We can all agree that falcons are pretty cool. What’s even cooler is the notion that certain folks out there can utilise these majestic creatures for hunting purposes, coaxing the bird into their hand with just a simple whistle. If you happen to see someone with a falcon attached to their hand and rocking a tweed flat cap, you know they’re a cut above your average human.
We don’t all have the time nor the means to practice falconry in real life, so thankfully Falcon Age is the next best thing. Originally released as a VR title, the game transitions successfully over to the Nintendo Switch, albeit losing a few mechanics along the way and retaining a few others that would objectively be far more satisfying to execute in VR rather than a standard control scheme.
You play as Ara, a young woman who escapes confinement after a lengthy stretch of time performing manual labour. She befriends a young falcon in the process, taking it with her as she starts her journey towards freedom. Right from the start, you’ll quickly grow quite fond of the falcon, whose absurdly cute design is immediately endearing. The game allows you time to get to grips with the falcon mechanics before letting you loose on the world, teaching you how to feed your companion, bond with it and use it for hunting/combat purposes.
As you head out into the open world, your falcon grows to full size (although you can switch back to the baby version at any point if you wish); from here, you can interact with the world’s inhabitants and work with your falcon buddy to liberate outposts dotted around the environment. The gameplay mechanics here are pretty great, as not only will you need to utilise your falcon to take out flying robots, but you yourself can get in on the action too with a handy baton/whip tool.
Not only will you get involved in some pretty dicey combat sections, but you’ll also need to take part in some more relaxed activities such as resource gathering and planting crops. As you progress through the game, you’ll also unlock accessories for your falcon, including sunglasses and bow ties; it’s really adorable, and we always felt a twinge of remorse whenever our companion needed tending to after a particularly nasty injury.
Our pals over at Push Square reviewed Falcon Age for PlayStation VR, and mentioned that the game is significantly diminished outside of VR; that still rings true here. There are certain features, such as the ability to casually pet your winged friend with your free hand, that simply aren’t possible on the Switch. On its own, Falcon Age for the Switch is still a fun experience, but when held up against its VR sibling, it’s an objectively lesser game. Nevertheless, we’d still recommend giving it a shot if only for its remarkably unique premise; after all, it’s probably the closest most of us will get to owning a pet falcon.
Comments 16
Wow, never heard of it until now. Sounds very interesting, and looks nice. Too bad about the VR thing
That reminds me I've got to try VR one of these days
Can you really give it a negative of no vr support on the switch if they have no option to do so and is petting the owl the only thing extra in vr other than it looking cool? I know that there is labo, but so far only Nintendo has used it and you have to hold the switch to your face so it wouldn’t work.
@Bobb And I've got to try falconing!
...They both sound expensive and time-consuming.
pulls PSVR out of trash
I'm ready.
@kurtasbestos now that's an idea! I'm pretty sure falconry is cooler than VR 😂
One of the few times where a 6/10 doesn't put me off as much. I just love birds and can't resist playing this game because of it, haha
@bobzbulder Like i said before(and i even got quoted on an article on this very website).Not just Nintedo used it.An indie developer ported their PC VR game to Labo VR.The game is called Spice and Wolf VR and is almost exactly the same as the PC version.
What's there to do post-story mode?
The review score sounds harsh when you read the review content!
@graysoncharles Thank you for clarifying. It really sucks that Nintendo won’t do more with vr. The switch screen may not be great for it, but if they were to make something like labo for the switch with a head strap it would be great. The joycons are also perfect for it.
Why couldn't nintendo used nintendo labo for this game.
@bobzbulder Tbh considering VR needs to duplicate a screen to fulfill the effect makes me think it's also relatively quite more intensive graphically than the average game, so most anything on Switch would likely suffer unless it's specifically keeping to easier and less hardware intensive graphical style... and the whole point of Switch VR is that you don't need anything outside of the cardboard "frame" for your Switch since the Switch tablet itself is used as the screen for the VR display... and if a Switch Pro ever happens in docked-only form to save on costs**, then it's unlikely that a "Pro" Switch could be used in a way that would allow for easier VR on Switch... especially considering how niche VR gaming is.
**(especially since downsizing powerful hardware to the size of the Switch is hard to do without selling at a loss or comparable cost to the upcoming PS5 for hardware still weaker than it. It's not liken mobile phones which can offset better hardware's higher costs by offloading the full cost of a phone with the actual phone service subscription which isn't as readily doable with a console especially with their more specialized use)
@Jacobpower Probably hardware reasons. The switch is still a console with limits, and Nintendo's philosophy is to make sure they can make a profit on the console itself when selling, unlike the hardware of other platforms which is sold at a loss at release since the true cost of a console would be too high for most consumers.
Since VR duplicate the image of a game, it means it has to deal roughly twice the rendering effort to properly convey the VR effect, which takes a toll if a game is too graphically advanced.
And because of Nintendo's insistance that a console doesn't sell at a loss, this is something unlikely to be fixed by a Switch Pro because the higher hardware(which would have to be produced at higher costs) would likely require making a Pro console akin to "docked only" to keep the costs down by removing the screen/etc... and Nintendo's current VR option is only possible by making use of the Switch's own screen as a VR display.
Sure there's phones who show it's possible to have remotely solid hardware in mobile/portable form but they also manage that by having both a screen much smaller(and thus likely cheaper?) than a Switch and also by offloading the true cost of the phone in general by tying it into the phone service subscription fees of mobile phone service providers who ultimately often act as the sellers of the phone... a model which is much harder to pull off with a gaming console unless nintendo went out and made specifically something like a cartridge-less digital-only console you couldn't even operate without a much more costly version of the Nintendo Online Service subscription(to take into account the cost of the console)...
... and I don't think that'd be much popular of a model with fans considering all that'd imply, especially considering how game consoles are much more specialize hardware unlike phones who can get away with it by being much more general-purpose oriented..
Buying this just cuz you can fist bump the birdy.
@graysoncharles i thought 3ds games sucked w/o 3d but the vast majority of ppl, especially reviewers, said even the games designed around 3d were great in 2d. Nintendo even gave up on it & no one ever gave games less of a score for that, so it's hardly fair in this case, IMHO.
"Spread your wings and fly away"
looks like someone's been playing Let's Sing Queen
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