[Gamers' Day 2007] Snatchin' Souls in Technicolor
Folklore was our surprise hit of the show. It's pretty, it's fun, and it's utterly unique. Find out how inside.
Published: May 17, 2007
Like most sites, we haven't really paid much attention to what was originally Unknown Realms: Monster Kingdom, then Monster Kingdom: Unknown Realms, then Folks Souls in Japan and finally Folklore here in the US. Despite all the name changes, we just through it was one of those cool, weird lookin' games that we might dabble in and then be done with, but as we got a nice, meaty taste of the core gameplay through the eyes of the two main characters in the game, we found ourselves sucked in and ended up spending more time on Folklore than any other game at the event. It also caused us to create massive run-on sentences as we geeked out.
Letters from Mom are cool. Letters from a dead Mom that's been six feet under after a series of grisly murders 17 years ago are scary. But young Ellen don't give a damn, she's venturing into the Faerie Realm anyway. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the seemingly closed, stoic Keats, who strives to maintain a kind of equilibrium between the natural and sprit worlds, and Ellen is seriously messing that up -- or so we've been told. The actual demo we got to play presented subtly different but mostly identical experiences, though the actual worlds that were involved couldn't have been more opposite.
Ellen traipsed about in a magical faerie land littered with long-nosed pixie peeps eager to offer pointless babble. By way of helpful chunks of tutorial info, though, we learned that neither Ellen nor Keats have any real means to attack the often garish inhabitants of their respective worlds. Instead, they must channel the souls of creatures they've captured, and both were loaded out with a basic melee summon, a shield-like entity and a more powerful ranged attack. All three drained a basic Mind Capacity gauge at different speeds, as some summons (like the shield) can be held as long as needed. Luckily the gauge refills on its own rather quickly. It's important to get to know these creatures, though, as each not only fills a basic combat role, but is often a major weakness for the nearby enemies.
Through a series of sketchbook pages, we got a basic idea of how to use each of the creatures, and this was important because usually the first occurrence of them is an opportunity to capture them for good and use their powers. Well, technically speaking, all the enemies in the game must have their very souls ripped from their bodies so as to prevent them from regenerating health. This is done simply; hold the R1 button until an ethereal tether lashes out and snatches the reddish "damaged" aura around a near-dead enemy and then yank toward you like a fishing line to reel that soul in. The first one of that type you pocket will give you access to their particular abilities, and some monsters actually grow stronger the more of their type you reel in (others can be manually powered up between levels).
Juggling all the different enemies and their skills may seem tough, but you're able to pull up a quick menu to scroll through all of them and with a single press of the face button you want them mapped to, they can be bound to one of for quick slots. It's an incredibly simple concept, but it works beautifully, and since the areas that we poked around in were constantly changing, so too were the foes we fought and the weaknesses we needed to exploit. You don't have to capitalize on the innate deficiencies, of course -- any of your summons will work -- but it's faster and easier to dispatch them with their ethereal counterpart. Safer too.
Letters from Mom are cool. Letters from a dead Mom that's been six feet under after a series of grisly murders 17 years ago are scary. But young Ellen don't give a damn, she's venturing into the Faerie Realm anyway. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the seemingly closed, stoic Keats, who strives to maintain a kind of equilibrium between the natural and sprit worlds, and Ellen is seriously messing that up -- or so we've been told. The actual demo we got to play presented subtly different but mostly identical experiences, though the actual worlds that were involved couldn't have been more opposite.
Ellen traipsed about in a magical faerie land littered with long-nosed pixie peeps eager to offer pointless babble. By way of helpful chunks of tutorial info, though, we learned that neither Ellen nor Keats have any real means to attack the often garish inhabitants of their respective worlds. Instead, they must channel the souls of creatures they've captured, and both were loaded out with a basic melee summon, a shield-like entity and a more powerful ranged attack. All three drained a basic Mind Capacity gauge at different speeds, as some summons (like the shield) can be held as long as needed. Luckily the gauge refills on its own rather quickly. It's important to get to know these creatures, though, as each not only fills a basic combat role, but is often a major weakness for the nearby enemies.
Through a series of sketchbook pages, we got a basic idea of how to use each of the creatures, and this was important because usually the first occurrence of them is an opportunity to capture them for good and use their powers. Well, technically speaking, all the enemies in the game must have their very souls ripped from their bodies so as to prevent them from regenerating health. This is done simply; hold the R1 button until an ethereal tether lashes out and snatches the reddish "damaged" aura around a near-dead enemy and then yank toward you like a fishing line to reel that soul in. The first one of that type you pocket will give you access to their particular abilities, and some monsters actually grow stronger the more of their type you reel in (others can be manually powered up between levels).
Juggling all the different enemies and their skills may seem tough, but you're able to pull up a quick menu to scroll through all of them and with a single press of the face button you want them mapped to, they can be bound to one of for quick slots. It's an incredibly simple concept, but it works beautifully, and since the areas that we poked around in were constantly changing, so too were the foes we fought and the weaknesses we needed to exploit. You don't have to capitalize on the innate deficiencies, of course -- any of your summons will work -- but it's faster and easier to dispatch them with their ethereal counterpart. Safer too.
