Like most games born of Metroid, Echo Weaver’s inspiration is obvious. You explore and fill out a large, continuous map in a mysterious location and your abilities expand as you progress. Its other presumed inspiration, however, Outer Wilds, only makes itself apparent as you dig deeper into the unique structure of the game. You are stuck in a time loop in Echo Weaver, and it dictates what you can do and what you know about your suite of abilities. You don’t unlock new traversal moves and expanded weapons as much as you remember you literally had them all along. It makes the reward of discovery powerful in Echo Weaver, but it also creates frustrating barriers to progress.

As the titular Weaver, the character basically knows as much as the player holding the controller. You have a boomerang-like glaive you throw primarily to solve puzzles, and though it can be used to attack enemies, you won’t encounter very many.…