While I enjoy intense sessions of arcade action, blowing the faces off of zombies, and other assorted craziness, sometimes it’s nice to just get the opportunity to chill and relax. Games with a strong narrative base, open-world RPGs, and other sorts of titles can satisfy that need, but I also sometimes appreciate an adventure into the unknown. Passing By, while it may lack the spark of excitement and conflict some people could be hoping for, is truly an exploration of what it would be like to set out on an adventure without knowing your destination, and simply learning to enjoy the journey.

What I first appreciate about this game, is that while it shares beats that can feel familiar like something I’ve played before, it also simply has a vibe all its own. Your journey, at least as you set out, really is quite open-ended, with you only knowing that you have a special letter to deliver. The details of specifically who and where aren’t known, so you may feel a bit uneasy simply picking up and leaving where you’ve lived your whole life… but that’s how your adventure begins. What you do from there really is up to you, choosing where you land to try to grab supplies, discover puzzles that lead to hidden treasures, and meeting a wide variety of characters who all have their own stories to tell and who can usually use some help.

What can be a bit challenging is that the experience, especially as you initially set out, feels like it is risking being aimless. It’s so often taken for granted in adventures that you’ll have some picture of what you hope to accomplish, whether saving a kingdom or stopping a looming threat, that it’s a bit unnerving to instead set out with so little guidance. Granted, this is an experience centered in positivity and feel-good vibes, so it isn’t as if you can choose to go into the world and begin wreaking havoc, but it does feel odd to be so unshackled. What’s nice is that you then realize you’re just going on an adventure, doing your best to grab what you need along the way, and that discovering the world little by little can be rewarding in itself.

I think the most important word in the game’s title communicates what’s most important in it, and that’s the journey. It’s all quite pleasant, typically only moderately challenging to work out some environmental puzzles, and is meant to be savored at your leisure without the weight of an impending world-shattering event you’re looking to put a stop to. The controls for your ship may be a bit unreliable at times, but once you get the hang of how best to get to the sky islands you want to, it isn't so hard to get to where you’d like to go. This is all about the people you meet, the satisfaction of discovery, and just taking the world in. If that sounds inviting, it’s well worth taking a chance on.