There is something immediately inviting about Lou’s Lagoon. From its colourful tropical islands to its wonderfully cheerful cast of characters, it’s a cozy adventure that seems determined to make sure you are having a good time, and it worked on me, for the most part.
Developed by Indie studio Tiny Roar, Lou’s Lagoon is a cozy adventure game set in the tropical destination of Limbo Archipelago, the home of your Uncle, the titular Lou. After a giant storm disrupts your arrival at the lagoon, you wash up on an island and meet your Uncle’s business partner, Hefti. He explains that your Uncle, who runs a seaplane delivery service, has flown off to put a stop to the storm, but no one knows how or where he has gone. Hefti gives you the Swirler, a device you use to suck up resources and use in refining materials, crafting, and mending things around Limbo Archipelago. It’s a “two birds, one stone” situation; you follow the trail of clues in search of your Uncle, all while helping out the inhabitants of the various islands you visit on your adventure, essentially replacing your Uncle for the time being.
Lou’s Lagoon is a very lighthearted affair, where even the looming cyclone isn’t enough to dampen people’s spirits. The tone of the game matches its bright and colourful visuals, reminding me of pre-school TV shows, from its constantly cheerful cast of characters to its late addition of a goofy villain. There are stakes to be sure; your Uncle has gone missing, and the storm has caused a lot of destruction, but no one is panicking or seems in any danger. The story is handled in such a way as to be treated seriously, but without altering the gentle and happy atmosphere the game is cultivating through its visuals, audio, and gameplay.
It works, and I found the world and cast of Lou’s Lagoon charming, as well as enjoyed how the story unfolded, even if it felt a bit short. The last few missions of the main story felt a bit rushed to me, as if there should have been a bit more in the last act leading up to the game’s finale. It wraps up neatly as you would expect, but I found the end a bit underwhelming.
After making yourself in the character creator at the start and watching the intro cutscene, you are into the action, which is split into two tidy halves: exploring to gather resources, and then using those resources to craft various other materials and objects. There is no health bar or fail states to worry about, and traversal is fun off the bat, using the Swirler to double-jump and cushion any fall. The game has a very inviting atmosphere that permeates throughout, with a few first missions getting you quickly to grips with the fundamentals of pointing your Swirler at a resource and sucking it up to use later. You can collect as you go, to a certain extent, with resources needing a certain amount of the Swirler’s energy to retrieve them.
But the Swirler is not the only way to collect resources. You can upgrade it to have other functions, such as a fishing pole, glider, and metal detector, as well as what you use to craft things. You can upgrade all of these with the right materials and enough Shellings (Lou’s Lagoon’s currency) from one of the NPCs you meet along your journey: the hare-brained inventor Fidge, to unlock new crafting and resource options or improve performance. Soon you’re gathering materials from all over the place, so seeking out storage expansions for your inventory becomes a must; a great incentive to explore every nook and cranny for treasure chests. The more mundane resources quickly give way to more creative ones too, with my favourite being the old desktop computers you would find underground, like an ancient civilisation, to collect electrical parts.
You’ll then use what you’ve gathered to make rarer materials and craft items, including other machines to help process resources, drones to gather more resources for you, architectural elements, and household furniture. A fenced-in area is given to you on Lou’s Lagoon to make your own home/workshop, so you’ll return here to make anything, knowing you can leave and come back to the finished result. Unfortunately, designing and building my own homestead has never been a strong suit, so my little area didn’t amount to more than the apparatus I needed to progress, but I can see others getting very wrapped up in this element of the game.
Interestingly, the linchpin of Lou’s Lagoon’s gameplay is an item called Star Cores. These purple crystals are used to unlock new materials to craft, in turn letting you make other items. To earn these Star Cores, you have to complete side missions, many of which involve you fixing or building something for an NPC. You can pick these up when out and about by talking to them, or accept them from a digital job board back home. So, you take on a job, fulfill its requirements, earn your reward along with some Star Cores, learn new materials to make, and use those materials to craft and upgrade, so you can take on other missions and progress the story. It’s a simple but well-devised gameplay loop, which has players engaging with most of the game’s elements and gets you immersed in the world nice and quickly.
Of course, you aren’t exploring and delivering goods solely on foot; Hefti has lent you his seaplane, so you can go after your Uncle and complete your tasks. Flying to the other islands in Limbo Archipelago is the only way to reach them until you’ve built their respective radio tower for fast travel. The controls are easy, with a boost, brake, sharp turning, and no penalty for crashing into something. Alongside Lou’s Lagoon, there are three other island locations for you to visit, each with its own aesthetic and character. You’ll spend a good amount of time at each, helping the locals, discovering new resources, and stumbling across secret treasure chests, but none are too big to get lost on.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a great deal else to do when in your seaplane, other than flying between the four main locations. There are various balloons to fly into to grab some extra Shellings and resources, a handful of ring races to take on, and the storm moves around the map, adding a bit of drama to the skies, but that’s about it. Taking in the sights and basking in the game’s warm ambience is always a delight while flying, but I can’t help but wish there was a bit more to do. I think this is made more apparent by the fact that there is so much to do at ground level compared to when you are flying, and that there is a load screen to transition between these two different aspects of the game. I have no issue with a load screen, and the ones in Lou’s Lagoon are short, but I ended up using the fast travel system more towards the end of my playthrough, as I found little need to fly anymore.
As I’ve said already, Lou’s Lagoon is full of charm, and it feels fleshed out and inviting, with various types of islanders to meet and beautiful environments to explore. Whether I was helping rebuild storefronts, cleaning up wanton pools of dark ooze, or helping bring power back to various pieces of mining equipment, every interaction has that jovial nature that permeates the game. The music also shares that gentle, warm quality, with each track evoking relaxed vibes, warm weather, and a faint sense of adventure.
Final Thoughts
Lou’s Lagoon is an easy game to like. Its charming cast, colourful environments, and gentle soundtrack create an inviting world I was happy to spend time in, while its resource-gathering and crafting systems provide enough structure to keep exploration feeling worthwhile. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that Lou’s Lagoon needed a little more to keep me invested. The main story is fairly short, and once I had upgraded my equipment enough to progress through it, there wasn’t much incentive to keep improving it. The game’s crafting systems certainly give you the tools to build an elaborate home and keep developing your little corner of the lagoon, but that is largely dependent on how much you want to engage with that side of the game.
Lou’s Lagoon is warm, welcoming, and consistently charming, and its simple gameplay loop works well for the adventure it sets out to provide. I just wish there was a stronger reason to keep exploring and upgrading once the story had given me everything it had to offer. It may not have quite enough to turn its tropical getaway into a long-term home, but as a short, relaxing adventure, Lou’s Lagoon is still a pleasant place to visit.
Lou’s Lagoon is out on August 27th across PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.
Lou’s Lagoon was reviewed on PC with a controller.
We would like to thank Tiny Roar for the review key.
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