Before the release, many not only compared Fall of Porcupine to Night in the Woods, but called it the spiritual successor, the “perfect fan game” and the unofficial sequel. To what extent have these expectations and advances been met, and is Fall of Porcupine capable of existing outside of these comparisons?
Groundhog Day, Cat and Dove
To help you understand the level of comparisons, let me remind you of Night in the Woods itself. It’s a marvelous action game that won the 2018 BAFTA Award for narrative. We play as an anthropomorphic cat named May – she returns to her hometown, populated by the same upright animals who live, have fun, are sad, and grow up like humans.
For Mei, the routine of everyday life begins-she goes for a daily walk in town, socializes, spends time with friends, returns home, and in the morning it’s all over again. This is diluted with mini-games, vivid characters, well-written dialogue and great music by Alec Holowka.
Despite all the advantages of the game, the very routine, when May is just talking every day and nothing really happens, at first it may strain, if not discourage. And then the unexpected, mystical, and dangerous events begin. Although the suspense and mystery were felt here before.
So, Fall of Porcupine is built on the same principles. We play as the anthropomorphic pigeon Finley, who arrives in the titular city of Porcupine, inhabited by similarly upright animals. Here he joins the local hospital as an intern. For him (and for us) the routine begins – we wake up, go to the hospital, chat with colleagues and patients, make diagnoses, go home to get some sleep, and in the morning it’s all over again.
All of this is diluted with mini-games, platforming elements (even simpler than in Night in the Woods) and enjoyable music. There are direct quotes, too. Like May, Finley loves to refer to inanimate objects, like the vending machine or the mannequin in the store window. And just like in Night in the Woods, sometimes he has to decide with which of his friends and how to end his day.
Similarly, nothing really happens here for a long time, although the tension and the mystique are also felt from the beginning. Just kidding – the game begins with Finley trying to save a patient who has inexplicably ended up on an abandoned hospital floor.
About our lives, not about mysticism
The shadow of that event hangs over Finley and us almost the entire game, but the mystery only finds a solution in the final part. Before that, too, almost mystical events happen. Also, our hero, like May, sometimes has nightmares.
However, all of this eventually finds a very familiar, human explanation. Night in the Woods was also not about mysterious murders and cults, but about life, the search for yourself and human (as strange as it may sound in a game with such characters) relationships. The authors of Fall of Porcupine decided to abandon mysticism altogether, using it only as a sly enticement.