Season: A Letter to the Future is the cozy Game I didn’t know I needed

Today I’m celebrating the 100th post I’ve written here on hercozygaming.com with a game that captures the very essence of cosy games – Season: A Letter to the Future.

I played this one back in January 2023, but never quite found the right words to describe it… until today. This morning, I sat at my dining room table with a mug of tea in hand, scrolling through the screenshots I’d saved. And that’s when it hit me – Season encapsulates everything I love about cosy games. Let me explain.

Imagine stepping out of your cosy mountain home for the first time, bicycle pedals clicking, and feeling both excitement and wonder. That’s exactly the moment Season: A Letter to the Future captures.

In this indie narrative exploration game from Scavengers Studio – the Montreal developer also behind Darwin Project (yes, that very uncosy, battle-royale survival game!), you play as Estelle – a young woman from a secluded mountain village.

What is Season: A Letter to the Future About?

The Steam page sums up her quest perfectly: “Leave home for the first time to collect memories before a mysterious cataclysm washes everything away”. As you ride through stupendous landscapes – misty lakes, purple flower fields and sun-dappled forests – the game truly feels like a road trip.

From the very start, Season invites you into a slow, gentle adventure where every little thing you see is worth treasuring.

From a warm living room bedside lamp, the tutorial eases you into Estelle’s story.

We meet her mother packing Estelle’s bag for the journey ahead – a bittersweet goodbye ritual, as the game calls it. In one touching scene, Estelle’s mother even makes her a protection pendant by giving up five personal memories (one for each sense).

It’s a lovely little moment that sets the tone: you’re not just heading into the outdoors, you’re carrying your memories and stories with you. With a bag of tools (including a tape audio recorder and a Polaroid camera) and an empty journal, Estelle pedals out of the home village on the morning of the current season’s final day.

The game is gentle about it – there’s no fast time limit, and you can’t really lose. It’s more like a walk in a garden than an action game.

A Bicycle Road Trip with Estelle

As you ride out, Estelle’s narrative whispers begin to guide you. At first, every turn feels new – she’s exploring the outside world for the very first time.

This “bicycle road trip” through a strange world is deliberate and meditative. And it truly is stunning – the game’s art style is painterly and stylized, with pastel skies, rolling hills, and fields of purple flowers that sway in the breeze.

One moment you might be crossing a quiet, foggy bridge with mountains in the distance, the next you’re in a village courtyard strewn with party decorations from last night. The effect is like looking at living postcards.

We discover Estelle’s world bit by bit, taking much time to appreciate every detail. For example, there’s a village party area where leftover lanterns and long stories hung on trees – a subtle hint that real people lived here.

The game actually encourages you to linger: NPCs will chat if you walk away and back, and Estelle comments on everything around her. As one reviewer notes, even early on, “you’re given the option to spend just a little more time taking it all in”.

It feels like the game is urging you to live in each moment, from taking in the views to listening to all the sounds that surround you. And so, I did take my time; I cycled slowly, watched butterflies, and stopped under the shade of strange, bending trees.

Eventually, you cycle out of the secluded village toward the valley beyond. The path leads into the big Tieng Valley, an entire region to explore. At its mouth, you’ll meet a cheerful boy named Kochi who gives you a bicycle tour of the valley.

Through him and others, the game introduces interesting characters – Maytora the sculptor, and Easel, the last monk of Tieng Valley. Each are entirely unique and their stories are incredibly intimate.

Talking to them feels like making friends.

For instance, a gentle old farmer chats about ancient songs, and an outsider artist shows you a vanishing sculpture. Even if part of the plot involves a cult called the Grey Hands, the focus is on these people’s memories and hopes, not action.

Documenting Memories with Your Camera and Journal

One of the loveliest things about Season is how it tells its story: through recordings, photographs, and journal pages. You aren’t collecting weapons or keys – instead, you collect memories.

Estelle carries several tools: a Polaroid camera for pictures, a tape audio recorder for field recordings, and even art tools at one point. At any time you can hop off your bike and document the moment.

The official description puts it simply: “Document, photograph, and record: Collect memories, make recordings and capture the most important moments from the current season to preserve them for future generations”. In other words, the point is to notice details and save them.

In practice, this means I found myself snapping photos of purple flowers and distant windmills, and recording the chirping of cicadas or a heartfelt conversation. The game’s PS5 page even encourages you to “select and capture the most important moments from the current season to preserve them for future generations”. I did exactly that.

There’s a real joy in experimenting with these audio devices. I’d record the rain pouring down while taking shelter, or take the time to get a perfect photo of a friend’s radio in the dig site. I’d arrange these snippets onto Estelle’s journal pages.

The journal is like a digital scrapbook – you can move photos and stickers around. I spent far longer than necessary decorating each page just right, almost like a craft project.

These journal pages become tiny stories in themselves. Each is customised with notes, drawn lines or little stickers, little cartoons and scribbles that Estelle adds. Even a random shell picked up by the lake becomes a “specific item” in your memory collection.

All these personal touches make the game feel cosy and meaningful.

It might remind you of real-life scrapbooking or a nature journal. There’s a tactile pleasure in this slow routine.

From the storytelling angle, these mechanics underline Season’s themes of memory, change, and preservation. The valley is about to undergo a huge world-changing event (a dam is about to be destroyed) and everyone has already evacuated – so Estelle’s recordings are like little letters to those left behind and to the next season. She’s literally writing a letter to the future.

It’s lovely that the game acknowledges this: as one Steam description says, the journal pieces together the secrets of the world of Season “before a cataclysm washes everything away”. You become a folklorist of sorts, preserving culture, songs and stories.

And you do it in a beautiful scrapbook full of your own photos and notes.

A World of People and Stories

Exploring Tieng Valley (which is indeed a large area) is like reading a book of short life stories. Almost everyone you meet has a kind face and something warm to say.

You meet citizens of Tieng Valley of all ages – from a curious child to an old photographer. Each person has a long story to share, which often reflects on memory, loss, or hope. There’s much time spent in gentle chat, often punctuated by Estelle’s thoughtful inner voice.

The developers promise a “compelling narrative” that asks big questions: “what is this season? Why is it ending? And what will the next season bring?”. Throughout Estelle’s journey, those themes surface. We never get all the definitive answers, and that’s okay – the charm is in the mystery.

There are no shocking twists. You do learn some things about the Grey Hands cult and the village’s history, but mostly you take away your own conclusions. The developers even encourage that: using the camera or recorder “peels back layers” of culture and history so that you can grasp it.

At times it feels a bit like a prophetic dream – a kind of guided meditation. It’s gentle and odd in the best way.

In between, Estelle speculates philosophically about life. I found myself musing on their words during the ride: people talk about how societies grow, about myths of thunder gods and radio gods. They even charm cows with music at one point – it’s sweet.

The point is not to solve a mystery but to feel connected.

By the end of the season, Estelle has changed the world in her own small way by collecting all these audio recordings, photos, and notes to carry forward. It’s like she’s sending a time capsule to future generations, and that idea is at the heart of the whole experience.

Art, Soundtrack and Atmosphere

The art style of Season is consistently beautiful. It reminded me of a hand-painted painting or a softly lit film.

The colors shift with the seasons: in the last days of summer you see golden hay fields and long shadows, and by season’s end, a fiery pink sunset might flood the sky. These changing seasons aren’t just weather – they represent time passing.

Landscapes are stupendous from dawn to dusk. Even the smallest scenes – like a stream splashing on rocks or a field of purple heather made me stop in my tracks.

The soundtrack complements the visuals wonderfully. On PlayStation, they mention that “music is embedded in the landscapes and evolves and drifts as you do”. You’ll hear a gentle, emotional melody swell as you crest a hill, or soft strings by a quiet lake. There’s even 3D audio tech on PS5, so songs and nature sounds float around you as you turn.

The voice acting is gentle and warm, too. Estelle’s lines are subtle and calm – she never shouts or panics, just reacts softly. Her mother’s and the villagers’ voices carry feeling without being dramatic.

All these elements create an air of mystery and peacefulness at the same time. You never feel threatened or rushed. You can’t crash your bike, and the game won’t let you wander off a cliff or do anything too dangerous.

It’s designed so that you can safely explore every corner and tinker with your recorder. All of this makes Season feel like a little work of art, or a slow narrative adventure that gently unfolds rather than races to an end.

I’d go as far as to say it’s cosier than Gris (Nomada Studio). And if you know me well, then you know that’s not a statement I say lightly.

How is Season a Cozy Game?

Part of what makes Season so cosy are the charming little details scattered everywhere.

On a shelf, you might find an old museum vault poster about local history, or a mysterious golden frog statue that ties into a myth. The villagers leave cookies out or talk about radio signals that sound like folk songs.

Estelle’s journal is full of little stickers and doodles – at one point, she even uses stars and smiley faces to mark songs she likes. There’s a very satisfying moment where you drop the recorder onto a radio frequency and it flips through stations – and discovering a prophetic dream prophecy on the radio gave me chills.

The world feels lived-in.

You can also approach tasks in different ways. For example, the game might ask you to record a certain birdcall, but whether you climb a tree, use a different tool, or simply wait for it is up to you. I loved when my journal asked me to collect specific items, because I could go hunting for them at my own pace.

Who Should Play Season?

If you’re the kind of person who loves games with strong stories and lots of heart, Season: A Letter to the Future is made for you. Fans of narrative-driven titles like Firewatch or Eastshade will feel right at home.

It’s an indie game that’s both a video game and a gentle storybook. The pacing is leisurely, and it plays entirely in third-person on a bike – there’s no violence or stress, only exploration and discovery.

So if you appreciate stopping to smell the flowers literally and figuratively, you’ll find it a beautiful game.

It’s warm and poignant and never rushes you. By the end, you’ll feel a bit wiser – perhaps more grateful for your own memory of seasons past, and curious about what the next one will bring.

Note: I played on Steam Deck for 8.2 hours. And after playing, I can confidently say it’s a game I will return to in the future. It even won a Webby people’s choice award for indie games (so the cozy community has spoken).

Sources: Inverse | Gematsu | PlayStation | Webby Awards