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Roia is a game about connecting with nature and–quite literally–molding it so that it can flourish. It's also a puzzle game of sorts, but that almost feels beside the point. Playing Roia feels more like a relaxing journey than a “game” in the more traditional sense, and that's good, except for the rare occasions where the experience tries to be a bit more game-like.

In Roia, you can sculpt landscapes to your liking using simple taps and drags that can change direction between going up or down via a switch in the lower corner of the screen. Your goal in manipulating terrain is to guide a flow of water that is somewhat determined by the game environment and further directed by a bird companion that will sit and perch at places you should have water flow to.

At first, the environments your in are complete blank canvases that you can manipulate as much as you like, though as you guide your river further and further down the mountain you start to encounter fields, wildlife, and other obstacles that you may need to flow around or under to progress. The game is divided into chapters that revolves around these changing environments, though the entire experience flows between them just as smoothly as the water you are manipulating.

Most of the progression inRoia seems geared toward challenging your land-sculpting abilities in increasingly intricate ways. All of this feels natural, though, as the obstacles or complications in directing your flow of water all feel entirely natural. I'm being intentionally cagey about what the obstacles are, because a lot of my enjoyment in Roia stemmed from coming across these things entirely by surprise.

I won't say that I enjoyed every minute of the challenges thatRoia put in my way. In fact, the tail end of the game can feel a little onerous just because some of your landscaping can get obscured by environmental features and make it difficult to see or control things behind them. Perhaps some additional layer controls or something could help alleviate this issue. Or, you could just press on through it.

Even with the less pleasant challenges hindering my progress,Roia did not take all that long to work through. After just a few sittings I hit then end, which was both a surprise and a bit of a relief. Roia decides to end right about at the time that its welcome wears out, and does so in a way that is pleasant.

For anyone who really fancies the landscape manipulation mechanics,Roia also sprinkles little side puzzles and secrets all throughout the game. Just know that if you beat the game, there's no easy way to go back to these challenges without just starting from the beginning.

Roia is at its best when you're just chilling out to its wonderful soundtrack and in a flow of land sculpting. There are moments in the game that intentionally disrupt this to provide some challenge, create some surprise, and add some contextual storytelling which feel necessary to make it a full experience as opposed to a toy. Some of these segments could potentially use some refinement, but overall Roia is still enjoyable for what it is as it is.