Spirit of the North followed in the wake of indie darlings like Journey and Abzu as a quietly meditative single-player adventure through nature that laid out its moving story without a word of dialogue. Four years on from its release – and three years after it came to PC – developers Infuse Studio have revealed a full sequel.
Spirit of the North 2 looks to follow closely in the pawprints of its predecessor. Going by the trailer shown during the recent Xbox Partner Preview event, you’ll once again be controlling a fox – who gained the powers of a spirit in the first game – venturing through Icelandic landscapes bereft of human presence, moving through natural forests and snowy mountains to more mysterious underground caves and ruins filled with glowing sigils.
This time around you’ll seemingly be joined by a raven companion, shown perched on a tower above Stonehenge-like arrangements of rock columns before they’re engulfed by flames seconds later in an apparent time jump. Like the fox’s glowing tail, the raven has glowing wing tips, suggesting it may too have a more spiritual connection. You’ll also be able to customise your fox’s skills and appearance in the new game.
The trailer’s description mentions that the fox and raven are on a quest to restore the lost guardians from the grip of the dark shaman Grimnir and return home. The end of the trailer shows statues of the animals in somewhere that looks to be lit orange by glowing lava, before a glowing stick of some kind hits the floor and brings the tease to a close.
The first Spirit of the North found fans thanks to its striking visuals, composer Joseph Gifford’s sweeping soundtrack (the modest piano in this trailer looks to continue that theme) and engrossingly enigmatic storytelling, but was knocked for having controls that perhaps didn’t feel as well-considered or refined as the rest of the offering when it came to solving the game’s environmental puzzles.
That could well change in Spirit of the North 2, which was announced for a release on Xbox Series X|S but has since popped up on Steam, just as the original came to PC six months after its launch on PS4. For now, all we know is it’s “coming soon”.
