A new relaxing indie game
Hoa looks like an animation movie in video game format, which was the reason I bought the game. The gameplay also looked easy and after playing action games I wanted something relaxing to play.
Ghibli animation meets Journey
Hoa starts off the main character floating on a leaf, after the leaf hits the ground the gameplay starts. In the end of the game it became clear why the game starts like it does, but I’m not gonna spoil you about it. The story isn’t anything marvelous or complex, the whole game is very easy-going. The gameplay is collecting five butterflies in each area before I could enter next area. By collecting the butterflies I also learned a new move each time, making the gameplay more interesting and a bit more difficult each time. What made the collecting easy was the map that showed each butterflies’ location.
What made the gameplay difficult was actually an issue with the controls. The character didn’t stop moving when I stopped, it rather kept moving little bit, and this happened randomly, making the jumping from platform to another unnecessarily difficult. The puzzles were easy, nothing overly complicated making this game easy and relaxing. The graphics looked nice, it was like Ponyo animation meets Journey -game. Everything in Hoa is hand-painted.
Only one issue
So, there you have it. Hoa is a good new little game that is about 2h long. Only thing that was frustrating was the issue with the controls, which is bad in platforming game. I do recommend this if you want something relaxing and animation -like. Hoa is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch and Steam.
SCORE:
One More Level 
That looks so good
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