Folklore

"An underrated and overlooked treasure beneath our sights"

Grrr… I'm groaning in anger how this fantastic piece of artwork was overlooked. Anyway, if you're looking for a deep, immersive gaming experience, look no further, Folklore is it. With fantastic artistic value, this underrated game is a true gem. Incredibly rare, it's like a good piece of literature that has gone unnoticed, yet needs to be experienced by everyone.

Story (10/10)
The Story is quite different from the other RPGs, it's not generic or about saving the world, it's a mystery story involving a girl's mysterious and repressed past. The whole story is seen through the eyes of two characters: Keats and Ellen. Keats is a reporter who writes for an occult magazine called "Unknown Realms." Ellen is just a lonely girl trying to find her mother. Keats receives a very mysterious phone call yelling at him, “Help me please!!!” telling him to go to the town of Lemrick. Understanding that this could in fact be a prank, Keats sets off out of just pure instinct alone. Ellen on the other hand, receives a letter from her “deceased” mother telling her that she is in fact alive, and wants to meet her in Lemrick. When I first played this game, I was just wondering why we didn't know more about these characters… Well, I was at first quite disappointed the game didn't offer any more information. Why are they there? What have they been doing prior to the incidents? Their background, their history, etc. But as I played on, the story seamed itself very brilliantly, answering all of these questions while providing shocking moments and intelligent twists along the way. On to the point now… Lemrick, the town where the living meets the dead. While Keats and Ellen are in Lemrick, they get this strange "call" to go to the Pub in the middle of the night. There, they meet half-lives who show them another world where they can talk to dead folks who can answer their questions. The Netherworld is what they call it. Each realm is entirely different from another, with one realm consisting of human hopes and desires or another consisting of human loathing and hatred. While they explore these realms, mysterious murders soon take place in Lemrick. As Ellen gets deeper and deeper into her past, she's warned... Is this past anything Ellen has the right to know? Maybe she repressed this for a specific reason, and for a good reason. However, it's up to you to find out.

Sound (10/10)
One gripe I have is that there isn't a lot of voice acting. Sure the CG sequences contain great voice actors, but the majority of the story is told through comic book type cutscenes and dialogue. But this is done and done quite well. Getting used to this after being spoiled with tons of games with voice acting, this method is quite effective with Folklore. Especially without voice acting, the background music is more heavily emphasized and goes very well with the dialogue sequences conveying specific emotions and increased sense of imagination. Why did I give it a ten even without voice acting, you ask? M-U-S-I-C. The music in this game is brilliantly composed and is downright godly. Music fits the melancholy mood of this game and at times (even though I'm a guy) brought a slight tear to my eye. I've never, ever bought a separate game soundtrack, but I just HAD to, for this one. You don't even have to be a fan of the game to appreciate music as good as this. As for sound effects- They're great. Electrified attacks sound electric, cannons sound explosive, fire sound "fiery," etc. Sound effects are everything you expect them to be.

Gameplay (9/10)
Gameplay is unique. One thing that's different is that you kill an enemy using an enemy, and you can capture that enemy and use that enemy to kill another enemy. Am I sounding unclear? Well, it's kinda like Pokemon actually. You start off with two folks, each folk can only do one thing. One folk will do combo attacks, and the other folk will block. Using this folk to kill another folk, a red "Id" pops up, and you jerk your SixAxis to absorb their Id. Absorbing their Id makes you gain their unique ability. You can then assign the folk to a button (either square, triangle, circle, or X). There are over 100 Folks in this game, including rare ones and unlockable ones only by doing special quests. This game can be quite addicting, especially the customization and combination of combos for deadly attacks and capturing souls. You can then level up these folks which will yield additional attacks to combos, increased HP, decreased MP usage, etc. By the way, I HATE sixaxis controls, yet I found Folklore's use of it to be incredibly fun and original. Absorbing multiple Ids will level up your folks even faster as well as make the game extremely fun! One down side to the gameplay is that you have to complete the same area twice alternating between Keats and Ellen. However, the folks are different and very interesting for both and are changed quite well enough for variety.

Graphics (8/10)
Okay, this game isn't the best I've seen technically speaking. Nothing like Heavenly Sword, Uncharted or Gears of War... Quite far from it. However, the art direction of this game is definitely an eye opener. A very beautiful game indeed. For example, when you walk in the Faery Realm, you can't help but notice all the colorful details. Plenty of colorful flowers blooming, grass, trees, life, etc. The steps leading to the Faery Lord laugh gleefully and bloom flowers as you step through them These brilliant levels have an added sense of life to them. It almost feels like you've escaped reality and you're actually there. Like reading a Tolkien novel, especially how descriptive everything is, enhancing your imagination. If there's one word I had to choose to describe Folklore, that would be: Enchanting. Rich enchantment and a deep feel for fantasy, this game delivers in all aspects of artistic expression. Are games art? Well, I can't say that for all games, but Folklore definitely sure is.

Play Time/Replayability (8/10)
The game will take you about 15 hours to complete the whole story. Even longer if you want to collect all folks and level up. The game has a pretty nice Dungeon Trial mode, where you can create your own mazes with folks and a time limit, and earn points where you can enhance your own dungeon by getting more folks and giving them increased abilities. Enhancing your own dungeon will give you more points, and with more points you can collect rare folk. However, good luck trying to get in the top ten on the leaderboard though, there are quite a few who have scored millions of points.

Final Recommendation:

Is this game worth buying? Yes! This game is a wonderful experience that has this rare quality and charm lacking in 99% of games today. This true, underrated and overlooked gem needs to be experienced by all. I'm one with a short attention span. Usually I'd just play a game for about a few hours, get bored and move on. However, I found Folklore to be a truly enchanting experience, unique and coercing me to finish to find out more about the beautifully crafted story. I'm just saddened that such a great game had to end, and more saddened that it is under appreciated and overlooked. A true gem indeed, although not shiny upon notice, but will glow when discovered.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/27/07

Game Release: Folklore (US, 10/09/07)