Not to be mistaken for Youropa, the correctly spelled Europa follows an android named Zee on an adventure on one of Jupiter’s moons.  It seems mankind relocated here, but aside from some old ruins, no sign of them remains.  So what happened?  Perhaps the game will answer the questions posed by the demo…

First off, this game is beautiful, and the developer even said its graphics were inspired by Studio Ghibli.  It also seems like it could be a relaxing game, based on my 30 minutes with the demo.  During this time, I explored lush natural environments and ruins, and I was even able to glide and levitate into the air thanks to my trusty jetpack.  I also found a few collectibles along the way, emeralds whose purpose are currently unknown to me and these crystals that increase my jetpack’s levation ability.  Oh, and there were also journal entries narrated by an old man named Adam.  Since Zee was described as his son, I can only imagine that Adam created him.  One minor thing that I appreciated was that the game allows you to dismiss these journal entries and have the narration continue, so you can play while listening to Adam read the entry.

So far, the game seems to be about exploration and minor puzzling.  The puzzling was just lighting torches or finding a few blue wisps to activate something.  There also seems to be no combat, which could be nice if you’re looking for a more chill experience.  Though I do hope the puzzles become a little more involved than what the demo offers.  The only complaint I had during the demo was Zee’s movement.  Being able to glide and levitate is super cool.  What’s not cool is how he kind of slides around.  This is fine when he slides down hills and stuff.  It’s not so fine when you’re trying to move with precision, and he slides right off ledges.

The last thing I want to mention is, while I still think the Switch version of the game looks good, many people pointed out that the game doesn’t look as good as advertised.  And this does seem to be true, as the screenshots on the Switch eShop and the trailer at the end of the demo look far crisper than the actual game, and I did notice that Zee looks kind of blurry unless he’s super close to the camera, which is odd.  None of this bothered me while I was playing the demo, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Europa can take roughly 3-7 hours depending on how much you want to explore.  As far as I can tell, the game is only available on Nintendo Switch and Steam for $14.99, though I’ve seen it go on sale for $10.49.