I played the "intro" to this game over winter break (and forgot to write about it) and last night I played Chapter 1. And this game does some really interesting things!
It's essentially a point and click adventure game - the intro has you (the main character) escaping a prison cell (in medieval spain) where you've been imprisoned for witchcraft/satanism - and you're helped to escape and that was the end of it. (and that was as much as I played over Winter break).
One of the interesting things here is that there are hot spots (as per normal) you click on them, and then - sometimes - the hotspot is a window-in-window that you can scroll around in to see additional hotspots. So, a shelf might be a hotspot and then you get a little window inside of which you scroll left/right and can click on, say, books on the shelf.
So, the game hides "depth" within hotspots - has an interesting scrolling interaction that breaks the pace in a nice way - and is probably easier/cheaper than loading an entire new screen that's a closeup. I thought this worked really well!
The second interesting thing is that you character also has hotspots and is also a potential for "mixing" (combining, use item X with Y) stuff. At one point in the intro I had to use things on the main character to get him to think about something.
So, the "use with" interface looks interesting. Sometimes it's the main character in the center (and, if you have to use two items you'd pick the first one for the left, and then the second one for the right).
To be clear, the interface was a bit confusing to me - and I missed some stuff because of it, but I seemed to make progress until I got stuck on a puzzle because I got the order wrong - in my mind I had to pick A then B, but the opposite was "correct". And, I also didn't realize you could pick the character.
Having escaped the prison cell I thought, ok, this will be an interesting game - I was rescued by some monks and it seemed like a cool thing.
Last night I started up again and...the game starts in a modern day bedroom? And there's a bunch of story stuff...like the main character is immortal (but when he dies he is resurrected but loses his memory), and this was done to him by some monk. And he has a girlfriend - and this alchemy was ALSO done to her - but she doesn't lose her memory when she dies. And there's some bad guy and what the heck has been going on?
So, I thought that perhaps this would be the plot of the game - sort of going back and forth and filling in the blanks. But, no.
Chapter 1 involved three main things: committing suicide, putting together a gift for a rich lady who might want to buy a Japanese antique that would help save the antique store that belongs to the girlfriend (or is it wife) and then visiting said old lady and discovering something about an old book (that presumably is connected to why the characters are immortal).
There was a LOT of story stuff going on and it looks like this game is a sequel - and important events of the first game are sort of the backstory for this one? It's al unclear to me...
I was pretty surprised that to clear the first "scene" you had to commit suicide as the girlfriend (apparently she does this every now and then as she starts to age - since her body resets to her earlier age) - she had smuggled a gun, bullet, and silencer and you kill yourself in the shower and, within seconds she's cleaning up the blood on the fogged up window. Wow. That was all not expected. There was also an annoying bug/error - I tried the suicide without the silencer and got a message saying that I needed a bullet - but there was a bullet! I tried a few things thinking the game was glitched out to no avail. Then I checked online and it turns out that I was missing the silencer and I was only missing this because the "hot spots" are a bit wonky - you won't always see the "X" on the screen telling you it's hotspot. So, I had missed it twice and then barely was able to get it to appear.
Sigh.
This would become a problem later on as well - with another item (ink) such that I'm not feeling like I want to continue playing because I either play with a guide directly or just frustrate myself until realizing it was a UI issue (fidgety hotspots on screen) that was throwing me off.
I remember when this came out (2006?!) and how there was a little bit of controversy...and that the game was "ok" (I think) rather than great.
And, it's been a while since I've played a Mario game - even if this one doesn't have Mario in a protagonist role. You play as Peach!
The game's main mechanical innovation is that - when a certain bar is filled up - you can trigger one of Peach's 4 emotions - joy, rage, sadness and another happiness(?). They each have gameplay effects. Joy is my favorite - she spins up in the air and you can fly around briefly. Anger is flames, and burns stuff (and hurts enemies) and sadness has her crying which - when the tears land on specific places grow plants.
Oh! I just realized that I've seen these water wheels and couldn't do anything. I think I have to try tears on them? Get them to spin? I've had to use her joy flight (she spins in a tornado) to access special areas - so maybe there's this additional use for the tears? (yay! I literally just realized this as I'm writing this).
Anyways, initially I was a bit disappointed - really? she's all emotional? And I was feeling a bit "oh, Nintendo, how could you". It's too on the nose, right? In the sense of stereotypes and so on. But then I told my wife about it, and she has the opposite reaction to what I was expecting - "oh! that sounds like fun" she said - and ignored the emotions/stereotype thing altogether. So, I guess it's less problematic than I thought?
I've made it to the 3rd world now - I'm not sure how much more I'll play. It's not boring, and I've been upgrading her parasol with new abilities which is fun. So, it is very much a Mario game but here the abilities come about after purchasing them from a shop.
I was surprised at how much emphasis the game's UI makes in letting you know you can use buttons AND the stylus. And, before boss fights, there are these mini-games for getting coins that are 100% stylus driven (but you can skip them if you want).
I finished it!
From looking at the map - of which I only did a handful of levels, including the "final three" (1-1 fights with single baddies to get one of three tablet) and the final-final level, but I think I got a good sense of the game...
...it turns out you also unlock/free other characters as you go along. The armor you get from finding a tablet hidden (not really hidden, just off the beaten path as it where) in a level...and there are other rewards/collectibles I couldn't be bothered with.
Now I'm curious if the game was ever sold alone or if it was sold as part of a bundle with a zhu zhu pet?
I remember when my kids had "zhu zhu pets", these hamster toys with wheels that you'd buy hamster "rooms" with pipes and things to roll around in. They were cute and didn't poop which is nice I guess. The kids never got into them THAT much, and I somehow ended up with a few of the DS games that came out. Not via the kids, I probably just picked these up because they were super cheap. Hahaha.
I booted this one up just to see what it was like. Whoever last played it had the game at 34% completion and I've since made it up to ~50%. So, progress has been made - the game is mostly a "not very good" 2D platformer with combat - none of which feels very good - which makes me think - wow, I should have more people play this so you can see when gameplay works (functionally) and doesn't work (experientially). Anyways. The game has lots of things you collect and unlock and I get the feeling that I'm about to finish the game - which seems weird. So, I'm curious enough to continue playing?
Oh, there are like 8 zhu zhu's to pick from (in the game they're anthropomorphized hamsters - did they design the characters just for the games? or based on a tv show?) and you can also choose their "armor" - I've played with a few of the characters but there aren't that many armors unlocked (I did unlock an additional one myself) and I think the armor, in addition to extra protection, determines how your attacks work. But, it doesn't really matter that much because I don't like the feel of combat in the game....
