Published , by Loren Chandler
Published , by Loren Chandler
Petit Island is an adorable indie from Xelo Games that whiskers you away to a volcanic tropical island. You’ll explore and photograph the cute inhabitants and sights as you follow in your Grandpaw’s pawprints. It’s a relaxing, story-driven adventure with a light sprinkling of collectibles. While it’s a joy to catch fish and bugs and meet many cute characters along the way, it’s got a couple of underdeveloped ideas that cause it to miss its full potential.
Petit Island is calling you for an adventure, you being a kitten called Lily. She’s a kitten who’s heard many tales of Petit Island from her ailing Grandpaw. You see, his memories are fading and Lily would love to help Grandpaw remember his past adventures. So it’s time to grab your little camera and document everything on your journey.
A simple character customisation has you styling Lily exactly how you’d like. I loved the cute pink outfit varieties and the option to set Lily as a ginger tabby instead of the default calico. And considering Lily forgets her smartphone and credit card at the airport right out the gate, she’s not helping to dispel the widespread internet rumours that ginger cats, sometimes called orange, share one brain cell.
Emerging from the airport, there’s much to see that I wanted to instantly start exploring. And I did! I took a little stroll around to take in the sites, like that tropical coast with odd piles of sand and a playground. But before long I found myself doing a quick side quest to earn a few dollarydoos (or duit’s as they’re called here), in order to purchase a ticket for the tram ride from the airport to the island proper.
One of the first tasks on the island was to photograph some of the local painters in a quest to find a particular one Grandpaw used to tell you about. Each chapter is sort of like this, introducing a new gameplay element or tool, like a fishing rod or bug net, for Lily to use around the island. It’s a nice way Petit Island keeps giving you something new to learn and do.
Before long, I was in need of some more money, luckily enough I had unlocked the fishing rod and bug net. With these tools in hand, I was able to start building my collection of bugs and fish, and even selling some to purchase a few other items.
There was a lot of back and forth on the little island and at times I found myself wishing for some quick travel spots. Thankfully, you’ll gain access to collectible mounts to help you zip across the island just a little faster. The bananallama was a welcome addition to my backpack. My little kitten legs get tired!
Despite her little kitten legs, Lily is tasked with doing some light platforming from time to time. This never overstays its welcome and is pretty straightforward. Lily even has a little yellow umbrella that helps her glide safely around when she needs to. The animations are just packed full of cuteness. I especially love Lily’s little skipping animation as she’s running around town.
As you’re doing all this running around, exploring, and collecting, you’ll also be meeting Petit Island’s cast of characters. They were all really adorable. I especially liked the three MusCATeers, which were just three kittens in a trench coat, though I think they missed an opportunity to double-up on the puns here. MeowsCATeers, perhaps? Another highlight was meeting Grandpaw’s best friend, an adorable old sheep lady. As you can tell by the image below, we had some problems with the tea. It’s not my fault she wasn’t clearer on which ingredients in her garden were safe for kitty consumption!
Without revealing too much, there are elements or things to discover in this game that don’t really add much to the experience and feel like missed opportunities. I would have loved to form my own posse like my Grandpaw’s, but the friendships Lily forms don’t really feel like they’re ride or die.
While there were some elements that weren’t capitalized on, Petit Island is a well-crafted package. I didn’t experience any noticeable bugs (well, not the kind I could catch in my net, anyway). The UI is quite simple though, and it lacks some quality-of-life functionality. I wish there was a quicker way to cycle my handheld tools rather than having to open my inventory to manually equip and unequip them each time.
Petit Island is an adorable and cozy experience, and I’m pawsitively sure I’ll find myself booting this game up to work on my collectibles again. There are also a few mysteries around the volcano I’d like to uncover. However, while cozy games and cute kittens go paw-in-paw, there isn’t quite enough here to make it a fancy feast. Nevertheless, this was a fun little tail. Whisker me away to Petit Island, cause I’m feline like a getaway. Okay, that’s all the puns I’ve got.
This review is based on a Steam code provided by the publisher. Petit Island is releasing on November 14, 2024 on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.