Sunday, September 16, 2012

Keepsake

I love to collect video games, box and all. Holding the box in my hands connects me to the game, to the story, to the characters, the way a paper book does. Downloading a game disconnects me from the tangibility of what I'm about to discover.

A new game intrigues me the same way an unfamiliar book does: if I like the cover art, I'll pick it up. For in one snapshot the cover art has to capture the essence and flavor of a game. Other panel art must be the cake beneath that icing: it must support my first impressions and make the whole game taste good.

I bought Keepsake mainly because it is published by The Adventure Company: I've always had good luck with their games. But what caught my eye, and really inspired me to buy, was the front cover.

Front Cover
Forefront is a young woman about my age staring down at a jester doll lovingly cradled her hands. By the downcurve of her lips and the lowering of her eyelids I could see she was concerned and fearful. I wanted to know why.

The faded image of some sort of palace-like setting absent of people formed her background. Shaded pearl white and grey, it conveyed no sort of ominous undertone as a dark-themed background would have. Script-y and curvy, the title font implied a medieval fantasy feel, enjoyable yet simple.

What had this art told me that no text did? A young woman (who could've been me, and could be you) had undertaken a lighthearted adventure, perhaps to return the jester to its rightful owner or find the person who owned it. So I joined her quest.




Cast of Main Characters

Lydia: Our heroine, aged late teens/early 20s, insatiably curious and steadfast despite constant danger...

Zak: An insecure, talking dragon-turned-wolf who definitely knows more than he says...

Celeste:  Lydia's gentle and sweet childhood friend,  now a scholar at Dragonvale Academy, seemingly unable to escape the shadow of a past tragedy...

Nathaniel: Headmaster of Dragonvale Academy and Celeste's father, he may have finally succumbed to the darkness that envelopes his daughter... 

Mustavio: A seemingly good-natured trader whose jolly exterior may be concealing an unscrupulousness schemer within...


Box Summary

    This epic quest will take you on a journey of enlightenment leading you to the gates of Dragonvale Academy. Upon your arrival you discover something is terrible amiss... The vast campus is completely deserted and Celeste, your best friend who is a scholar there, is no where to be found! After stumbling upon one of Celeste's most treasured keepsakes, you suddenly realize that treachery and sorrow lurk throughout its empty halls. Accompanied by a charmed dragon, you must uncover the mystery behind Celeste's strange disappearance, Dragonvale Academy, and the beloved keepsake...
                               

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Celeste's Keepsake


The Good

    The game opens with a detailed and clear tutorial on game controls, hosted by one of the friendly secondary characters. A bevy of graphics and text explain the cursors’ and buttons’ purposes so I don’t have to guess what is being referred to.

    Movement is comprised of point-and-click. A wide click zone means no frustrating pixel hunting.  

    The control panel, which houses a variety of basic options, is intuitively designed and unobtrusively placed. Some options are below:
  • A compass rose reveals a map of the academy and surrounding locations with my current location highlighted in blue. (Note: confusingly, only the general area is pinpointed, not my exact location).

  • A plus sign unrolls further menu options, from inventory to save/exit. The inventory saves snapshots of paper collectibles for later reference, which saves me from amassing my own pile of notes.

  • The question mark button provides a screenshot and caption of my next moves (a.k.a. the hint system).
   
    You may find, as I do, that the hint system is a truly wonderful feature in its practicality and comprehension. I don’t have to go online to my favorite walkthrough website (UHS Hints shout-out!) which saves me time. With the one exception noted below, enough help is provided when necessary for puzzle completion. After three hints increasing in detail and revelation each time, an option for automatic puzzle completion is offered.

    As for the puzzles, erratic levels of difficulty mean I end up overthinking easy puzzles and underthinking hard ones. 
  • Too easy: one “puzzle” entails random clicking between two hotspots. That is it.  

  • Too hard: another puzzle is an onion-peeler. First solve a riddle (admittedly not my forte) to determine four sets of coordinates, then find a fifth set from those four. Unlike other puzzles, the process is never explicitly stated. The hint system utterly fails to clarify matters (the only time ever). After multiple attempts frustration overtakes me and I request that the game provide the solution. A disappointment.  

    If you too enjoy consistency in quality and quantity, you will still find enough of those puzzles to keep you interested, as I do.
  • Just right: one of my favorites is reminiscent of the fox-chicken-and-grain brain teaser. 

    A good game also requires good voice acting. Characters divested from their situation reflect that in their voice and compel me to wonder, as no doubt do you, why I should care what happens to them? This game ranges the spectrum of voice actors, who either experience the tumultuousness of their quest or simply read off their script.  
  •  Lydia: By far, the best. Appropriate emotion when necessary. Intonation where expected. She draws me into her world and keeps me there. When she is excited, I cheer with her. When she is afraid, I tremble with her.  

  • Nathaniel: By far, the worst. Though I love his rich, deep timbre, he expresses no emotion whatsoever. In the opening sequence he states, “How did it come to this. How did this school become so empty.” No dramatic pauses, no stresses on specific words, no tonal inflection to reveal his shock and fear over the disappearances.

    Simply because Lydia carries the show with her quality and quantity of lines does this factor avoid The Bad section.

Mill puzzle


The Bad

    I too respect a variety of well-developed characters. This game certainly provides a range of personalities and outlooks on life. One character, however, falls from The Good section: Zak is much too extreme. I actively dislike him because his personality flaws far outweigh his likeability factor. Especially when
  • His perpetual pessimism sinks morale
 
  • He prefers to drown in his own insecurities despite Lydia’s emotional support, resulting in constant whining 
 
  • He continually attempts to undermine Lydia’s faith in Nathaniel’s goodness 

     Without meaning to be, Zak is an excellent foil to Lydia. Yet the game would be better without him because Lydia is a strong character anyway. Zak detracts and distracts. 

     Other game distractions include inconsistencies in the form of jarring spelling mistakes and illogicalities. This hints at the lack of drive for perfection. A sample illogicality: Lydia has a “mysterious golden pendant” which “Celeste owned until she gave it to Lydia”… how, then, is that mysterious? 

    Another issue: attempting to load an old game generates this message:  “Warning, loading an old savegame will overwrite your current savegame. Use this feature only if you know what you are doing.” You, like I, may relish returning to previous parts of the game to retry especially enjoyable or especially challenging puzzles. This inflexibility hampers that determination, requiring me to wait until completion of the entire game. The only saving grace is that more than one player’s game can be saved.

    Gameplay is linear. Pre-requisites determine my path: I have to complete puzzles in a certain, undefined order. I have become hopelessly dependent upon the hint system because there is no explicit relation between puzzles -- what defines the completion of one sparking the activation of another? This results in too much running around.

    The locations are numerous enough that the invisible maze walls come in handy, to a point. I cannot enter the upper portion of the Academy until I complete all puzzles on the lower portion. However, some flexibility is always appreciated. I would have preferred to explore the beautifully-crafted Academy and solve puzzles on my own time such that if I have trouble with one puzzle, I can leave it for a while for another. Exploring an environment in any game is always a double-edged sword: too much freedom and we feel lost, too little and we feel constricted. 

    Myst fans will recall the delightful “zip mode,” which instantly transports you across locations without the need to travel through each individual scene. That feature is something this game sorely lacks: the biggest flaw by far is the time-consuming and tedious traveling. I respect that the Academy has such a diversity of locations, all beautifully and thoroughly developed. Yet the time it takes – real-world minutes – to get to my destination detracts from the otherwise enjoyable gameplay. 

    Some instances are particularly frustrating. For instance, the magic device that changes the seasons in the Solarium isn’t actually located in the Solarium. It’s on the other side of the Academy. Furthermore, the device has to be activated several times, which means traveling back and forth, enduring the same unskippable cut-scenes as Lydia transports between parts of the Academy. 

    An excellent decision for future prospects would be to make the map interactive such that clicking on a room instantly transports Lydia there, cut-scene-free too. And, a double-click instantly conveys Lydia to the edge of a screen.  

    Factor in the obscurity of puzzle pre-requisites, and a lengthy trek to a place where the puzzle can’t even be solved yet is a wearisome experience. 

    Which brings me to the ending. First I must note that what impresses me was how this game opens: it manages to avoid the cliché of “character wakes up and finds s/he is all alone” simply by not being a horror game. Lighthearted and entertaining, the game keeps me far more engaged and curious. Moments of fear are fleeting and, honestly, stimulating. 

    You may appreciate a plot twist as much as I. Unpredictability, lacking impracticality, is a versatile tool in a deft hand. This ending is unexpected but a letdown nonetheless. It is abrupt and underdeveloped; it lacks a look to the future. More to the point, I simply don’t like it.            



Solarium in Autumn


And The Stunning

    The soundtrack is the backbone to any game. A quality soundtrack captures the heart of the emotions that the gameplay suggests. A rich assortment of instruments adds another layer to the depth of Dragonvale Academy. Each location, event, or object is individualized with a unique song. All songs are evocative and haunting. 

    My favorite? I love when the tanginess of the harpsichord makes me swelter in the heat of the Forge classroom.

    Speaking of locations, you and I seek the smoothest seam between our world and the game’s world. If we feel we are there, or better yet desire to be there, then the game has achieved graphical perfection.

    Such fantastical worlds always deserve attention to detail, richness of color, variety in texture. There is nothing this game lacks. Beneath my feet I feel the crumbling coolness of the pathway stones. Leaf-tossed shadows waver over my face in the sunlit glade. It is a sublime escape from reality.  

    Interactivity with this world is kept to a minimum. I acquire only objects essential to provoking the storyline. I can look, but not touch. With one exception, this blockades unnecessary distraction and keeps me happily focused on the task at hand.

    The exception I mention is Celeste’s bedroom. This is a golden opportunity missed to further develop the woman I only glimpse through Lydia’s magic visions. Celeste is the single most important catalyst for Lydia’s desire to uncover the mystery of the disappearances. Yet her bedroom is stock, reflecting a bland personality and a bland character. As a result I do not really want to find her, but continue my quest for Lydia’s sake.

    And speaking of Lydia... she is truly the heart of the game. A character so humanly crafted she is real even if not relatable. She is the definition of a “good friend.” With the patience of a saint and the voice of optimism, she encourages Zak to overcome his acrophobia (fear of heights). While it is ultimately my brains doing the problem solving, Lydia encourages me to persevere by facing issues and dangers head-on. Her unshakable faith that Nathaniel has successfully defeated his dark side despite mounting evidence otherwise earns her my trust and respect. She stands up for what she believes in and who she believes in, despite Zak’s insistence otherwise. In a twist of the classic damsel-in-distress, she does the rescuing.

    Yet her character isn’t one-dimensional or perfect. She is afraid of the unknown: she flees from ghosts. She experiences moments of doubt and fear that she will never see Celeste again. She is willing to give the benefit of the doubt about Zak's proclivity to avoiding the truth, despite sharing her concerns with me. 

    Perhaps most of all I appreciate her fashionable modesty. Clad in knee-high boots, leggings, and a very stylish red sleeveless coat (with a cool red streak in her hair to match), she proves an intelligent, capable heroine doesn’t have to come Barbie-doll style with a metal bikini or tight leathers.


Celeste's Bedroom

Verdict

A game for the journey and not the destination. While The Good and The Bad may balance each other out, it is for the reasons listed in The Stunning that I pronounce:

Buy it. On sale.