Still, it’s satisfying to disinfect aggressive creatures, especially in later stages when their attacks are harder to overcome. This also lets you pet them. I know petting cute creatures is a whole new thing in video games, but I couldn’t help but pet each cute little guy, multiple times at that. It’s very wholesome, as is the Pied Piper style of playing your flute and guiding them to extraction points. A short Simon Says minigame where you play a tune on your instrument tames them so they’ll follow you, and wonderfully, the tune is different for each biome and fits the overarching soundtrack – a very nice touch.
An additional twist to Creatures of Ava is that you can temporarily inhabit the creatures you’ve tamed to continue interacting with the planet, solving puzzles, entering new areas, and discovering resources. For example, a mole-like creature can dig up healing potions for you, while a horse-like creature can completely break through barriers, or a flying creature can defuse poisonous flowers. The use case for each ability is pretty specific to the area you find each creature in, so it becomes more of a slightly expanded version of finding the right key for the right door, but it’s at least another interesting way to break up the plot.
Your wand will also evolve, developing abilities you can use to solve puzzles or cleanse. You’ll gain the ability to slow time, raise platforms, speed up disinfection, or surround yourself with a shield so you can wade through toxic zones. Again, these abilities are more likely to be used to block off areas until you reach certain points in the story, but they at least give you the ability to go back and uncover secrets if you really want to. A generous fast travel system means you can cover the map pretty quickly, but it’s a little disappointing that once you leave a biome, you can’t return to it. That means unfinished quests, unfound upgrades, and uncleansed creatures will remain there, meaning completionists will have to stay in an area until they’ve exhausted it or risk missing out.
