Pine Hearts is a relatively new game that has stunningly adorable visuals and is filled with heartfelt stories that are sure to get your attention.
The game, at its core, tackles efforts of coming to terms with loss, and no matter how many distractions you try to keep your mind off of it, you will most likely fail. At the beginning of Pine Hearts, your character, Tyke, only has one objective.
A Cozy and Heartfelt Adventure
(Photo : Hyper Luminal Games / Screenshot taken from Steam)
This is simply wanting to climb the mountain and reach the summit but you unfortunately do not have the right gear to make this journey. The only way for you to acquire what you need is to explore the park.
You can get the items that you need by meeting charming characters that are scattered throughout the map and helping out across various puzzles and fetch quests. All of these will feature humorous dialogue and interactions with the NPCs.
Pine Hearts make you feel like every single character you interact with, which is useful because they will become a useful support network for your character to help with his adventure, according to PCGamer.
After spending more time in the game, you will eventually unravel a thoughtful and more solemn story, that is probably more than you originally bargained for. It is able to keep the feeling of childlike wonder while also bringing the intensity of exploration.
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As you continue to complete various quests for the park's visitors, you will unlock memories that you play through as a younger version of Tyke, all of which occur in the park. These memories, in order to reinforce this sense of childlike curiosity and wonder, are constructed of craft materials.
These include dinosaurs and goblins that were made from cardboard and environments that look shoddily colored using crayons. These sections of Pine Hearts, while very short, offer a unique experience to the player.
A Story About Grief
The journey that Tyke is looking to pursue, climbing the mountain, is one that he had planned to do with his father, before the latter's passing. While his loss is intrinsic to the game's story, it is by no means a sour undertone that lurks under the surface, said GamingBible.
Despite the grief of loss, Pine Hearts is a game that is filled very much with joy and love, which are arguably its main components. On the other hand, grief will only play a small role in order to better understand the connections that you forge with loved ones.
One thing to note is that memories are unlocked by using teardrops, which are acquired through quests or by interacting with objects in the environment. This means that being thorough and interacting with anything and everything will help you find every single one.
The game's creative director, Rob Madden, said that Pine Hearts was inspired by the sudden loss of his father in 2019. He said that he is hoping Tyke's story of grief can "bring a little hope to people that may be going through or have gone through similar experiences," according to Pocket Tactics.
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