As a big fan of the unique mix of puzzle-solving, adventure, and odd beauty of the two FAR titles, I was eager to see what the folks at Okomotive would come up with next. While neither of the previous titles was likely to ever be a massive mainstream hit, their unique qualities and method of communicating story without the use of dialogue was always impressive. Perhaps it isn’t a surprise then that their new outing, the charming Herdling, carries on many of those same traditions, but with some differences as well.

In the game you’ll play as a young boy who, through wandering around and simply doing the only things available to you, starts off on a grand adventure guiding what will eventually be a herd of Calicorns. In somewhat classic game fashion, for the most part you’re on rails and you’ll simply stumble along in search of your next destination, occasionally running into a new Calicorn to add to your herd, and typically requiring you to work through some sort of environmental puzzle to do so. If you keep a careful eye out you’ll also occasionally spot some sort of bauble you’ll be able to adorn one of your beasts with as a bit of bling, but for the most part the focus is on the journey.

In all honesty, while that may be one of the game’s greatest strengths, especially when you’re able to get the herd into a full stampede, the music swells, and you’re running along and feeling pretty free… but if that isn’t enough to get your excited on a consistent basis you’ll probably tire of those relatively fleeting moments quickly. Yes, there are some understood story beats to be gleaned from your travels and the places you move through, but too little over the course of the journey really changes or evolves to help keep your momentum going. I can appreciate that, like the FAR titles, there’s an intuitiveness to most everything you’ll do, with little direction provided or needed, but the game could really use some more meat on its bones nonetheless.

I have no doubt that there will be an audience who’ll likely be entranced by the beauty of it all, and won’t mind the relatively meager puzzles and lack of variety given the good vibes it radiates. That said, with a preponderance of cozy games and feel-good adventures of all sorts already on the eShop, the case to be made that this is a superior one is a challenging proposition. I genuinely liked my time with the game, but I can’t say that the pull to continue to return to it was a strong one.