With visuals evoking a Miyazaki movie you forgot to watch and a story reminiscent of a Haruki Murakami story you forgot to read, the coming-soon indie game Season (for PS5 and PC on Steam) looks utterly gorgeous, an immersive journey that's both nostalgic and otherworldly:
Close your eyes, take a deep breath and let yourself be carried away by the journey of Season, a third-person atmospheric adventure bicycle road trip game. The premise of Season is that you play a traveler recording the last moments of different cultures before they’re washed away. Through the eyes of a young woman leaving a secluded community, you explore the wider world for the first time. Story Document, photograph, draw, and record life. Through a solitary bicycle journey, form your own memories, your own vision of the world around you. Your goal? Protect these treasures from being forgotten. Your quest will lead you to discover a new world; unknown, yet familiar. You will be immersed in different societies that will make you discover the mysteries of the world of Season; a surreal version of the mid-twentieth century, where thousands of years have passed without any progress. Find out what caused the last collapse and what might cause the next one…
It's very much a descendant of the influential masterpiece game Journey. Also the latest entry in a new genre of MMO/adventure game/RPG where the goal is not dominance through combat, but transcendence through art and social engagement. For instance:
- Book Of Travels, Serene & Painterly Online World, Flips MMO Expectations
- Eastshade: An Open World Game Where You Create & Sell Works Of Art
- Things We Lost In The Flood: A New, Massively Multiplayer Loneliness Simulator Where Players Can Only Share Messages In Bottles With Each Other — And If Enough Players Win, Self-Destructs
Any others in this vein we should be sure to see?
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 
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