On paper Fall of Porcupine is my jam. From the style, the writing, and the soundtrack it is exactly what I like. So, I will start with that.
The player takes control of Finley, an anthropomorphic pigeon, who is starting out his first days as a resident in the hospital of the town called Porcupine. The story follows Finley and his friends, another junior resident called Mia, and a veteran nurse called Karl. There are other characters that get fleshed out and the ensemble of cynical senior doctor, money grubbing director, and snarky receptionist gives the game the feel of an extended, sad episode of Scrubs. With animals.
Finley is hopeful, optimistic, and wants to see the good in people. Mia is a nervous wreck with a skill for stew. Karl is a no-nonsense, tough guy that likes to dumpster dive to feed the homeless. The game gives them time to breathe, and over the course of the season of Autumn (and into Winter) the player comes to learn a lot about all of them.
The world itself is well built, a 2D ‘open world’ set around Porcupine with a day and night cycle. Each 24 hours is marked by Finley going to the hospital and working a shift. Each shift involves some short mini-game (that cannot be failed but the player gets better ratings depending on their performance), a short story around each of the patients, and afterwards Finley will explore the town with a friend and talk to the locals.
The whole world is rendered in pastel colours and the soundtrack is full of sad indie tunes that evoke certain Americana melancholy.
Learning more about each person in Finley’s life had me engaged, from Karl’s drunken brawl, to an elderly patients exaggerated stories, I wanted to know more about each of these characters.
It feels like I’ve now written this bit on a number of other games recently, but Fall of Porcupine would be a great game to recommend to people looking for something more narrative focused, except it does everything it can to not be enjoyable.
A minor issue, that then becomes a major issue, is the translation. There are a number of jarring grammar mistakes throughout the game, placeholder text and, worst of all, text that tells the player incorrect information that makes it difficult to finish some tasks (one Turn based combat bit tells the player that a move will recharge hit points when it recharges magic points).
The game has soft-locked on me a couple of times too, with certain parts becoming unplayable and requiring a game restart to access. This became unforgivable as it had me replaying sequences and impacted the emotional resonance.
Fall of Porcupine has a good story to tell, so it is shame that it is hampered by these issues, and it fails to reach the excellence it so deserves. Instead, it was a game that I found myself putting up with so I could get to the next good story part.
Conclusion
Fall of Porcupine is a fantastic story with a real heart, which is in need of a little polish to make it perfect. For those willing to play through the bugs and the translation they will find a rough gem.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox Series S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
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