Do you ever play a game and just think to yourself “this is nice”? It might not be a genre-defining masterpiece, or a narrative epic that makes you reconsider the medium as a whole, but it’s a good video game that doesn’t really do anything wrong and you enjoy your time with it before moving on. That’s Lou’s Lagoon to a tee: a rather lovely exploration/platformer/crafting game set on a sunny archipelago which has you island hopping on a seaplane.
Following a cute opening section set up like a parent telling their child a bedtime story, you’re brought into a bright world full of islands inhabited by anthropomorphic animal people, where, in ancient times, the light met the dark, had kids in the form of the wind and the waves, who are now bickering and causing all sorts of weird weather phenomena. You head to your Uncle Lou’s island where he runs a courier service using his seaplane but he’s gone missing, so it’s up to you and a cast of friends to work out where he’s gone and uncover ancient mysteries along the way.
Most of your interactions with the world are using the Swirler, a delightfully-named multi-tool that comes with a number of upgradeable functions. Primarily used for sucking up resources from around the world and using them to complete builds, it can also transform into a builder that lets you deck out your home or build new machinery for refining materials or creating new tools. It can also change into a fishing rod or a device that flags and digs for hidden treasures, as well as a glider. Each tool is satisfying and intuitive to use, with little in the way of inventory management required as you simply suck the fruits off trees or loose scrap from the floor into your backpack. It’s frictionless, much like everything else in this game, and I like that.
Much of your time in Lou’s Lagoon is spent using these tools to gather resources and then upgrade those tools to higher levels so you can collect different resources for creating new gadgets or electronics. For example, at the start you’ll notice certain plants or animals which you can use the Swirler on but the red outline indicates it’s not strong enough to work on them yet. An upgrade or two will have you pulling nuts off trees and other doohickeys off the local fauna which then lets you build new components to power more complex tools, such as a drone station that lets you automate some of this gathering. It’s a fun loop, helped by just how satisfying every Swirler gadget is to use, although there were moments where I got a bit fed up with just how much gathering was required, especially if it involves going to other islands for certain components.
Island hopping is the other big part of the game. Much like riding the bird in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, boarding your seaplane takes you, via a loading screen, out into a large expanse full of small islands for you to fly around and land at. There’s some stuff to do out in the sky too, including collecting floating resources or tackling certain quest objectives that need to be done from your plane, but it’s mainly used as a way to get from island to island unless you bother unlocking the fast travel points, which I generally didn’t.
Islands often have main hubs, usually a town of sorts, which then lead on to more open areas for you to climb, jump and explore. They’re packed with people to talk to, new resources to collect, chests to find and quests to complete. The early quests do a good job of giving you reason to craft new gadgets, and while they’re never particularly taxing, they’re enjoyable enough. It’s the sort of game I can play while my wife watches some Netflix true crime documentary and keeps me engaged enough that I don’t get drawn into whatever horrible story is on the screen. Unfortunately I did have an issue with one quest that didn’t seem to want to progress. Annoyingly this was a main quest which I needed to complete to further the story, and so I ended up a bit stuck and required me to load an earlier save, losing me a chunk of progress.
For the cosy gamers that value customisation, Lou’s Lagoon should scratch that itch as you can customise your plane, your appearance and build your dream home too. I’m not the kind of cosy gamer that has the patience of tweaking the minutiae of these things to get them just right, I’m more of a “set and forget” player, so while I didn’t really engage with these systems, they looked robust enough and I was regularly getting new customisation options as I found hidden chests dotted around the islands.
One thing that impressed me was the visuals. Lou’s Lagoon popped beautifully on the OLED screen of my Legion Go 2 with vibrant colours which made each island feel distinct. It ran like a dream too, with next to no visual issues whatsoever, making it the perfect game to chip away at on a handheld. It’s always clear which parts of the environment contain resources and also immediately obvious if you can actually get them with your current gadgets or if you’ll need an upgrade first, which I appreciated too. Music is similarly nice, and while there are no showstoppers, it all fits the tone of the game well.
Lou’s Lagoon is a nice time. I appreciate that they clearly put a bit of effort into creating a narrative that ties the game together, but the game shines when you’re collecting resources and using them for upgrades. I’m not going to be thinking about it when we get to GOTY time, but as a fun diversion to play while watching TV it’s a surprisingly compelling experience.