An innovation more games should embrace

 While there haven't been a lot of Harry Potter-esque "going to wizarding school" games, there have been a few, widely varying in quality.  So, when Ikenfell first crossed my path, with strategy RPG trappings, I was mildly interested, but the pseudo-8-bit visuals turned me off a bit (turns out, I'm old enough that old Nintendo graphics aren't part of my childhood, so I don't get the nostalgia kick from them that many do), so I decided to give it a pass.

Well, it showed up on XBox Game Pass yesterday, and, at the price of "you've already paid for it," I figured it wouldn't hurt to give it a go.  I've only played a little ways into it so far, but, at the moment, I would probably just call it "inoffensive".  There have only been a couple of surprises, one of which is a timed-input fighting system that reminds me of Paper Mario, but I'm not entirely sold on whether it's a good thing or not this early on.

However, that's not the innovation I mentioned in the title.  That role belongs to the cats in the game.  Being a magic school, it's got cats all over, apparently... and the first one I met, if you "use" it, lets you pet it (important in its own right, in the minds of some), restores your health, and acts as a save point.  Yes, it's an unimaginably small touch, but fraught with implications, the first being safety... after all, if the cat's not freaking out and letting you pet it, you can be pretty sure that nothing nasty is in the vicinity to cause you grief.  Second is personality, since I've seen many, many games with bulky, mystical save points whose whole purpose is to get across that they're a feature of the environment, not in any way portable - using a cat makes similar sense, as anybody who has tried to make a cat go somewhere it doesn't want to go can attest to.  Third... well, I have no proof that this is implemented in this game, early as I am in it, but using creatures with agency for save points brings up all sorts of opportunities for mischief, whether that's just cats moving to different locations on a whim, or deciding they don't want to be petted just then, or deciding as a group to go hide, or be captured, or be impersonated by something nasty, or, or, or...

So, yeah, I'm not sold on the game as a whole just yet.  On the other hand, this one touch has piqued my interest enough to say I'll come back for another look.  Maybe there's more surprises waiting just a bit further into the game.  In the meantime, all you other developers, more useful pettable cats, please.