The new Christmas table and the reindeer horns are pretty snazzy, too!
The Season of Dreams takes place in a ski village, complete with ski-lift airboats. The titular dreams are those of a young skater, and the season’s narrative follows her as she is mentored by several spirits in order to prepare her for a performance in the Valley of Triumph’s coliseum. Unlike the narratives in previous seasons, there is no ambiguity or obscurity in the spirits’ memories, but reliving them is a joy; as learning their emotes and watching them teach the young skater to skate has the player learning some fancy new skating moves themselves and the simplicity of the story makes for a more immediately affecting story; albeit one that is a little less lyrical than previous seasons’.
The village itself, while a little awkward to navigate before all the ski-lifts have been activated, is beautiful; the slopes are a joy to skate down, particularly while reliving the memories of the young skier learning her craft, and the villages’ buildings are reminiscent of Tibetan architecture (think less extravagant temples and more modest houses), and the costumes are as colourful as Peruvian aguayo—with dope hats to complement them, and something that looks like a bigfoot cosplay!
This is why you need the ski lifts!
By involving the player in the skater’s training, it’s a strong follow-up on the originality in the gameplay of the Season of Prophecy, and thematically it manages to do something different in the way that the Season of Sanctuary did, while still weaving itself into the narrative tapestry of the main game and other seasons in a way that Season of Sanctuary failed to.
Bring on the full release!