A Platformer That Stumbles on its Journey
A sword. A shield. Goats and mountains. Oh yeah, and death galore.
Everything listed here are the most prominent aspects of the latest interesting precision platformer. It’s titled Journey of Johann: Snowy Mountain, continuing the story, along with the praised gameplay from its predecessor – Journey of Johann: Grasslands. Despite the praise we gave the original, just how far can such a little man go before slipping up?
To tell the truth, I haven’t had much experience with the precision platformer sub-genre. My taste for the genre goes as far as Celeste, however I was willing to try my hand at another, hoping for a eureka moment where I – could maybe – realise what I’ve been missing.
A Mountain to Climb
To sum up the gameplay, you’re thrown into various stages simply with the path ahead and no further guidance; the lack of handholding was refreshing, yet clearly an omen for what was coming. The title is split into stages filled with monsters, usually goats or birds, spikes, and any other obstacle it decides to throw your way. Your goal is simply to reach the end.
Three hearts symbolising three hits you can withstand are crucial to surviving (a lesson I soon learned), aiding you to survive a tactical plan you set out for how many hits you’ll take. This is all without going over the weapons and shield available in certain stages, used for attack, defence, or to strategically throw at a wall to make a platform.
It sounds simple, yet the various paths available to take will soon divert your attention, introducing the collectible system. One goblet and two relic/key resembling statues are scattered throughout each stage, opening up replay value, and further incentives. The problem with this system stems from two major factors. The (not so) secret locations that are hidden, or, on the other end of the spectrum, the absolutely ludicrous locations they’re stashed away in, more often than not behind an invisible wall. They were occasionally exciting to find – and at that could be a challenge to then complete the level with – yet nothing feels rewarding when randomly placed.
Combos, Collectibles, and Goat Columns
The redeeming aspect of the gameplay, and the reason preventing boredom, is the move-set of your player. A basic set of moves at its core, Journey of Johann: Snowy Mountain’s ability to let the player chain actions together provides for some delightful combos. The shining example I can think to demonstrate this, is actually a crucial mechanic to the game (showing its intentionality); when you’re in possession of a weapon, or shield for that matter, throwing it against a wall, jumping on top of it and picking it up whilst then jumping, throwing and double jumping to land back on it (it sounds very complicated once written out) will allow for height traversal and access to areas held off beforehand. The little things like this, that you discover and create yourself, help in redeeming a deeply flawed gameplay system.
They say that a game is only as good as the playgrounds you let the player explore, so perhaps level design can save Journey to Johann: Snowy Mountain? It’s certainly no Celeste, although that goes without saying, however at times I was left genuinely baffled by some choices found in level design. The majority of stages go as follows: avoid obstacles, maybe throw a couple weapons, get collectibles and reach the end. Yet there was one stage that left me scratching my head.
The stage is titled “Onward my faithful steed” and involves using pillars of multiple goats to platform. The idea sounds neat, and most likely would’ve turned out enjoyable given it avoided the blatant design flaw. The goats can very easily fall apart if you don’t perfectly time your run, go the wrong direction or even let them die. I’m all for punishing players’ mistakes, yet it felt as though I was working against the game rather than being rewarded for playing correctly.
Choices like this are present throughout the duration of Journey of Johann, personifying the missed potential various aspects of the title had. Overall, the level design never feels intentional, and the lack of this conscious intentionality in designing playgrounds for the player to navigate in a free flowing, fun way, drags any platformer down to a slog to play.
A Subpar Symphony
After around five stages – or maybe even ten if you’re feeling generous – the boredom will set in. Journey of Johann: Snowy Mountain has a willingness to maintain its mediocrity, refusing to introduce original items or manoeuvres following the initial tutorial. This creates a dynamic in which, whilst you may find the game entertaining for a while, you’re essentially going through the same thing over and over with nothing new to break it up.
Usually similar titles will introduce a new mechanic, or skills to unlock, yet this one simply says “This is what we have to offer, nothing more and nothing less”. I suspect this choice was to highlight the large chunk of the title that was designed around speed running the same stages to achieve medals, or for personal satisfaction which, whilst an admirable attempt at design, in execution it horrifically fails.
To add salt in the wound, I was not taken aback by the soundtrack or visuals to at least give my ears and eyes a good experience whilst playing. Instead the soundtrack was a subpar symphony. And that’s the overwhelming flaw found in each aspect of Journey of Johann: Snowy Mountain… it’s subpar. The game is by no means terrible, I did enjoy it at times and for some reason even found myself driven to obtain many of the gold medals and collectibles, yet nothing wowed me. Every aspect forming the title has simply been done in other games found in this genre, and a lot more effectively too.
Fails to Inspire
If your eyes are set on an indie platformer to give you a challenge, I’d recommend the likes of Celeste or Super Meat Boy. Had you played these, and only then, you might just find something in Journey of Johann: Snowy Mountain that is enjoyable.
Important Links
Johann’s Journey Continues with a Trip up the Snowy Mountain – https://www.thexboxhub.com/johanns-journey-continues-with-a-trip-up-the-snowy-mountain/
Buy Journey of Johann: Snowy Mountain, Optimised for Series X|S – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/journey-of-johann-snowy-mountain/9P4N4J48G4VT/0010
Grab an Xbox One edition – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/journey-of-johann-snowy-mountain-xbox-one/9N7BMFGGJCW0/0010
