Many miles away, the editor of an occult magazine's phone begins to ring. He answers it and hears a panicked female's voice on the other end. "Help! Help me! These faerys, they'll...they'll kill me.... The village Doolin....on the Cliff of Sidhe!.....Please!" Ugh, another prank call. Will these childish bullies never cease to leave him alone? Faerys, right, how foolish do they think he is? But what if it was real? What if someone needs his help? Uncovering faerys could make for one hell of an article. Against his better judgment, he to sets off for the village of Doolin.
Folklore is an Action Role Playing Game that was created by Game Republic and produced by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game was released in 2007 exclusively for the Playstation 3. I picked the game up years ago and it's sat on my shelf ever since. I remember reading about the game, and seeing that it was supposedly one of the Playstation 3's hidden gems. I picked it up thinking I'd play it eventually, but my propensity to forget about PS3 games led to me neglecting it on the shelf for at least 5 years. Luckily, I've been on a Playstation kick lately!
Folklore's story follows two main characters, Ellen and Keats. Ellen, a university student, is pulled away from her studies by a mysterious letter that leads her to the village of Doolin. Once there, she arrives at the Cliff of Sidhe only to witness a woman fall from the cliff to the shore below. The only other witness to the event is Keats, the editor of an occult magazine who was drawn to the island by a mysterious phone call. The woman's death is just the first in a series of strange occurrences, murders, and mysteries in the village that the two will struggle to unravel. The game's story from this point on is told separately from each of these two characters' point of view. While the two characters witness different events in the game, the two views intertwine to create a full story.
 |
| There doesn't seem like a lot to do in, Doolin. At least there's a pub. |
Both Ellen and Keats quickly learn that Doolin is no average village. At night, an altar in the nearby henge glows mysteriously. Upon investigating, the two characters find themselves below the henge in an ancient chamber. Ellen meets a being in the form of a scarecrow that tells her that she is chosen to wear an ancient cloak which will allow her to travel to the Netherworld - the plane of the faerys and dead human spirits. When Ellen dons the cloak she is transformed into the Faery Messenger, and is given the task to travel to the Netherworld to speak with the Faery King. She must also find the spirit of the woman she saw die to speak with her and learn what happened on the cliff. Keats, being in close proximity to this change in Ellen, is magically chosen as the Messenger's Guardian and gains beastly new powers and strength. Keats follows Ellen into the Netherworld, not knowing that the mysteries of Doolin and the schemes of faerys will lead the two deep into the unknown and into a battle for human imagination itself.
While in the Netherworld, Ellen and Keats travel to a few different planes and encounter many different types of faerys, or as the game refers to them "folk". These folk and areas throughout the game are based on Celtic mythology. As a result, the game's design aesthetic can be described as Celtic faerys as seen through a Japanese lens. I found this style to be incredibly unique. In fact, the game's design is what really pulled me to it after reading about the game. Folklore's design reminds me a lot of the artwork of Brian Froud of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth fame. The game's graphics are quite nice for its age. I did find that often areas seemed a little too dark, as though the game needed to turn up the brightness slider just a notch.
 |
| Um, sorry! Wrong forest..I'll be going now...please? |
Folklore plays much like the Playstation 2 era of JRPGs did. Levels are broken up into many seperate, smaller areas that appear as independent chunks on the map. Players control the game's characters in third person and can move from area to area, use folks to attack, and dodge enemy attacks. Unlike most JRPGs, Folklore's combat is action-based, takes place in real-time, and depends on which folks you've met in the past. Folklore is split into Netherworld and real-world sections. While in the Netherworld, Ellen and Keats must battle folks until reaching a folklore in each area. Folklores are bigger, badder versions of folks that serve as the guardian of each faery realm. These realms, folks, and folklores are all created by the living humans' imagination in the real world. As such, each realm and folk therein are shaped by a certain aspect of humanity such as joy or war. In fact, it is said that the guardians of the realms are created by traumatic memories, and that when they are defeated, that memory has been mastered and can be overcome.
Keats and Ellen must travel through 5 different faery realms on their quest. As I mentioned earlier, each of these realms has its own unique set of folks. Folks come in all shapes and sizes - from a small goblin-like creature with a leaf spear, to a gigantic fireball-shooting dragon. In being the messenger and her guardian, Ellen and Keats gain the power to adsorb the spirits (or ids, in this game) of these folks, and to use them in battle. In order to absorb ids, players must weaken a folk first. When a folk is worn down enough, its id appears over its head. At this point, players use the Playstation 3's sixaxis motion sensing controller to pull the id out of the folk by physically pulling the controller upward. Once absorbed, a folk can be mapped onto one of the controller's face buttons. Each folk gives Ellen or Keats a different attack. So, for instance, that goblin with a leaf spear? He gives a character the ability to attack quickly and repeatedly with spear thrusts. When these attacks are used, the character calls forth the folk itself for a brief moment. Not only does the folk use its ability when summoned, but it can also be used to block enemy attacks. If one of your folks is hit by an enemy, however, the folk will fall without using its ability, so blocking with folks must be used strategically. I thought that this battle system was really cool. There a lot of different folks to choose from as you play through the game, so finding what works best for your preferred playstyle is quite doable.
 |
| These folks look like "uggh is it Friday yet?" |
As you play through the game and collect folks, you also have the ability to level them up to increase their power, functionality, or magic power consumption. This is usually done in multiple levels, and usually involves using items on the folk or collecting more of that one specific folk's ids. Powering up a few different types of folks is necessary, as enemies in the game are often weak to specific other folks only. I found folks having specific strengths and weaknesses to be one of the coolest parts of the game. Most of the time, the game doesn't make it easy to figure out what a folk might be weak to. There is an item in the game that is a book which you can find and unlock pages of to get hints at what a specific folk or folklore's weakness might be, but even then the book is filled only with pictures and players must figure out what is being depicted. These weaknesses become especially important when facing the guardians at the end of each realm. These battles happen over multiple stages, during each of which the folklore is weak only to specific folks. Some folks and all folklores also require Ellen or Keats to complete special actions to capture their ids. Once these special creatures' ids appear, players must use the sixaxis motion controller in a certain way to weaken the creatures' ids. One motion has players slamming the folk's id back and forth on the ground by tilting the controller side to side. Another has players shake the controller vigorously while the folk's id is orange, stopping immediately when the id turns gray. These motion controlled portions were interesting at first, but grew tiresome as the game went on. However, figuring out what the book was trying to show me, picking the correct folks to take advantage of weaknesses, and defeating the folklores throughout the game was incredibly satisfying.
The way Folklore is structured, players must play through the first 5 chapters of the game with both Ellen and again Keats. Players can choose which character to play before each chapter starts. Unfortunately, players must play through every chapter with BOTH Ellen and Keats for the story to continue past a certain chapter. Ellen and Keats both witness a different part of the game's story as it's told through somewhat lifeless, comic book like scenes, though some scenes are repeated in both character's chapter. The game's levels are also laid out exactly the same for both Ellen and Keats, though different folks appear in the areas depending on which character you're playing as at the time. Even if the same folk is found by Ellen or Keats, they have different powers for each of the two characters. Additionally, Keats has a special ability to become invincible for a short period of time while dishing out massive damage. But yeah, effectively you have to play through the first five chapters of the game twice in order to continue to story. Even with the small differences, I found this "feature" to be pretty annoying. I found that during the first time through an area I'd level up a bunch of folks, collect everything, and enjoy it well enough. Then with the second character I was so tired of the area that I would simply grab what I needed and rush through. This rushing led me to discover that while there are 5 different realms in the game, they are all quite short and are comprised of only 5-7 small areas. Players can choose how to split up the Ellen and Keats sections. I chose to play one chapter with Ellen, then play the same chapter with Keats right after. I'd recommend that players play all available chapters with one character, and then go through them again with the other, just to break up the monotony of doing the same place twice in a row over and over again.
 |
| Yeah, I got about as sick of playing the same area over and over as they look of each other. |
As I've mentioned, Folklore is split into two sections, the Netherworld and the real world. While in the real world, Ellen and Keats interact with the village people of Doolin as they attempt to unravel the village's mysteries. These portions of the game feel completely different than the Action RPG areas in the Netherworld. In fact, they feel like a completely different game. Strange jazz music plays as Ellen and Keats walk around the foggy town, conveying an almost creepy tone. Doolin is quite drab in comparison to the colorful Netherworld with mostly grays, dark greens, and browns being used in its color palette. The game's real-world sections felt to me more like a survival horror game, though without anything dangerous. I also found the real-world sections to be painfully boring. The game's overall story definitely requires the bits learned in the real-world, but I found myself just not caring anymore. I think we can blame my feeling that way partially on the fact that I had to play the same parts twice, but as the game went on, I feel like the story just got worse.
It wasn't just the story that seemed to suffer as the game went on, either. I really loved the first few realms of the Netherworld. They seemed really interesting and were well designed visually with many unique folks in each one. As I progressed, the realms started seeming very bland in comparison, and they kind of blur into one vague area in my memory now. While some unique folks still appear in each later area, folks start being reused with minimal changes such as size or color. The game's overall quality just kind of falls off toward the end. In fact, once I reached the game's final area, I wasn't even sure what the game developers were trying to do anymore. It was as if they only planned up to a certain point and then phoned it in for the last bit of the game. The game's final bosses felt tacked-on and unnecessary. In fact, at the risk of being spoilery, you defeat the final boss, it basically apologizes to you, and you're friends again. Game over. I was like WHAT THE HELL!?
 |
| Ellen looks as bored as I felt during these sections. |
Even if it peters out as the game goes on, a lot of imagination went into Folklore. It was incredibly cool to see creatures based in Celtic mythology translated into a more Japanese art style. Collecting and using each of these folks was really fun (well the first time around, anyway). I find myself wishing that the game threw out the real-world sections, though I recognize that they were necessary for the story to develop. I found that I immediately loved Folkore, but that love slowly dissipated as I continued down the game's path. In the end, I'm glad that I played the game, but I feel like this hidden gem needed a bit more polish to be as great as I had hoped it would be. I think I would still agree with whatever I had read before playing the game - that Folklore is definitely a hidden gem, even if it wasn't cut to perfection.
Amulets and Ale Rating:
Find Amulets and Ale on social media - Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AmuletsAndAle Instagram: @amuletsandale
No comments:
Post a Comment