So I rented this for the PS3 the other day. I didn't know what to think of it, The cover had more colors then an acid trip but I grabbed it anyway.
Boy, was I in for a surprise.
Right off the bat I'm assaulted by some Burton-esque imagery as the game loads up. It hits the start screen and I feel like I'm about to play a videogame based on The Night Before Christmas. The wonderfully rendered CGI cutscene at the beginning of the game introduces us to our two key characters, Ellen (a teenage whore that nobody likes and her mother died) and Keats (a total badass reporter for an occult magazine who approaches things with heavy science and skepticism.) The game centers around the mysterious village in southern Ireland of Doolin, where apparently you can meet the dead. Ellen goes there to try and meet her mother and find out why she left, and Keats goes there after receiving a mysterious phone call. At the beginning of each chapter, you're allowed to pick to play as either Ellen or Keats. Certain decisions made in while playing as either character affect the other characters game, which is kind of neat.
PROLOGUE/CHAPTER 1: FLESHRUM (Keats)
I'll try and leave out spoilers. Keats and Ellen show up at the town, Keats and Ellen find some girl on a cliff who dies or something. Play the game.
Really, what I find most interesting about this is how very similar it is to Silent Hill.
In Folklore, the 'real' world is a run down, dilapidated and mostly abandoned village, filled with secrets. The 'real' world sections play out like a cross between an Adventure game and an interactive movie. You walk around and talk to people, cross referencing information, interrogating and receiving items and clues about what's going on in the village. It has sort of a Horror game tone about it, the run down setting and the people of the village hiding many secrets. However, once you obtain a specific type of item you can return to your characters 'base' and go to sleep until nightfall, where the more fantastical nature of the game begins.
At nighttime, the pub is inhabited by a variety of Otherworldly creatures. A small, talking, anthropomorphic Scottish rat and a Welsh Twin-Headed-Tin man to a skeleton with glass eyes names Dave. They bridge the two worlds of the game, the 'Normal world' and the 'Netherworld' By dropping off the items you receive during the game at a set of Stonehenge like ruins a portal opens up and takes you to this 'Netherworld'. The first one you visit is the Faery world, populated by, obviously - Faeries, but a vicious manner of creature created from the the thoughts of the dead called 'Folk'. This is where the main portion of the game takes place as either character. Each time you kill a new 'Folk' you can Absorb their 'Id' and use them as you will (Assigning them to any of the Square, X, O and Triangle buttons) They can be used as everything to shields, swords, and Devastating cannon attacks. The need to level up and collect all of the Folk give the game a certain 'Pokemon' Element.
Combat is fast and furious, depending heavily on how well you can use the currently assigned Folks strengths. Each folk has a variety of tasks that must be accomplished before they level up, from absorbing more of the same type to using a specific type of item on them. I'd like to continue this review right now, but I'm only a quarter of the way through it.
One thing you immediately notice when you play the game is it's use of a fantastic color palette. Don't go looking for any muddled grays or browns, Each location is a colorful and vivid dream-like landscape.
So far:
+ Great Burton-esque visuals for each realm. From the colorful Faeryworld to the ruined (albeit cartoonish) city of Warcadia.
+Fantastic character design. Belgae is the coolest guy around.
+Wonderful combat. The ability to have an ever changing selection of attack possibilities keep it from being repetitive.
+A great setting. The staggering difference between the two 'worlds' is amazing and gives the game quite a bit of depth and character.
I'll post a bit more about it once I get through the game more. So far I've only been playing Keats portion of the game.
(The art used in this post is taken from the fantastic art at http://tln.jakou.com/)
