Two Falls (Nishu Takuashina) [Review]

Two Falls (Nishu Takuashina) is a first-person narrative-driven story game that follows two characters stuck in the wilderness of Canada. Jeanne, a young French woman who was sailing to a French colony, and Maikan, a young Inuu man who started his journey trying to lay a wolf to rest, and learned of more mysteries surrounding the forest. While the game is single-player, the gameplay will pause when the character's PoVs shift, which makes it easy to hand off a controller if you would like to have one person play each character.

Each character has differing views on faith, religion, and the environment they're in. Even the music and lighting change depending on the character you are at the moment. As you play you will be given decisions that can shift these perspectives and cause the character to go down a different path. If you make decisions that lead Maikan to be more trusting, he won't fear the Frenchmen that you find and he’s able to get more information.

As the characters begin to spend more time in the forest you’ll encounter what feels like a vengeful spirit or force of nature. It is like the cold weather can physically assault people, it’s almost like it mauls Pierre, the hunter-trader who has offered to help Jeanne get to Quebec. It forces them to separate and that’s when Maikan finds and helps Pierre. And now all of them are stuck in this forest with a cold that wants everyone dead.

Two Falls has a captivating story that makes you want to keep playing. While the game is dialogue-heavy it is fully voice-acted which makes it easier to keep up with. The player is given a lot of decisions and dialogue choices that can change the outcome of the story so it feels like you're an active participant in the story. Two Falls is a good mix of storytelling and allowing the player control. I will be giving the game a 7/10, it is currently available for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X.