Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?!
Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?!
Game
Game2019
Vane
Developer Friend & Foe Games
Vane is a video game released on January 15, 2019, for the PlayStation 4 and later released on Windows. The game was developed by Tokyo-based studio Friend & Foe, and its producer is Matt Smith. Vane is an adventure game in which players control a child that is able to turn back and forth into a bird. Gameplay involves exploration and puzzle-solving. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
249 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 23, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
52
Mixed
97 positive · 91 negative
95% range 44–59%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 97 | 91 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 11 | 2 | 46 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 2 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mixed
225 of 400 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
52% recommend · 100 yes, 91 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 191 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (345 of 631 positive).
Players praise the game's beautiful visuals and art direction. [1][2][3] Many reviewers criticize the clunky controls and camera. [2][3][4] Some players find the lack of guidance frustrating. [5][6][7]
Liked
Representative posts
- [4]
I will not try to sugarcoat it: Vane was a terrible experience. It has a number of flaws that makes its short runtime not a downside but a blessing. Awful camera. I am used to cameras bugging out near walls, clipping into said walls or getting stuck and refusing to move. I, however, have never seen a camera that bugs out even when there is nothing to collide with: in some places where you need to perform platforming …
- [7]
when it's done right, the subgenre of "short, arty, atmospheric exploration game driven by abstract storytelling" has made for some of my favorite games ever, in titles like Journey, ABZU, and Gris. Vane is definitely not that subgenre done right. It delivers on the visuals and art direction, at least, but its horribly clunky controls, maddeningly unclear objectives, and lack of checkpoints for already …
- [1]
positives: its an art game negatives: its an art game just 1 hour in and I already took 40 screenshots. It's also the best bird simulator I ever played, probably because I've never played any other. It's an exploration game so don't count on a clear objective.
- [2]
Short Indie puzzle game with beautiful graphics and painful gameplay. Pros + Graphics + Game design + Story? Cons - Movement - Camera - Bugs Summary This game is more of an art piece than a game, not much fun to be had here. I did encounter 2 bugs during my 2 hours long gameplay that stopped me from progressing so I had to restart from checkpoint. Movement is incredibly slow compared to the map size. The game could …
- [3]
this game is pure art. Very atmospheric, great visuals, beautiful sound design, atrocious controls and horrible camera. pros: you are a bird you also are not a bird you can yell at yellow ball to make stuff appear cons: horrible camera and controls
Summarised from 34 of the 239 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
The crowd is split on Vane: 100 recommend it, 91 don't. Which camp are you in?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Vane received "mixed or average" reviews for PC and "generally unfavorable" reviews for PlayStation 4. Chris Moyse of Destructoid gave the game 4 out of 10, stating, "Vane has a very strong opening, some unique visual ideas, and an atmospheric electronica soundtrack. Unfortunately, all of this is quickly muted by aimless and frustrating gameplay. Though Vane‘s abstract approach to storytelling is genuinely liberating, the player remains caged with simplistic gameplay tropes, immersion-breaking technical problems, boring puzzles, and a terrible save system." Adventure Gamers gave the game 2 stars out of 5 and praised the sound design and the bird's-eye view of the world while criticizing its…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 249 · most liked firstFormless Star is a game about travelling to an alien planet and looking for animals! your crewmate Vane is gay and your other crewmate Turbine is a lesbian. splendidland.itch.io/formless-star
neutral · AI labelView post →ToS gonna be six years soon, so I plan to work on a shorter project when I have time to break the monotony. The game gonna called 'Vane of Starper', and this is one of the characters that will appear in it Since ToS will remain my primary dev-focus, don't expect this one to release anytime soon, lol
neutral · AI labelView post →V is for Vane from GranBlue! Y'all really brought your A-game (V-game?) to V, so let's see what you've got for W! Reply below with your W suggestions and I'll randomly pick one in a couple days!
neutral · AI labelView post →What an amazing adventure! If you know Journey then you will feel yourself at home.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →positives: its an art game negatives: its an art game just 1 hour in and I already took 40 screenshots. It's also the best bird simulator I ever played, probably because I've never played any other. It's an exploration game so don't count on a clear objective.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fediel maxed out almost... Time to work on Vane next... This game has too many characters I want to play and level up... Endless Grindarok is real 🗿🗿🗿
neutral · AI labelView post →Don't mind me. I'm just making sure my 2019 review of the video game Vane is up to date and working properly because I randomly starting thinking about it and now I am wondering if I should redownload it and try playing it again?
neutral · AI labelView post →I will not try to sugarcoat it: Vane was a terrible experience. It has a number of flaws that makes its short runtime not a downside but a blessing. Awful camera. I am used to cameras bugging out near walls, clipping into said walls or getting stuck and refusing to move. I, however, have never seen a camera that bugs out even when there is nothing to collide with: in some places where you need to perform platforming it will become unresponsive for no reason, in other places when you are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Will be going live on #Twitch at 12:30 AM CST will be checking out a random game from my Steam collection today the game is #Vane by Friend & Foe Games : www.twitch.tv/angelus_05 #IndieGame #IndieGames #IndieGaming
neutral · AI labelView post →First you're a kid running in a thunderstorm trying to not die from an epilieptic shock as everything flashes while the camera is fighting parkinsons disease. Then it cuts away to the next scene and you're a bird trying to... I don't know I uninstalled at this point.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I went into this hoping for something vaguely comparable to AER: Memories of Old, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Unfortunately it very much fell flat. I started the game, spent ages flying around, was convinced I went too far and irreparably screwed up my save, then restarted (by manually deleting save files) only to find out that in fact Act 1 was so incredibly large that it just took several minutes of flying to get anywhere at all. I ended up using a walkthrough for the whole thing. Subsequent…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Playing Vane. This game got way too much hate on release. It's full of so many tiny moments of wonder like this. Shares a lot of DNA with Ico, but unique in so many ways. Rich in atmosphere. The big media reviews for this are so overly harsh. I personally view it as an inspiration.
positive · AI labelView post →You know how they spend a ton of time in Mario games to make just the basic movement of the player character a joy to engage with in and of itself? Vane is the exact opposite of that. And when your flying/walking is terrible in a flying/walking simulator, what's left?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If Vane were to be in its entirety its opening act fully fleshed out - I'd have a new favourite game. An hour of pottering over a vast pearlescant desert where what remains of a civilisation that hasn't been devoured by the earth's crust has the gentle presence of a great elder, keen to tell their tale. Pulled in different directions by faint shimmers of glass and specks of stone in the distance - as a crow, that's all the provocation to explore you need in this mercifully waypoint-free world.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very abstract and immersive game that gets compared to Journey quite a lot, but I think it's a surface level similarity. While Journey is also a quiet, enigmatic experience, I feel like that game is very frictionless while here you may find the controls and camera slightly frustrating and apparently a lot of people have trouble with where to go or what to do. Personally I had a blast with the game, I think it was very evocative and explores some very interesting themes and culminates in a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Had a dream I was playing a Granblue Fantasy game on the GameCube :O was also playing it badly and I cried lol Vane notably went to go hide in a tree hollow to try and do a sneak attack
neutral · AI labelView post →Gather stray birds in an empty, ruined desert to form a flock and become its leader. With combined efforts, break strange contraptions and release the peculiar, magical gold dust inside to become human. Rescuing allies from their cages along the way, open doors and lead everyone to the Tower that sits in the eye in the raging storm in the hope to fly away and escape the tempest. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2876598313 3-5 hours to complete, Vane is a beautiful game…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →With its mesmerizing presentation, obscure non-verbal storytelling and extraordinary puzzles, Vane definitely feels like a spiritual successor to the cult titles from Thatgamecompany and Team Ico in so many wonderful ways... However, it also means, that you should be prepared for quite viscous controls while traversing through its incredibly enigmatic world.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The developers clearly failed to understand the difference between, "give the players freedom to explore" and, "throw them blindly into the world with no guidance whatsoever, even with controls." It took me 40 minutes to figure out that flapping could help me go faster, and I had to look at the pause menu controls to figure out how to move. What's more, the world is surprisingly devoid of anything to actually find, and does a poor job of leading you to find it. At least with ThatGameCompany's…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Short Indie puzzle game with beautiful graphics and painful gameplay. Pros + Graphics + Game design + Story? Cons - Movement - Camera - Bugs Summary This game is more of an art piece than a game, not much fun to be had here. I did encounter 2 bugs during my 2 hours long gameplay that stopped me from progressing so I had to restart from checkpoint. Movement is incredibly slow compared to the map size. The game could have been 30 minutes long if the map wasn't so big. Camera was mostly…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →here are 4 of my fighting game mains!! (i sometimes like thinking when i play fighting games) i limited my self to one per game so heres some honorable meantions! Vane (GBVSR) Bridget (GGST) Rosalina and Luma (SSBU) Katalina (GBVSR)
neutral · AI labelView post →If I had to put one game on everyone's list of games to play, that game would be Vane. It isn't so much a game as it is an experience, with narration that leaves everything to your interpretation, because the game uses no words in unfolding of story it tells. It is purely audiovisual. When Vane was released, press reviews weren't favorable. Median review score was poor. But is Vane really bad? It depends on the eyes of the beholder. There will always be favorable and unfavorable reviews when…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →-camera sucks -controls are a pain in the ass -too obstuse with little to no direction there MAY be some cool things here if i had the time and patience to wrestle with the terrible controls; but I don't.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →For the first time ever: Big, fat, definite no from me. Never have I ever been so disappointed in a game before. The idea could work, but this "game" is completely unplayable without a walkthrough. I read somewhere "play as you like". I prefer NOT to play at all. Not only is steering quite a challenge, also what to do, the tasks, the story, advances, everything is basically non-existent in this. Never ended playing a game out of frustration after 2 hours, in this case after 2 hours flying…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Astonishingly beautiful artistic direction and stunning audio married to some of the most shockingly poor technical execution I have ever encountered in a fully released game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Derusted a bit in Granblue Went positive on ranked despite not touching this game in months! I wish Vane were a real character but it feels so good hitting big numbers
neutral · AI labelView post →Besides the unclear guidance, Vane’s controls feel loose and sometimes fail to respond properly, making puzzles and movement more frustrating than they need to be. The collision detection can be inconsistent as well, which is a real problem in a game where puzzles often require pushing objects or landing precisely on small metal platforms. The only bright spot in handling these awkward controls is the rarely used but very smooth synthwave soundtrack.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →OH MY GOD PLEASE WALK FASTER. it is such a chore to do anything in this game. It is beautiful but i don't have the patience to go any further.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A lot of potential but the controls (both camera and movement) ruin the entire experience for me
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Amazing game .....but (no real spoilers) This game is very beautifully done, the visuals, the animations, actually flying around, swooping, diving, landing, as a bird was a joyous experience if you like that kind of thing. the birds flight, feathers and animations are equally game realistic and enjoyable. the plot (what plot?) is fairly simple, its a rather peaceful game, there are no bad guys so to speak (at least not at my progression) this game gives off a very ICO and journey like vibe.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game started off with a very bad start for me. Early in the game there is this location deep within a cave where you have to climb upwards a very long way using very bad controls. There are also gaps in the floor which are hard to see because it is too dark. Also, the camera often gets stuck within the terrain making it impossible to see anything. What's even worse is that whenever you fall downwards, and that can be halfway through or even near the end, you are punished by having to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →NieR: Automata's 2B is joining the roster of the Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising fighting game as a DLC character, along with Vane and Beatrix.
neutral · AI labelView post →1. Weird camera angles at times. 2. Easy to get lost. 3. Nice visuals 8/10. 4. Feels like some kind of a walking and flying simulator. 5. Character's movement felt clunky and the slow speed of running was killing me. It is one of these extremely rare cases where I wouldn't recommend it, unless you like such weird experiences, and even then I recommend getting it at a sale.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If there's some brilliant game ahead of the tutorial, I didn't even get that far so I can't comment on that. However, it's commendable that this is the first game I've lost patience with within the first half hour of playing. I start the introduction and immediately glitch out / have no idea what to do and end up "dying" twice only to replay the intro cutscene 3 times before I "do what I'm supposed to do". Not a great start... And then you get into a sequence where you just fly around as a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wanted to like this game, but I spent an hour WITH THE WALKTHROUGH and still can't find the fourth windsock. Oh, sure, they sparkle, ONLY when you get close enough. "Edge of getting lost", yeah, lost. I don't care for hand-holding in games, but this one needs something a bit more clear to help guide you to the interesting parts. Maybe a swelling in volume of a sound as you get near combined with a tonal change when you're looking in the right direction, or SOMEthing. Also, the flying…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →when it's done right, the subgenre of "short, arty, atmospheric exploration game driven by abstract storytelling" has made for some of my favorite games ever, in titles like Journey, ABZU, and Gris. Vane is definitely not that subgenre done right. It delivers on the visuals and art direction, at least, but its horribly clunky controls, maddeningly unclear objectives, and lack of checkpoints for already badly-controlling platforming segments make it impossible to recommend at all but the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A pretty game ruined by horrendous controls and camera angles. It's a short journey, but it needs to be tackled with tons of patience. Buy it cheap.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Wow... This game looked so good. I was excited to play it. And then I tried and gave up after one hour. It still looks so promising. But the controls are SHOCKINGLY bad. The camera movement is even worse. I can't see where I'm going at key moments where I need to do a timed jump. I'll be running along a narrow path on a clifftop and suddenly all I can see is the other side of the rock and the shadow of my character's face. I don't see how I could get through an entire game like this. It feels…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this game is pure art. Very atmospheric, great visuals, beautiful sound design, atrocious controls and horrible camera. pros: you are a bird you also are not a bird you can yell at yellow ball to make stuff appear cons: horrible camera and controls
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"what the ♥♥♥♥ did i just play" the game. A bizarre string of artsy playable scenes that make barely any sense with puzzles in them that rely more on not telling you what are you supposed to do than actually being a hard puzzle. The controls for the playable character and the camera are pretty horrid. The character feels like they're drunk, walking in a gusty hurricane, which kinda makes thematic sense, but it is really annoying for the parts of the game that ask you to walk on thin ledges,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a game I still think about.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Visually stunning, but the terrible controls and no visual indication where you can do something in huge open area's ruined the game for me.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Oh yeah this thread was actually in response to a post about how the op didn’t like when people called gacha games predatory. I do think some can be, but the point of my response was to give an example of a truly predatory game. FF Vane is actually illegal in some countries.
neutral · AI labelView post →⛧ hiii my wolf PACT!!! 💚 schedule time! WE ARE BEATING SYSTEM SHOCK REMAKE TODAY!!! I'M GONNA TWEAK OUT Wed we're playing a lil bird simulator adventure game, Vane! I'm traveling this weekend, so only 2 streams this week, but let's have lots of fun~ See you at the summoning~ #VTuber #lewdtuber
neutral · AI labelView post →Wow. Literally like nothing I've ever played. The game setting is gorgeous, and it not giving you a single instruction of what to do or how to play really benefits the experience. The developer of Vane should be ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ proud of themselves
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An exercise in frustration. Too artsy with slow gameplay. 5.5/10 This game serves best as a bird simulator. It had a moment near the begining of the game where I was flying around clueless, considering quitting, when things sor'tve clicked and I started enjoying myself. Unfortunately it was all downhill after that. To sum it up, it's an arty game with an incomprehensible story without dialogue. You know the type. If you like those kinds of games, you may like this one, but only if you can…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Oh he's definitely a himbo! Big, happy, protector type who can cook too! Especially of his childhood friend Lancelot. Honestly considering how much other LGBTQ+ rep is in this game (at LEAST 2 canon trans women) the fans are waiting for Vane/Lancelot to be canon too.
neutral · AI labelView post →The only thing worthwhile about this game is the flight at the beginning. The puzzles are frustrating due to poor sign posting and the game being visually muddy, especially half way through. On a technical level, this game tore through my steam deck's battery in less than an hour. I'm not finishing it, I don't think anyone else should either. Flying is still good, though
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Vane is very unique , memorable experiance, visual treat, but at some point I unfortunately stopped understanding what it wants me to do, goals of every stage are pretty vague, it leads to excessive wandering and fair amount of backtracking, and ultimately it becomes tiresome... although I was very impressed at first, I dont recommend this game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great atmosphere and interesting details, the game doesn't really explain anything to you, and you're left to adventure at your own pace. I think this kind of storytelling within games is sadly lacking, and I think the experience over all has been quite interesting. The reason why I'm not recommending the game, is the camera is absolutely awful. The game continually tries to shift your camera moving backwards or forwards as it tries to lock you into a frame of view and it is incredibly…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After 4 minutes of near silence, slowly and clumsily flying through a featureless tan desert, I found some birds. I hopped and fluttered around for a bit, convinced this had to be something because it was the only thing with any color or animation I'd encountered. Eventually managed to land on something that triggered a cutscene! finally, we're doing a thing! The birds flocking in a direction implied goal, and an actual color other than tan!...then repeat, until getting to a weird weather vane…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game with interesting puzzle mechanics! change between bird and human form. some of the puzzles are a little less intuitive than I would like but great game over all. not to long or hard to get all achievements.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This was a mixed bag for me. This is an exploration game in which you play as a bird as well as a human kid. I liked the first half of the game. It felt good to roam around in some areas. The visuals and music are quite good. But, the second part was a chore to get through even though it was a short game. On top of that, you have to play the last section again in order to get a missable achievement. There are quite a few in this game. You may need to look at a guide to get them if you are…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nothing like being under a warm blanket and playing a game while watching some Ace Vane Quarantine videos
neutral · AI labelView post →I never really understood this game or its concept. It jumps from one thing to another without any real logic or direction, and the gameplay itself was clumsy and frustrating. It completely failed to deliver on what the trailer promised. Honestly, if you’ve watched the trailer, congratulations — you’ve basically seen the entire game. I regret buying it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Vane - Granblue Fantasy Don't play the gacha game anymore but him!!!! He can cook, he can clean, he can fight 💖 Husband material 💯 (and he's also another cv: Eguchi Takuya 🤧) Wish i could play Relink
neutral · AI labelView post →I have no self control. I didn’t know what I was getting into when I started it cause I just thought it was another app game. But any others were also pulled in by other app games that promised free items if you played FF Vane & that’s how they get you.
neutral · AI labelView post →I don't think I'll ever get over how poorly Vane was designed in GBVS just straight up heartbreaking. Fighting some of those characters on that game is so ass dawg 😭
negative · AI labelView post →If you liked Journey or Rime, you should like this one. (if you haven't played those 2, please do.) Short game, nice visuals, 3 buttons, great soundtrack. First part is kind of confusing. I used a walkthrough because I did not want to fly around for hours, the game does not hold your hand in this part. I did not get any trouble with the camera. Mash A to fly faster. CAW.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A short experience. A game should make someone want to keep playing, not put it down within the first five minutes. But my experience with Vane was: - Loading. Loading. Loading. For the smallest areas, for no reason. - Failed the very first area, after trying to walk around the entire area the game had specifically centred your view on just to get sucked up into the air. Ah, a cutscene, I thought; nope, the game was merely reloading from the start. The opening cinematic couldn't be skipped.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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