While a better game overall, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is similar to Pokemon Legends Arceus in a couple ways, and I have some similar thoughts between the two.
Both games look to reinvent a franchise that has been deeply rooted in it's formula, one that is successful but needing an update. Frankly, Kirby Star Allies was the worst Kirby game apart from perhaps Rainbow Curse or the original Gameboy entry, and so the long-awaited switch to 3D was welcomed.
What Legends Arceus and Forgotten Land also have in common is that they are the basis for some great ideas and an important step in a new direction for their respective franchises, but ultimately feel experimental.
Forgotten Land generally works really well as a 3D platformer. The stage/level design is fantastic, music is great, and the aesthetics are wonderful, exactly what you'd expect from any given Kirby game. The game is full of charm, and Waddle Dee Town is a great addition, a solid hub world with might be the most genuinely adorable creatures in games. The hub has a good selection of various things to do and a couple really well-made minigames, yet again something that HAL always excels with. The most impressive thing to me about the transition to 3D is that it still feels like a Kirby game, although unfortunately a bit more limited.
The game features just 12(?) main copy abilities, each of which's moveset has been cut down by half, if not more. This was probably the most immediate and maybe biggest disappointment of the game for me. It is part of HAL not wanting to overstep into new territory and play it safe, but it is quite noticeable, and some abilities have many of their defining moves completely absent. The lack of abilities like Fighter or Ninja for example, iconic to the series, was very much missed to me.
The game does expand on copy abilities with the upgrade system, which is one of my favorite new mechanics. While they still have limited movesets, and a few of them are a bit lame, in general this is great and allows for some powerful and fun to use endgame abilities unlike what we seen before in the franchise. I can only imagine what upgraded abilities for those absent in the game may look like, and how this mechanic may evolve, should HAL choose to keep it.
Forgotten Land is much too short and small of scope, which is, yet again, a symptom of HAL carefully treading new water with the transition to 3D Kirby. By the time I felt real engagement the game was basically over; all of the story happens at once at the end of the game, no characters are really fleshed out at all and everything just kind of happens and then it's done. In short, the pacing for the game is not good, something that is also seen in the difficulty.
I am an avid Kirby fan, so I'm not coming to play to a hard game, but for some reason this game in particular seemed less engaging difficulty wise than previous entries. The difficulty ramps up from 0 to like, 40, in the end game, particularly in the game's true final boss, but not much else is really present.
The copy ability upgrades and power-ups (doubling your health, more attack power, more defense) I am excited to see fleshed out more in the future, but in this game, the only time you'll ever feel like you have any reason to use them is in the True Arena equivalent. There is simply not enough present that lets you fully take advantage of these, apart from just replaying the True Arena over and over.
Anyways, this is a promising step for Kirby that I think will lead to some truly fantastic games in the future. The game should not be close to $60, but that's really another conversation about Nintendo. There's a lot of great ideas present, but I think we need a much bigger scope game and/or some more drastic changes to be able to fully utilize them. If this does happen one day in how I picture it, it could be easily the best game in the Kirby franchise and also be able to contend with the greats of 3D platformer history; Forgotten Land however, is not this game.
7/10
Both games look to reinvent a franchise that has been deeply rooted in it's formula, one that is successful but needing an update. Frankly, Kirby Star Allies was the worst Kirby game apart from perhaps Rainbow Curse or the original Gameboy entry, and so the long-awaited switch to 3D was welcomed.
What Legends Arceus and Forgotten Land also have in common is that they are the basis for some great ideas and an important step in a new direction for their respective franchises, but ultimately feel experimental.
Forgotten Land generally works really well as a 3D platformer. The stage/level design is fantastic, music is great, and the aesthetics are wonderful, exactly what you'd expect from any given Kirby game. The game is full of charm, and Waddle Dee Town is a great addition, a solid hub world with might be the most genuinely adorable creatures in games. The hub has a good selection of various things to do and a couple really well-made minigames, yet again something that HAL always excels with. The most impressive thing to me about the transition to 3D is that it still feels like a Kirby game, although unfortunately a bit more limited.
The game features just 12(?) main copy abilities, each of which's moveset has been cut down by half, if not more. This was probably the most immediate and maybe biggest disappointment of the game for me. It is part of HAL not wanting to overstep into new territory and play it safe, but it is quite noticeable, and some abilities have many of their defining moves completely absent. The lack of abilities like Fighter or Ninja for example, iconic to the series, was very much missed to me.
The game does expand on copy abilities with the upgrade system, which is one of my favorite new mechanics. While they still have limited movesets, and a few of them are a bit lame, in general this is great and allows for some powerful and fun to use endgame abilities unlike what we seen before in the franchise. I can only imagine what upgraded abilities for those absent in the game may look like, and how this mechanic may evolve, should HAL choose to keep it.
Forgotten Land is much too short and small of scope, which is, yet again, a symptom of HAL carefully treading new water with the transition to 3D Kirby. By the time I felt real engagement the game was basically over; all of the story happens at once at the end of the game, no characters are really fleshed out at all and everything just kind of happens and then it's done. In short, the pacing for the game is not good, something that is also seen in the difficulty.
I am an avid Kirby fan, so I'm not coming to play to a hard game, but for some reason this game in particular seemed less engaging difficulty wise than previous entries. The difficulty ramps up from 0 to like, 40, in the end game, particularly in the game's true final boss, but not much else is really present.
The copy ability upgrades and power-ups (doubling your health, more attack power, more defense) I am excited to see fleshed out more in the future, but in this game, the only time you'll ever feel like you have any reason to use them is in the True Arena equivalent. There is simply not enough present that lets you fully take advantage of these, apart from just replaying the True Arena over and over.
Anyways, this is a promising step for Kirby that I think will lead to some truly fantastic games in the future. The game should not be close to $60, but that's really another conversation about Nintendo. There's a lot of great ideas present, but I think we need a much bigger scope game and/or some more drastic changes to be able to fully utilize them. If this does happen one day in how I picture it, it could be easily the best game in the Kirby franchise and also be able to contend with the greats of 3D platformer history; Forgotten Land however, is not this game.
7/10