Folklore - out now!

bsjezz

I'm not usually one to make threads like this but I just downloaded the demo and it's an awesome game so I figured this one deserves a bit of hype.

Folklore is a PS3 game from some guys and it's pretty much about capturing monsters. It's a bit pokemon-ish I guess, except instead of an annoying teenager you play as a pair of likable protagonists, i.e. a hot chick and an alcoholic* writer.



It's a colourful game which seems to be set for the most part in themed Faery Kingdoms. Each kingdom has its own array of enemies to fight against and capture for your own nefarious purposes. The demo, for example, has two levels - a flowery garden land and a war-torn hell. There are bosses and stuff. Apparently there's some kind of framing story set in Ireland but not much of this is revealed in the demo.





The combat is great fun. You apply one Folk (captured baddy) to each face button (X, Triangle, O, Square) and have at it. Skills that captured Folk provide vary from button mashing combos to shield type blocks to range attacks to status attacks - and all attacks can be upgraded by capturing more souls and using items. Your Poukle (or something) not stringing together enough attacks? Just capture some more Poukle (or something) souls!

Capturing enemies involves utilising Sixaxis controls. Lame? I thought so too. But when the battle heats up, with critters swarming in and the combos flying fast, locking in on a few souls escaping on the outskirts and sucking in three at once with a swift upward tug of the controller is really satisfying. It's a bit like fishing, only less smelly.



One of the best things about the game so far is the art design. There are characters that echo Where the Wild Things Are and others that seem inspired by The Labyrinth's goblins. Good art seems an integral part of the game - as you progress, you'll pick up beautifully drawn Picture Book pages which reveal the weaknesses of bosses and other enemies. The Folks are all lovingly crafted and reveal lots of personality.



If you have a European or Australian PSN Account, download this now because apparently it's getting taken down in a week or so. It's well worth it!

So yeah, anyone else had a whirl?

(PS if anyone could host these pics again for me that would rock because I'm not sure how reliable this is. Photobucket is being a pain for me tonight.)

* it's just dawned on me that i may have invented the alcoholic element simply to empathise with the guy a bit more. hmmm. eh, it works

Xagarath

There's already a thread if you scroll down.

bsjezz

man i took more than an hour making this? fuck

i hope mine's better

Handkor

I vote to keep this one, I actuall know what the game is from this OP.

vegeta_666

Handkor wrote: »

I vote to keep this one, I actuall know what the game is from this OP.

I have to agree with this one, I didn't know what the hell this game was until I looked at this OP. Looks interesting.

gilrain

Wow, this looks awesome! I love, love, love the art style, and an alcoholic writer for a protagonist sounds sweet (and close to home). I also like the clothing design, and the monster design, and hm. I like the whole concept.

This and Little Big World are beginning to make me wonder if it's a good time to buy a PS3. I didn't see a release date on this -- anyone know?

Glal

Xagarath wrote: »

There's already a thread if you scroll down.

Yeah, and it's terrible and devoid of any information past "<name> demo is out!".

Wonder_Hippie

The demo was damned fun. I absolutely loved the way the cutscenes were done, what with the border surrounding the engine stuff. It was really neat, and added that sense of other-worldly to it. That, and the creepy guys that talk to the protagonists.

I remember reading reviews from the Japanese release where people basically said that, while the mechanics are neat enough, all the souls you use essentially do the same things. I don't know what game they were playing, but the demo gave me the complete opposite impression. With the exception of ones that could be seen as a sort of basic attack action, all the souls felt pretty unique and useful. Well, save for the one that spit the goo to trap things. Didn't go off enough.

The one thing I didn't like about it was the chick's method of getting the tougher souls out. She has to wait for them to turn a certain color, then yoink, wait again, then yoink. It's a bit tedious and annoying, but it doesn't seem to happen that often.

My favorite part, however, was the picture book. Like what's mentioned in the OP, you pick up pages of picture books that help you understand how to defeat certain souls. The larger folklores seem to require a certain series of attacks to take them down, and the picture books show you which souls are needed and how to use them. Ellen's final boss required you to - [spoiler'd for the people that want to figure it out for themselves]

- wait for the boss to do this specific attack where he sucked stuff up in a big whirlwind with his tentacles, at which point you used a certain soul that cold cover himself in spikes. Once inside, he explodes, and you whomp on the tentacle a bit until it was chopped off. Repeat for the other one, then a giant flower pops out of its back and you use a gryffon-looking soul to literally blow it away a few times.

All in all, I think this is going to be a buyer for me. I'm a terrible completionist, and this game seems to be rife with things to do in that regard.

HadjiQuest

I was really interested in this when I first heard about it, and the more I hear the less interested I get.

To me it just sounds like Chaos Legion 2. I suppose I'll have to go to a friend's house and play the demo, though.

DarkCrawler

Downloading this...hope it is good.

suadeo

I liked the demo. I only played the Faery World, but it was pretty damn fun. I really enjoyed the art style.

Speed Racer

The OP makes me think of Lost Kingdoms.

Lost Kingdoms was a pretty fun game.

Thus, I can only conclude that this is also a pretty fun game.

cemetery man

I played the demo and it was pretty interesting. It kinda reminded me of Kameo: Elements of Power. I like the art style and everything. I usually can't stand jrpgs but this one seems a bit different.

I like the ripping out souls/ids thing with the sixaxis.

I couldn't get past the boss battle with the tentacle monster I got it into shooting plant mode then got killed since I had no idea what I was supposed to do.

Of course dying just gives the message "thanks for playing" and sends you back to the main menu which sucked.

Unless I missed something there wasn't a lot of good directives to help you out.

Also I hope they put in some voice acting as having it be all text seems a bit unusual in this day and age.

RandomKit

Sounds abit like Lost Kingdoms. And thats a good thing.

arod_77

You play as John Lennon, the alcoholic soul reaver, whats not to like?

AggroChan

Otacon?

Radikal_Dreamer

Folklore is one of the games on the long list of why I got my PS3. It just looks so stylized and pretty. I got a japanese account just to download the Folklore demo a long while ago. After playing that demo I was quite happy to find out that it played very well, also. Nice to have a demo that I can read now :P

arod_77

One thing ive learned about Japanese game art design is that they have about 5 american faces constantly rotated amongst every Japanese game dev

TexiKen

It's John Lennon, duh.

UnderHero5

I love the demos; both the JPN and English demos. I'm getting this game day one. To say the demos sold me on it is an understatement.

The_Spaniard

I've just played the chicks section of the demo so far.
Art direction is fantastic, combat is interesting even if it has been done, I LOVE using the sixaxis to rip out souls, but..

I hope the game doesn't end up being as repetitive as the demo. Not that I mind games like it, just repetitive + in-super-credibly linear environments that funnel you along can get kinda old really quick.

bsjezz

Hmm, I just noticed something interesting on the wikipedia page:

User created dungeons that can be posted for others to play with.

Custom dungeons? Sounds awesome.

Inzigna

The screens (possibly from compression and stuff) doesn't look all that good. But I'm not going to judge based on a few small screens just yet, because the concept seems cool enough. I just hope they don't mess it up, I've been looking for a list of reasons to get a PS3 on top of my 360, hopefully this will be the start of a huge roll.

RedMageDarion

I downloaded this last night and played it for like 10 minutes this morning.

Not bad at all.

The text is a bit small, and the font makes it a little hard to read which is annoying, but not gamebreaking.

I enjoyed ripping souls out with the controller when it was just a quick flick upwards... not so much when I had to shake it left and right, I felt too goofy.

Either way, this game seems pretty neat, and I'm looking forward to playing the full game.

Vi Monks

OP, how dare you put up a giant picture of Keats but not of Ellen. Ellen is win (except her way of getting out tough souls, as someone mentioned -- harder than the actual fights).

Personally, I'll be getting this game on day one if only for the art style. Combat and gameplay impressed me but didn't blow me away. The atmosphere, however, did and I'd be perfectly content to watch the game play itself and I could just gawk at all the scenery and Folk.

Tw4win

I haven't played the demo but i picked up an import copy of this game this weekend. It was used and less than the price of a new version of the NA Folklore, when it's released.

I'll post my impressions when I get a chance to sit down with it.

I also picked up Zelda: Phantom Hourglass...will write about that soon too.

Interpreter

Anyone else pick this up? I snagged it, but I havn't gotten to far in it(I only played the prologues for both characters) as I'm trying to finish off Zelda:Phantom Hourglass, Jeanne D'Arc and Wild ARMs 5(plus that work thing that pays for all my games), but I was wondering if anyone else has gone through it.

Dashui

Interpreter wrote: »

Anyone else pick this up? I snagged it, but I havn't gotten to far in it(I only played the prologues for both characters) as I'm trying to finish off Zelda:Phantom Hourglass, Jeanne D'Arc and Wild ARMs 5(plus that work thing that pays for all my games), but I was wondering if anyone else has gone through it.

It's out already? Sonnuvabitch! I thought it was coming out at the end of the month. Guess I should go trade in some games for it.

Evangir

How hard to find do you folks think this game will be down the line? In say, a year? It'd be a day-one purchase from me if I had a PS3 at the moment. The art style is gorgeous and I love the sound of the combat (I'm a sucker for Kirby-esque power stealing).

RMH03

I played the demo, thought the artstyle was awesome, gameplay was a bit meh imho, but i could see some of the mechanics have potential looks like it could get interesting as it gets harder.

I played through the demo as the guy, is it significantly different/worth it to go through again as the girl?

Interpreter

It shipped on the 9th, so most places here in Canuckland had it on the 11th.

As for how hard it will be to find, hard to say. The Future Shop that I bought it from had like ten copies on the day I got it(not sure, as I didn't actually count them or anything), and when I was in it the day after there were only four left. Not exactly evidence of rarity or anything, but it may become harder to find(or it could be that it's because FS has it for $10 cheaper than the Best Buy down the hall, even though they're the same company).

bsjezz

RMH03 wrote: »

I played the demo, thought the artstyle was awesome, gameplay was a bit meh imho, but i could see some of the mechanics have potential looks like it could get interesting as it gets harder.

I played through the demo as the guy, is it significantly different/worth it to go through again as the girl?

the girl and the guy play through completely different levels, so yes, worth it

SirUltimos

My store got 4 copies of the game in, and I doubt we're even going to sell them by the end of the year.

But I was checking out the game's case before I put it away, and I personally think that it looks really, really good. Just something about the whimsical, fantastical kind of setting really appeals to me.

Radikal_Dreamer

I really want to buy this game, but I just don't have the dough for all the games I want. I've limited myself to just one from now to the end of the year, and that'll probably be Orange Box, because of the value. But, I may just rent Folklore. In fact, I might just go down to blockbuster right now and get it.

Dashui

Alright, I've just played the first two chapters as Keats, and I have to say... fantastic. This is the game I've been waiting to play on the Playstation 3, not four hour long God of War or Rogue Squadron clones. The style and story are incredible and well presented, and the actual boss battles remind me of Zelda boss encounters. If you haven't already, try the demo, and then curse loudly and look at your wallet and go buy it.

rapstyle

Really cool game.

BakerIsBored

I've been playing the shit out of this game for the last few days. Kinda wanted to talk about it... but no discussions going on

I just now tapping into Chapter 7. I've got almost all of Ellens and Keats folks captured and maxed out. This game is a whole hell of a lot of fun. The story is so twisted and dark, almost feels like I'm reading a good book

I've gotten both characters pretty high level, Ellen is now lvl 13 and Keats is 11. I personally think Keats has better skills than Ellen, has anyone tried making any dugions or playing online or anything?

Lord Shplane

Sorry about the NecroPost, but THIS GAME NEEDS TO BE TALKED ABOUT!!

So anyway, I can't wait to get it. And when I do, I'll Necro' this thread again.

TeeMan

I just dont have time for this game I don't get much as it is and all that time is chock full of AAA games like CoD4, Mass Effect, Orange Box... I haven't even started Bioshock yet :P

This is a geniounly good game though and it pained me to put it down. The minion battles get a little samey but the mini bosses and especially the boss battles are fantastic! Bettered only by the mature storyline that requires you to think and remember things as you go along to get the story as it unfolds, it doesnt just spoon feed you. Thats wonderful

I will definitely get round to finishing this game! And I dont mean that in a metriod prime/super paper mario/beyond good and evil/god of war 2 kinda way, I actually will haha

Reznik

I still need to finish it. I rented it, beat chapter 3 with Keats and started chapter 3 with Ellen, but then I had to bring it back and I got Ratchet and Clank instead.

I really want to finish it because the story is so interesting, though the gameplay kinda dragged a bit. I might have played it too much in a short period, though. I think it's one of those games where you really have to pace yourself.

TeeMan

Reznik wrote: »

I think it's one of those games where you really have to pace yourself.

Absolutely. I even find myself walking my characters around Doolin instead of running just to retain the atmosphere of the village, as crazy as it sounds.

I just wish there was more voice acting though. They've got such great and memorable Irish accents in a market flooded with American and British accents.