Weaving Tides Review

I will totally admit that I don't really understand how sewing something works. To me, it's a magic process that just sort of ends up with a completed product, and I never know how, even when, when I watch the process. In a way, Weaving Tides appealed to me just because I got to watch things get sewn together. However, there's a lot more to the game than just that.

Weaving Tides follows the story of Tass, the one and only human in a world that is made up of two races: anthropomorphic moths and a race of dragon-like creatures known as Weavers. Tass lives with a Weaver named Kilim, who serves as his adoptive father. However, after an attack on his hometown by mysterious shadowy Weavers, Tass and Kilim leave home to begin searching into Tass' origins, and the possibility of having a family. Of course, this trip has plenty of dangers and plenty of new friends to make along the way.

The plot is cute and has a few little twists that I thought were neat. However, for the most part, this is a pretty typical adventure. It's sweet enough, especially thanks to some decent character building. Tass will meet other Weavers along his journey, and each of them has a distinct personality. Twill is looking for adventure and having the time of her life, while Sir Luce is an extremely forgetful dragon who worked for nobility. Combine this with the aforementioned good-natured Tass and dad-joke-loving Kilim, and it's a good group of interactions.

Through the game, Tass will ride on the back of either Kilim, Twill, or Sir Luce. In turn, those characters will fly over lands that look like they were weaved together by a bunch of cloth. At any time you can dive beneath the cloth and then reemerge. When you do this you'll start a weave, and should you dive again you'll create one. This is the game's central mechanic, and you'll be using it for combat, puzzles, and general exploration.

I'll get combat out of the way now since it's not really a huge part of the game. In addition to the aforementioned weaving, you have dashing. You'll use these two abilities to stun enemies, then tie them to the ground. This is almost always done by dashing into them so they get dizzy, then making weaves over them. Occasionally there's a boss fight, but all the boss fights are just "dash until they miss and become dizzy, then tie them." There's nothing wrong with any of this, but before the game's five-hour run time was up I was already pretty tired of it. However, combat isn't really the focus of Weaving Tides.

Instead, you'll be spending a lot of time solving various puzzles. Most of them make use of the weaving mechanic in different ways. One simply had me use environmental hints around the world to tell me what shape to weave into the ground. Another required me to pull switches and then use the weaves to tie them to the ground so they didn't slowly move away. Sometimes I also had to dive under the ground and come up somewhere else in the world, or drag rugs on top of eyes to get them to stop staring at me. Nothing complicated, but I felt most of the puzzles did a good job challenging me and making me think for a few moments before I could figure out the solution.

That said, occasionally things weren't quite so good. As I've mentioned, there's a mechanic that lets you dive under the level to move around, which you sometimes need to use to get past barriers. However, it's just as often that I'd awkwardly bump against rocks that are under the level and impossible to see. It makes navigating feel like I'm trying to fly the world blind, which isn't really ideal for a game based all around exploration. There's also a forced stealth segment in one of the later chapters that, while not difficult, is really slow and not much fun to play.

Things hit an unfortunate fever pitch in the last level, which is full of spike traps that are difficult to see and avoid, large empty spaces that deal damage to you over time, and frustrating enemies that aren't very fun to fight. Thankfully this is only one in the game's five levels, and the final boss ends up being rather great, but it is sad that the game mostly ends on a sour note.

Even with this sour note, I still really enjoyed my time with Weaving Tides. It's a cute and relatable tale about family wrapped up in an adventure game. The puzzles are mostly good, and I had fun exploring the world. When Weaving Tides was at its lowest, it was still a decent game, and when it's at its highest, I was having a really good time. If you're looking for something a little more wholesome to go through, then I strongly suggest giving the game a look.

TechRaptor reviewed Weaving Tides on PC using a copy provided by the developer. The game is also available on Nintendo Switch.