



There are also tiny star pieces scattered throughout the five levels, which can be collected to satisfy the completionist in you and also ensure you find all the hidden “moments” that are in the game as well. Upon digging these up, you’ll find an object that will trigger another dialogue sequence in the real world, which then plays out, unhurried, as moments are discussed and examined as best two people can in the middle of the night. As a 3rd party observer to the fox, your job is to travel around and follow certain light wellsprings that bring you to loose patches of dirt. The First Tree is, unabashedly, a walking simulator, so let’s make that crystal clear from the get-go. Slowly, we hear the man, his wife, and their lives together unfold, as we examine the past and unpack our burdens to help, hopefully, shape a better future. As she travels, it becomes clear this dream is heavily influenced by the disquiet inside the man’s psyche: the world is littered with detritus that echo his connections and artifacts of the past. Fearing for her other children, she sets off to find them across a vast, turbulent and ever-changing landscape, encompassing multiple elements and even realities on a journey somewhere. The game, therefore, is from the perspective of watching the dream the man had just had, in which a fox has discovered her dead kit. These ideas are at the core to the unbelievably raw and honest journey of one developer in The First Tree.Īwakening from a dream, a man finds that his mind is full of thoughts about what he just slumbered upon, as well as upwelling memories of his childhood, and, most importantly, his father. For those of us fortunate enough to grow up with a dad in the picture, it can sometimes be an almost embarrassingly diverse picture that’s painted, interweaving elements of hero-worship, embarrassment, rebellion and understanding over the course of years, if not decades. For generation after generation, there are complex emotions that come into place as a boy goes from a child to an adult, and he views the man in his life through a series of lenses. Parents and children always have complicated relationships, but there is a really special place in my heart for the father and son dynamic.
