Folklore (PS3 EXC)

[Fiach]

Has anyone else played this game yet?

I got it yesterday for €15, Its a game I have been interested in since launch, but only now have I had the chance to play it.

The reason it attracted my attention, is because it's set in Ireland. You play as two characters initially, a young girl searcing for her (presumed dead) mother and an editor for an occult magazine.

The game is laid out like a book and you progress through chapters, starting with a Prologue. There are cutscenes, but alot of the plot exposition is done between levels, like panes from a comic book, with the characters in the panes having a little animation and the dialogue is presented in speech bubbles. The cutscenes are very well done and quite fantastical.

So basically this game is a murder mystery, where you find clues to bring you closer to your mother, To do this, you travel between the real world (a little village in Ireland) and the spirit realm (accessed through a sort of stonehenge area outside the village.

The maps in the game are pretty fantastic looking, we are not talking Gears of War sort of graphics though, they are more subtle, strange lighting pallets, with multicoloured leaves blowing around on a breeze. The real world is also very well done, with some lovely rugged scenery similar to the west coast of Ireland. Adding to the atmosphere is the music, which is pretty awesome, ranging from classical, to old irish airs and even quirky circus type music, sometimes I just leave the disc in the tray with the game highlighted and listen to the music as I w@&k on my PC.

The nearest game I can compare this to is Pokemon, You fight ghosts, and collect their souls, if you sucessfully collect a soul, you can use that ghosts powers to attack other ghosts, to capture them etc.
All the ghosts have different attacks, usualy based on elements or type of damage. Some will send your opponents t sleep, others will mire them in a sticky substance, others will use slashing attacks and so forth.

You capture these ghosts, to surmount barriers that restrict your progress through the spirit realm. Your powers are also augmented by different sets of clothing you can aquire fo your two protagonists, which look pretty awesome.

You can also get quests in the pub in the real world, these quests usually reward you with items that will help smooth your journey as you progress your investigation.

I've only started the game, so this isnt a review, Just a heads up for what seems like a facinating game so far.

There is a demo on PSN, but there are no cutscenes in it, just some plot expostion and some combat, although its a pretty long demo.

[Art Blade]

there seems to be quite a bit of titles for the PS3 you are currently testing/playing  :) Cheers for the review  :-X

[PZ]

Sounds interesting Fiach - looking forward to your opinions  :-X

[spaceboy]

I hadn't looked at this one yet.  Will definitely check out the demo.  Your brief description sounds interesting.  I love that type of setting.  I liken it to the Shire in the LOTR trilogy.  I liked all 3 of those games and the small pub/town (prancing pony) I think and the Shire were awesome.  I also love traditional Irish music - that flute always gets me.  Thanks for the info, can't wait to hear more.

[Fiach]

Yeah, its (in my opinion) for a more mature gamer, sure you have the combat etc. But you need patience for the exposition, at the end of the day, its a mystery/investigation game, more than combat oriented.

The combat is pretty basic, you can map 4 ghosts to your face buttons, so you can activate them really fast, eg. Sleep an enemy, then kick the crap out of them, I just fought my first boss, which was pretty well presented, using three different attack ghosts.

As you play, you accumulate pages for a book, which is a compendium of all the ghosts, the pages have art illustrations, hinting at what ghosts can be used to defeat a particular type of ghost.

The bosses are called Folklores, it transpires that, things that you lock away in your subconcious, through fear, manifest themselves in the spirit realm as horrific giant ghosts, that are scaring the crap out of the faries that live there, you can channel ghost energy to defeat these.

As you defeat them, you get closer to understanding what happened to you 17 years previously.

Its a nice relaxing game, but with action sequencs that are none too taxing, but with a decent storyline holding all that together.