Sometimes you just want to pick up a game and shut your brain off. Hence why games like Abzu, A Short Hike, and Journey are so popular. Europa instantly grabbed my attention thanks to its beautiful Breath of the Wild inspired art style, exploration-based gameplay, and promises of a captivating narrative. All that remained to be seen was if Novadust Entertainment could deliver on their vision.

The game takes place on the titular Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, which has been terraformed for human civilization. However, it seems that something went awry long ago, as there appears to be no more humans in sight. We follow Zee, an android designed to resemble a young boy, who is all alone on Europa, with only a journal from his father, Adam, left behind. Adam writes, “Come to the island if you ever get lonely. Come here, and think of me.” Armed only with his trusty Zephyr jetpack, it’s up to Zee to find his way up to the mysterious island floating above Europa and learn the truth.

A sweet picture of Geppetto and Pinnoc- I mean Adam and Zee.

Traversing Europa can be both cathartic and annoying. Movement is very floaty, which can make both jumping and especially landing, quite frustrating. Occasionally, you’ll run into invisible walls and get pushed off the edges of structures you’re attempting to land on as well. Trying to reach the highest points in Europa can feel like a chore at times, but thankfully, a lot of the frustration found early on can be lessened by upgrading your Zephyr jetpack along your journey.

Unlike the traditional jumping and platforming mechanics found in Europa, zipping around in your Zephyr is an absolute blast. The Zephyr controls are pretty responsive, which adds to the enjoyment of flying throughout the levels. Flying isn’t the only only fun means to travel, though. Archways provide Zee with a burst of speed if he runs through them, allowing him to glide around the ground smoothly and swiftly, similar to the movement style found in The Pathless. I would have loved to have had this type of movement have a larger presence in Europa, as the archways don’t appear until toward the later portions of the game, but I thoroughly enjoyed the few sections that had them.

The Zephyr also works underwater! Watch out whales!

That said, Europa is a far more linear game than I was expecting. I quickly realized that despite having many beautiful open vistas greet you in each new chapter, the areas you can explore are actually quite small. Once you get near the boundaries of a region, the world around you will turn gray and thick with fog, with strong winds pushing you back into the explorable areas. To be fair, I really enjoyed this organic manner of setting boundaries and guiding, which reminded me of somewhat similar methods used in both Breath of the Wild and Ghost of Tsushima.

What I soon came to realize is that there’s not really much need for any in-depth exploration. At first, I scoured every possible inch of Europa, but there weren’t any collectibles that were exceedingly well-hidden. This leads me to one of my biggest disappointments of the game – the collectibles don’t really matter, aside from the Zephyr upgrades and the Journal Pages, which provide you with the main narrative of the game.

It’s pretty hard to miss any of the important collectibles, like Journal Pages.

The Journal Pages are all pretty unmissable too, so there’s no real danger of missing parts of the story, what little there is of it. The Stone Chests, Bestiary Sketches, and Emeralds don’t really provide anything other than having things to look for for a completionist run. They don’t give you any extra abilities, or any other endings or special cutscenes if you find them all, so they feel more like pointless filler. 

Sadly, the same could be said for the puzzles in Europa. Bear in mind that this is a casual game, but there’s no challenge whatsoever to any of the puzzles. This is fine if you’re in the mood for a completely relaxed experience, but if you’re hoping for any sort of a brain teaser, then Europa is not the game you’re looking for. 

The puzzles help change up the gameplay, but none will tickle your brain.

Even more frustrating are the enemies. There’s no combat in Europa, so Zee doesn’t have any abilities or health bar, meaning he also can’t perish. However, there are still enemies for some reason, who will fire bombs and laser beams at Zee whenever he’s within range. Since Zee can’t die, all the blasts do is stun him for a long time, causing him to move at a snail’s pace until he’s recovered.

What’s particularly annoying is that the enemies more often than not will be able to blast you again before the stun effect has worn off, keeping you in the state of slow-motion until you’re able to hide behind something to block you from their attacks. Why have enemies in a game with no comabt and no death? Your guess is as good as mine. The good news is that you can turn off the enemy engagement in the settings if you want a truly relaxed and carefree adventure.

The enemies won’t kill you, but they can still ruin your day.

Even though the gameplay feels like a bit of a letdown at times, there’s no denying that Europa is a gorgeous game. It clearly takes inspiration from any number of settings found within Studio Ghibli movies, alongside a beautiful cel-shaded art style like found within Breath of the Wild. The only thing hindering the experience is the framerate, which frequently plummets to near single digits when playing on Nintendo Switch. Thankfully, thanks to the relaxing nature of the game, the framerate drops don’t affect the overall experience too much to make it aggravating.

The sound design is wonderful all throughout. The only spoken dialogue is by Adam through the journal entries you’ll collect along the way, and his performance is delightfully sentimental. Europa’s soundtrack is poignant and minimalistic, leaving room for the ambient sounds to immerse you in the world surrounding you.

One of many gorgeous vistas throughout the game. So many vistas!

Even though Europa didn’t turn out to be what I’d hoped for, it’s still worth your time if you’re looking for a completely casual experience. I think I was lead astray by the trailers, which make it look more curious and puzzle-centered than it actually is. I was expecting something more along the lines of Omno or RiME, but what we got was something more akin to a Journey knock-off. It’s not bad by any means, just not quite what I was hoping for. Although, if you’re looking for a completely casual and relatively short experience that you can enjoy while shutting your brain off, then you might enjoy some moments of zen with Europa.

Europa is available now on PC and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Europa was provided by the publisher.