For a game i was really looking forward to playing, as my introduction to the series, it ended up pretty underwhelming, feeling like it missed more of a payoff, but still fun.
The brain teasing puzzles are mostly pretty fun, even though some of them are way too similar and some also give me war flashbacks from school. The game attempts to make the puzzles feel rewarding by feeding the player collectibles, such as the painting scraps and gizmos, and also the very flawed scoring system in the form of Picarats. The frustrating part about this is that most of the time the end result for collecting all the stuff and solving the most puzzles possible is very disappointing, even if it makes you feel like it would lead to something. Imagine if in Banjo Kazooie the reward for collecting all Jiggies was 3 extra puzzles and a still image, that's what it feels like.
The plot in particular is this game's biggest disappointment. First, it lacked focus, as it presented many interesting mysteries and characters, only to introduce others on a dim making the narrative a scrambled mess, which wouldn't be an issue if the game was able to untangle the web in a satisfying way, which it didn't even come close. Without spoiling too much, the final stretch is not only anticlimactic it also gives the wildest and most random explanations to the mysteries previously set up in a checklist expository manner, with little to no dramatic punch whatsoever. It honestly made me feel a little betrayed thinking all these plot points would be explained in a cool and clever way like in those classic detective stories, and instead we got...anyway, if you know you know.
Even if the game is just basically a puzzle box with a semi-coherent narrative attached to it, it is carried near solely by the strength of its charm and aesthetics. Narratively, as mentioned before, this game is a lot closer to Zac Power than Agatha Christie, yet the environments, the dialogue, the music and specially the characters evoke a whimsical old British literature feel, with great designs all around and some gorgeous animated cutscenes that are looking crisp in the HD remaster. Walking around town while talking to these weird and funny characters makes the constant barrage of puzzles more palpable and relaxing, while keeping your interest on what's going on in the village.
Overall, it's a decent start to what would become a very big franchise, to which i see a lot of pontential, perhaps these issues are ironed out in the later iterations.
As a sidenote, this is a perfect game for children, teaches basic logic and algebra concepts in a fun and intuitive way, and the plot being this dumb will hardly be a problem for them.
The brain teasing puzzles are mostly pretty fun, even though some of them are way too similar and some also give me war flashbacks from school. The game attempts to make the puzzles feel rewarding by feeding the player collectibles, such as the painting scraps and gizmos, and also the very flawed scoring system in the form of Picarats. The frustrating part about this is that most of the time the end result for collecting all the stuff and solving the most puzzles possible is very disappointing, even if it makes you feel like it would lead to something. Imagine if in Banjo Kazooie the reward for collecting all Jiggies was 3 extra puzzles and a still image, that's what it feels like.
The plot in particular is this game's biggest disappointment. First, it lacked focus, as it presented many interesting mysteries and characters, only to introduce others on a dim making the narrative a scrambled mess, which wouldn't be an issue if the game was able to untangle the web in a satisfying way, which it didn't even come close. Without spoiling too much, the final stretch is not only anticlimactic it also gives the wildest and most random explanations to the mysteries previously set up in a checklist expository manner, with little to no dramatic punch whatsoever. It honestly made me feel a little betrayed thinking all these plot points would be explained in a cool and clever way like in those classic detective stories, and instead we got...anyway, if you know you know.
Even if the game is just basically a puzzle box with a semi-coherent narrative attached to it, it is carried near solely by the strength of its charm and aesthetics. Narratively, as mentioned before, this game is a lot closer to Zac Power than Agatha Christie, yet the environments, the dialogue, the music and specially the characters evoke a whimsical old British literature feel, with great designs all around and some gorgeous animated cutscenes that are looking crisp in the HD remaster. Walking around town while talking to these weird and funny characters makes the constant barrage of puzzles more palpable and relaxing, while keeping your interest on what's going on in the village.
Overall, it's a decent start to what would become a very big franchise, to which i see a lot of pontential, perhaps these issues are ironed out in the later iterations.
As a sidenote, this is a perfect game for children, teaches basic logic and algebra concepts in a fun and intuitive way, and the plot being this dumb will hardly be a problem for them.