The planet of Ava is under threat from a life-consuming infection, and you’re the only one who can save it. Well, in theory, at least. Creatures of Ava is a creature-saving game that focuses on non-aggressive combat so that you can cleanse the planet of an infection known as The Withering, rescuing all of the adorable creatures you can while giving them cute pats along the way. It’s an action-adventure game with a cozy twist, and exploring its various ecosystems, clearing the infection and solving some neat puzzles go a long way in building a world that’s easy to spend a lot of time in. Some of its core mechanics are a little bit clunky, but its neatly crafted narrative and colourful environments wrapped in a unique premise kept me engaged until the final cute critter was safely extracted.

You play as Vic, a researcher who arrives on the planet under emotional circumstances, to help complete an ark project aimed at saving Ava’s animal inhabitants from The Withering, which has turned them aggressive and corrupting the planet. There’s a bunch of obvious tropes here that Creatures of Ava tackles head-on; yes, you’re a human that has landed on a planet with the goal of ‘saving’ it, even though the local inhabitants don’t think that’s any of your business. They’ve dealt with humans before, in fact, and the various locals you encounter each have their own bias’ up first meeting Vic, and rightfully so.

Vic, for all of her good intentions, is in over her head a lot of the time. The dialogue is witty and charming for the most part, and given the title’s cozy nature it doesn’t dwell on the negatives for too long, but it isn’t afraid to occasionally ask some heavy questions and spotlight the conflict that Vic is feeling. Are we really ‘the good guys’ coming in to save the day? Or are we interfering with a world that was doing just fine without us? While the experience is always beautiful, it isn’t always so simple.

You’ll catalogue your findings in a photo album, using your camera to snap shots of beasties in their various states, before using your magical staff to absorb their infection and send them up to the sky to safety, like a futuristic Noah’s Ark. Creatures of Ava is not interested in pummeling the poor animals into submission, either. They’ll attempt to attack you when they’re infected, and your goal is to maintain a continuous beam that’s connected to them while dodging and avoiding those attacks until they are cleansed. This is a neat idea in practice, but slightly clunky in execution. In particular, when multiple infected creatures are coming for you, you’ll need to hold down the trigger button to cleanse, jump with a separate button, and also control the camera. I haven’t had to hold my controller in such strange ways; being able to tap the trigger to cleanse instead of holding it would have made a big difference in the smoothness of Ava’s not-quite combat.

Still, the act of disinfecting aggressive creatures is gratifying, particularly in later stages where their attacks are more challenging to overcome. Doing so also allows you to pet them. I know petting cute creatures in video games is a whole thing and not something new, but I couldn’t stop myself from petting each cute little guy, and petting them multiple times over. It’s very wholesome, as is the Pied Piper style in which you play your flute, leading them to extraction points. A quick Simon Says mini-game of playing a tune on your instrument tames them so that they’ll follow you, and delightfully the melody for each biome is different and matches the overarching soundtrack – a very nice touch.

An extra wrinkle to Creatures of Ava is the fact that you can temporarily inhabit the creatures you’ve tamed, as a way to interact further with the planet, solve puzzles, access new areas and uncover resources. For example, a mole-like creature can dig up health potions for you, while a horse-like creature can run through barriers entirely, or a flying creature can disable poisonous flowers. The use case for each ability is quite specific to the area where you find the relevant creature, so it becomes more of a slightly elevated version of finding the right key for the right door, but it’s at least another interesting way to break up the action.

Your magical staff will evolve, too, with abilities that can be used to solve puzzles or aid in cleansing. You’ll gain the ability to slow down time, raise platforms, hasten disinfection or surround yourself in a shield so that you can wade through poisonous zones. Again, these abilities are used more to gate off areas until you reach certain points of the story, but it does at least allow you the opportunity to backtrack and uncover secrets if you really want to. A lenient fast-travel system means you can cover the map pretty quickly, but it is a little disappointing that once you leave a biome, you can’t return to it. This means unfinished quests, unfound upgrades and uncleansed creatures are left there, which means completionists need to stay in an area until they’ve exhausted it or risk missing out.

Some of the voice acting feels a little rough in Creatures of Ava, not for lack of trying but in terms of its overall quality, with sentences sometimes cut short. It also bounces between voice-acted scenes and others that are completely text-based, which feels a little jarring. Mantling is a little inconsistent, and movement can come off as stilted at times too; in one instance, I was knocked into some poisonous sludge and simply had to watch as my health depleted, unable to climb out like I had done before. It’s a very ambitious title, and the lack of polish knocked me back into reality on occasion.

Even so, its heartfelt story navigates some awkward territory successfully and delivers a memorable ending; while it may be clunky at times, the feeling of exploring an unknown planet, encountering strange but cute animals and cleansing a world full of infection feels quite fulfilling. And if I ever felt frustrated, I just gave one of the adorable creatures a little pet on the head. There we go. Much better.