Indie offering Season: A Letter to the Future has received a new trailer detailing some key elements of its story. The game is being developed by Montreal's Scavengers Studio, and the trailer comes just weeks ahead of a January 31 release.
The striking visual style and the heartfelt, somber narrative that previous trailers have hinted at pushed the game into the limelight, especially on the independent scene. After an initial expected release window of fall 2022, a delay forced Season: A Letter to the Future to reassess its timeframe. Despite the disruption, the project got back on track and is now due out by the end of this month. In the meantime, Scavengers studio has released a few trailers and play tester reaction interviews that have offered more clues to the game's story and tone.
Today, the developer released another video: a story trailer delving further into the world, characters, and the situation they find themselves in. The protagonist of Season: A Letter to the Future, Estelle, narrates throughout, telling their story and describing the main narrative thrust. Players will chronicle the world, in what the trailer describes as its last moments. Reference is made to generations past who seemingly lived much longer than existing people, and the impending end of the "Season" is repeatedly mentioned, though what that means remains unclear.
The beautiful visuals are on full display in the trailer, and a sense of magical realism pervades the scenes. Whatever else comes of it, Season: A Letter to the Future can already stand among the most gorgeous indie games. The opening shot shows off a city encircled in clouds as mountains can be seen in the background, distant and far below. A shot lingers on a collection of purple crystals, the meaning of which is unclear. The trailer names this world "Earth," but it can only be referring to a far-distant version of it.
There's a certain power in limitation that indie games possess that some triple-A developers don't. When working within the confines of small budgets and tiny teams, independent developers might be forced to narrow their focus to smaller, more personal stories. Season: A Letter to the Future looks to be balancing the broad implications of an expiring world, with an acute focus on personal stories. This isn't to say big-budget games are incapable of personal tales wrapped in spectacle, as the narrative of the God of War games proves. Simply that indie developers are sometimes forced to focus small, and from that focus can come beautiful and personal stories, something that Season: A Letter to the Future may very well have accomplished.
2022 may have had some stellar indie titles, but Season: A Letter to the Future looks to be starting this year off right. Though the final product can't be spoken to yet, things look promising, and fans needn't wait long to find out themselves.
Season: A Letter to the Future is available on January 31 for PC, PS4, and PS5.