Introduction

Fireside is a single-player narrative RPG adventure game that revolves around chatting and trading around the fire.

Synopsis

Play as Knick, the blue cloaked merchant, that has been shipwrecked on an island with a colorful cast of characters.

Analysis

Wander from fire to fire as you pick up items, trade with locals, help solve problems, and help fix up the spirit realm. Can you build up your merchant business once again?

The gameplay 

After a cutscene of Knick capsizing from his boat, you are awakened by a bearded man wearing a barrel as overalls, who informs you that you have washed ashore on this island, which was the same thing that happened to him years before. He tells you a bit about what is happening and sends you on your way.

The controls are straight forward, you select a campfire to walk to and as you walk you can pick up items that you may need to complete various tasks, such as using them to trade for different items that you may need to help someone in their quest. You can use the items to combine with other items by cooking over the fire to create better food items for trading. You may also acquire items to bring back with you through portals to the Spirit Realm where you repair and restore buildings and monuments to continue your story.

When you reach a campfire, you are greeted by various characters who have a variety of needs and wants. Some need assistance with a problem like a mermaid who has lost her voice, a rain drop child who wants to go home to her cloud mother, and a pirate who needs to get her peg leg back from a sketchy frog.

Additional things you do around the campfire is collect recipes to create better dishes, repair nearby shrines that allow you to send items to the Spirit Realm, and one of the key aspects is trading items. Characters may have a certain item they are willing to trade anything for, but they have other items to trade. By selecting the item, it is placed on a balance scale, and you can select items from your inventory and try to creating an equal value and then engage the trade. Sometimes the deal goes through, and you come ahead and other times it falls through.

After a certain number of turns, you are transported to the Spirit Realm, that has a spirit that reside here named Knack. When being transported you start by only being able to bring one item back with you, which allows you to expand the area. The spirit instructs you on different items that you will need for repair and offers you advice and hints. I repaired some crates which allowed me to store items for later use. You can upgrade shrines that allow you to bring more items back with you as you transport there. I also repaired the doghouse and now have a pet.  

Another aspect of the game is acquiring spirit essence that create tokens, which can be used to help transport more items to the Spirit Realm, help construct various structures, and continue the story. Each time you rebuild something, complete a trade, or help someone you will receive the essence and pushes you further into the narrative. The simplicity of the gameplay with the various tasks keeps the player busy and focused but in a laid-back atmosphere.

Art and Music:

What also pops with Fireside is its art style. It is a wacky, colorful medium to absorb, that combines a fun cast of eccentric characters, that have over the top stories and interesting comments to interact with. The music is so in tune with the abstract settings and really make you feel like you want a s’more in real life.

Final Score:

Fireside: is a unique combination of narrative adventuring with trading, cooking, building, and RPG like moments. You must think ahead on which campfire you will navigate towards to help you accomplish your trading goals, but in a very relaxed manor. A cozy camping experience.  

Some of the issues I experienced with the game came in the form of saves and speed. I did not see a manual save option which I prefer in my games if I must shut off the game in abrupt situations. It seems it saves every couple turns between going to the campfires and entering the Spirit Realm. It would be nice to have control of this. Secondly the speed of walking between the fires is a bit laggy and slow. This was not that prevalent though because of the short distance between fires and I know this is slow to pace the player to enjoy the sights and side stories that pop up, but I would like to control speed as well in certain games.

Much to my surprise, the process of this game works well, it starts off a bit slow because of the knowledge you are gaining from the characters stories and the mechanics you are learning, but once you complete a few tasks and help a few characters the game starts to flow pretty nicely.

So, grab a pillow, blanket, your Nintendo Switch, and a snack and sit fireside as you become a wandering merchant on a journey to help others and save the Spirit Realm. 

Shane Kelley is a Senior writer for Boss Rush Network, as well as a writer for Another Zelda Podcast. His favorite game is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. You can find him on Twitter to talk video games, Marvel, and axe throwing.

Sources: Taken by Author