that you need in the moment before immediately forgetting them and moving on. The result is a world slightly less able to be emotionally connected to - a thousand tiny wayward anchors, over a dozen emotionally charged ones.
The approach taken by the creators of Creatures of Ava fits with the narrative framing better than it would otherwise. Trying to save as many creatures as possible while only moving them from their homes once, versus capturing and then re-summoning them any time you wanted them beside you while potentially traumatising them with the back and forth that comes with this, makes a lot more sense. However, what makes Pokemon so beloved isn't just the creature designs or the battle mechanics, but the sense that it is your team that you are building up - this is your Pikachu, with that memory of beating Misty's Starmie with a thunderbolt while it was close to fainting. Creatures of Ava's world and creatures are wonderful, there's no doubt - but it can't reach that height without the connections built through sustained individual interaction. I love all cats, there’s no doubt about that - but my cats are the best that ever graced this wonderful earth.
I might have honed in on a specific core mechanic that I personally didn't gel as well with in Creatures of Ava, but I want to be clear that it isn't a bad game by any means. There's plenty to love in this world, from it's vibrant landscapes to the wonderful voice work to just how cute and creative the creature designs are.
Maybe you are the type of person to get lost in chasing all of the little goals set in Pokemon Legends Arceus, and catching dozens of the same creature is entirely your jam. Despite my own personal reservations, I can see that friction is more a me problem than the game's, so it's still a wholehearted recommend.
Code for the game was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this piece.