Games
Folklore for PS3
Fiddle-de-dee and fiddle-de-di cead mile failte to the celtic land of the dead also known as Doolin village. Yes, drawing on the mysticism of Irish faeries, pixies, banshees and pucas, Folklore is the first Japanese-born video game we’re aware of that has based itself in the emerald isle and it looks fantastic. How the fine people of Doolin will feel about their idyllic town being chosen as the land of bloody murder, child abuse and pagan rituals though, I’m not sure.
The story tells of a young girl called Ellen, who was told that her mother died 17 years ago only to find out today that she is in fact alive and waiting for her in Doolin. She arrives only to see her mother fall off the end of a cliff. But was it her mother? And if she fell, why is the body not on the beach below? A quick recce of the town introduces her to a half-dead guide called Scarecrow who can take her to the dangerous other place, the Netherworld. Through exploring both lands, Ellen will slowly piece together how her own history became entangled with the sleepy seaside hamlet of Doolin. You can also an alternative storyline as Keats an occult magazine writer who is drawn to the same shores in an equally mysterious manner. Whichever path you choose, what follows is an engaging paranormal thriller that is a lot more intriguing than most of these sort of titles.
Folklore is an adventure-style game with a few RPG elements. When you put on the cloak of sidh in the Netherworld, you learn how to use the powers of various enemies to defend yourself. The fmv animation sequence that shows this transformation is quite hilarious as you turn from Waterford-schoolgirl to a sexy Princess leya lookalike when she was Jabba the Hut’s slave. But back to the fighting… When you thrash the bejesus out of a devillish creature, you can absorb it’s id or soul by lassooing the spirit. This is done by using the sixaxis controller as a fishing rod when the id turns red. It’s an interesting mechanic which is good fun and gives ps3 players a taste of what the Wii is all about.
Of course there’s a huge array of nefarious baddies down under from leprechauns, to supergoats to harpie like creatures to a behemoth hedgehog. Sound ridiculous, but in fairness they do look great and this compliments the detailed backgrounds in both environments, from luscious fields of flowers, to the familiar rocky Irish coastline. Exploring the nooks and crannies and destroying everything that comes across your path of course yields some magical items that can be used to increase your attacks, health or HP, which is depleted by attacking spooks.
To travel between the netherworld and the real world you need to enter a portal. To do this you have to collect a memento from someone dead, which is just a mechanic to get you to undertake quests.
The main problem with Folklore lies in the dreadful loading times. You only have to walk 10 steps down the road before you have to wait a good 10 seconds for the next area to be ready. A lot of recent games have shown us there are ways around having to show a clunky loading screen, either by pre-loading or using animations to hide it. By my reckoning you spend at least a third of the entire gameplay time waiting. Not good. A lot of the dialogue is disappointing too – not in terms of writing, but in terms of delivery. When it’s acted, its’ acted well, but the bulk of conversations are delivered in text rather than audio and that’s a real let-down. They had that back in the pre-gameboy days.
Another major flaw is that each area resets when you leave it, so if you’ve taken on an enemy in that area, you’ll find yourself having to defeat him again if you need to retrace your steps. Yes, it is possible to run past them, but that’s quite simply a bit of a pain in the ass. On top of that, the camera isn’t first person so often you find yourself getting lost and waiting for the next area to load only to discover it’s the one you’ve left.
The background music is fine, varying between a sort of drunken hotel lobby pianist vibe to dramatic strings when the shit hits the fan.
The potential for Folklore was huge, but the application is dogged by poor design flaws that really frustrate. If you’re a patient, this could be an unexpected surprise, but for me it’s a near miss. Tis a real pity.
Jonathan McCrea
