Letters To Arralla Review

Set in a fictional, yet authentic-feeling Australian island, Letters to Arralla begins with immediately immaculate vibes, filled with the textures, sounds, and glossy sunsets of a sleepy coastal community. I thought often about the field work the developers would have undertaken; visiting hot springs, quietly approaching birds without spooking them, hiking up pointy cliffsides, investing in a diet of fruits and vegetables to best capture the feelings and movements of their characters.

This is wishful (but I’m sure not altogether incorrect) thinking. I visited the team in the week before the game’s release, and of course the reality of that is starkly different to the town of Arralla. There are multiple stressors to making a game, learning the business side of things, and the grind to the finish line of actually putting it out into the universe. What it actually looks like is whirring computers, caffeinated drinks, late working hours, and probably some food choices that serve to simply keep the body and brain functioning.

But in Arralla, the only computers are owned by a scientist who builds devices to create earthquakes – and even the earthquakes there are wholesome. Transport is by smooth boat ride or by foot, slowly, along beachside and smooth dirt, rather than the rumbling and screeching and honking of urban environments.

Your job, if you could even call it that, is to be a turnip equipped with an open heart, a butt, and the nosiness required to deliver and open strangers’ mail. Making this highly illegal act a main focus of a game is super compelling, and the different ways to slice open packets and uncrumple messages of pleasant mundanity and melodrama is a welcome bit of gameplay in a fairly uncomplicated world.

Your real job as a player is to be curious enough to explore the place and approach its inhabitants. Opening mail is a lovely vessel for the game’s central messages

I have exactly two critiques of Letters to Arralla: the butt and the water. Firstly, as a game with a distinct focus on the main character’s assets, I’m sorry to report that the butt could have been juicier! I’m sure I remember it in the initial demo being… jigglier. In this version the physics are surprisingly tame. With the behind being constantly front-and-centre, I can assume this was due to making it more family-friendly, or maybe it was accidentally over-engineered in the development process. But, the improvement of the turnip stalk leaves’ motion and the ability to plop on different hats is really joyful and comes close to making up for things.

The water everywhere is stunning, from the sea to the waterfalls, and the steam rising from the hot springs. So pretty and well animated that one would want to at least dip a toe in. So, it was disappointing to learn you cannot swim in anything, which I gather would be a hell of a thing to make work in a game. However, there is an oddly satisfying end-game function that acts as a winky addition from the knowing developers.

These are weirdly specific things to focus on, yes, but it’s because the elements which really work in this game are also the small details, which eventually coalesce into a strong feeling of relaxation.

Walking is nice and made all the more pleasant with the details of the world. I’m glad there’s no added run function, and the teleportation ability of the payphones (where you can also call your mother!) is a perfect balance struck. The capacity to create a sense of place is something I think indies are particularly good at, and the NPC routines, the ability to sit on everything sit-able and have a think, and bugs to get distracted by, all serve this purpose. Even the function of placing found objects in your motel room, which you can eventually give to the town jeweller for inspiration, is one of the actions that make you feel closer to place.

The writing could have been sharper, the characters more detailed, but I don’t think it was required for this game. I appreciate the restraint in tone and I think it will reach wider audiences because of it. There were some funny moments but they were refreshingly minimal, like the couple of character reveals which killed me when they happened. Similarly, there were touching exchanges but the writers and designers weren’t doing the try-hard poignancy that I often get frustrated by in some indie games.

Communicating place effectively doesn’t come from being accurate but giving people the space to make connections to their own experiences of belonging. You walk, sit, chat, fart, and solve the small puzzle bits of a larger picture and slowly realise why it is that touching grass and being kind to strangers is worthwhile.

Final Thoughts

At a time when we’re possibly approaching being cosied-out (but don’t let anyone tell you there are too many games, that’s not a real problem) it’s exciting to see wholesomeness executed so well and in such fine detail. Many games of the same ilk will purport to be life-changing, affirming and understanding of your largest traumas and desires, but anything that compels me to just sit and study plants and sunsets closely is probably more instrumental in my pursuit of wellbeing.

Reviewed on Steam Deck // Review code supplied by publisher

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