Review - Fariwalk: The Prelude

You take a little tumble off a fence and into a truly strange world. Fariwalk is a strange game that was recently released by the developer AIHASTO. You are a child who is in a world filled with monsters, just trying to find a way out of the yard you’ve fallen into. It is weird, oddly suspenseful, and overall just a delightful play. If weird indie games are your thing, I’d recommend you check this out right now. The less you know, the better.


The gameplay revolves around exploring the strange world that the player has been dropped into and completing a few mini-games that are scattered throughout the world. It’s simple and it works. There is also a bit of dialogue between the player and a few creatures throughout the world. Fariwalk focuses entirely on exploration and discovery. The player isn’t really given any direction from the moment the game starts except when talking to the various creatures that will give the player a few quests.
This game really plays off of it’s strange environment. The real highlight here is the mists. The player can only see a small distance in front of them because the world is shrouded in thick mist. This makes navigating the small world difficult from the very beginning. That difficulty is not a hinderance to the player, but instead builds the feeling of being lost and alone in Fariwalk’s strange environment. The other element that really builds the atmosphere is the strange creatures. Nothing else in the world, aside from the player, is quite normal. They’re all recognizable, but off. Few of these creatures talk to the player so they remain a menacing mystery throughout gameplay. The mists and the creatures put together makes the world of Fariwalk a truly creepy place.
The narrative of the game is a bit hard to put a finger on due to the fact that so little in the game has good explanation. From what I could discern, there are four secondary quest-lines where the player has to do something for each character. The general theme of those quests, such as dealing with being left behind by friends, seems to be tangentially related to the situation of the main character and give the player a better idea of what is going on. However, the connections are vague and questionable. Really, the only cohesive narrative is the main quest. It focuses on a rebirth and growing up. However, these themes are not thoroughly examined, which is not surprising in such a short piece.


The narrative is very vague, but that might not be the worst thing in the world. In a game that creates it’s atmosphere through mystery, creating a strong main story risks losing that mystery in the telling of the story. The way that the player was given information in Fariwalk was so scattered and cryptic that it fit the world that the player was in. Of course there wouldn’t be any straight answers in this creepy world, that is the nature of it. Also, shorter games have less time to develop their narrative. You either have to be blunt or create a less developed story, the latter of which I would definitely prefer.
So, the game does have it’s problems. There are some graphical glitches when interacting with objects in the world. It seems that the program doesn’t like to have to load whatever is involved in the cutscenes. The bigger problem is that there is a particular moment where the player has to sit in a chair that continually crashes the game. I got it to work once by completely restarting the game, but that was it. It would be nice to see that fixed in the future, but so long as the player avoids that moment it isn’t the biggest issue. Especially in such a cheap game, it is to be expected that there will be a few bugs.


Overall, Fariwalk is just one of those strange games that you will randomly find on the Steam store. It builds an air of surreal creepiness beautifully by limiting the player’s vision. While it might not have the most cohesive story, that doesn’t hurt this experience too much as what is given is enough to at least give the player some concept of what they’re doing while not killing the strange vibe. There are a few bugs, but that is not unexpected in a two dollar title. This game is a gem to stumble upon. It’s weird and creepy and thoroughly unexplained. I hope that the developer actually makes more games in this world in the future, as they said would be doing, because this is just brilliantly different. Go give it a try, it will definitely be an enjoyable play.

AIHASTO, Fariwalk: The Prelude. AIHASTO, Nov 23, 2017.

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