After my first foray into the Moomintroll universe through the Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth demo that I played for my preview of the game, I was left impressed. In my short hour with the original demo, I got sucked into the majesty of the universe and Moominvalley as a whole, which is why I was so keen to come back and do a full review on the game.
In the preview, I even said that I would love to play more, so when it officially came out, I got the lucky chance to play through the whole game and enjoy it in its full breadth. I played through the entirety of Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth on my Steam Deck and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
At its core, Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth is simply a good game. I firmly believe that anyone even slightly interested in gaming would enjoy a stroll through Moominvalley for several reasons. The first is how beautiful the game looks. The entire game feels like a canvas, rendered in a way that makes the map and every character appear drawn with pastels.
“At its core, Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth is simply a good game.”
Occasionally, you may find an overlook that places you above a stretch of scenery, and it almost forces you to stop and take in how nice the world looks. My favourite moment comes when the game leads you to the peak of a mountain, where you can take in a beautiful view of Moominvalley.
The story builds off of that beautiful world, which is in a perpetual winter, and it is little Moomintroll’s job to gather enough firewood and friends to hold a massive bonfire celebration meant to end the winter. Along the way, you meet a coterie of NPCs who brighten the world through their unique personalities.
Little My is a kid who always wants to have a snowball fight or something like that, and always gets up to mischief along the way. Misabel is a woman stuck in sadness, and Moomintroll has to help her as she works through the pain of her sister leaving to become an actor. Sorry-oo is my favourite of the bunch, a little dog who thinks they are a wolf, but Moomintroll eventually helps them find a companion who will not maul them.
The NPCs guide the story along, and with them come the tools you need to help them. You have to solve puzzles and find hidden items using these tools that gradually help you gather the wood required to finish the game. The tools include a shovel for digging through deep snow and a pair of mittens used to make snowballs, either to break icicles blocking a path or to roll a large snowball to bridge a gap between two cliffs. Aside from those two, there are matches that illuminate dark areas and light fires. Lastly, there is an axe, a fact I called in my original preview of the game, that can both chop wood and break ice.
These tools can be upgraded by finding certain items hidden around the map or given as quest rewards. The mittens can be upgraded with a ball of yarn given to you after a certain point in the story, and the axe falls into that category as well, with the ice-breaking mechanic only becoming available after another point in the story. Aside from those two, exploration is where you find the upgrade materials for the matches and shovel.
The upgraded tools are used in creative ways to navigate the treacherous territory found around the map. Sometimes the upgraded matches I had would come in handy, as they basically never burned out in dark areas. Throughout the game, I found myself excited to see what upgrade I would get next and where it would lead me.
“Nothing is ever really perfect in this world, but Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth is up there.”
Exploration, for that matter, really is an important part of Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth. I loved that trying to explore was rewarded. Many times, whether from compulsively shovelling all the deep snow I could find or from lighting up a dark tree trunk, I came across items that helped me along the way. This proved to be one of the best parts of the game, as I simply enjoyed the thrill of finding something hidden.
When Moomintroll first wakes up in bed in the opening minutes of the game, he is just a scared kid. Over the course of the game, he gradually becomes more confident in himself and his abilities. This turned out to be possibly the best part of the game for me, as there is one moment late in the game where it all comes to a head. Aside from that, it is simply nice to see how Moomintroll develops into a better person and learns how to manage the feelings of those he helps. He learns and grows, and by the end of the game, he is no longer scared; he is much more.
After a full playthrough of Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth, I was left satisfied watching the end credits. Writing this review, I kept trying to think of a bad experience I had during my playthrough, but aside from a certain character’s bad tuba playing, I just couldn’t think of any. There were no glitches during gameplay or lag, or anything like that, and when the credits rolled, I didn’t have anything to complain about. Nothing is ever really perfect in this world, but Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth is up there.
