Beasts of Maravilla Island

Beasts of Maravilla is one of those games that is not sure what genre it fits. It is part exploration, part photography, part creature collecting and part puzzling. It would have been wonderful for those locked down in the Covid period with a bright, colouful fantastical world to explore! You play Marina, an aspiring wildlife photographer and you discover your Grandfather's journal about the Maravilla Island whose legends were narrated to you as a young child. As you land on the island, you discover that its protective magic is fading and you want to help it out. This is an island with fantastical creatures not found anywhere else and you log it all in your photo book. The island has 3 distinctive areas: The Singing Jungle; The Glimmering River and the Painted Plateau. Each ecosystem has objectives to fulfil and this requires you to interact with some of the bigger animals including a cheeky otter-crocodile; a lovesick bird-monkey and the fearsome cat-griffin. The many creatures are unique and you have to explore and find them all. The singing Jungle was very noisy and I had to lower the sound as it gave me a headache! But the sound was good and relevant to a jungle environment. It is a place full of wonders! The Glimmering River was full of water sounds and the Plateau was the quietest. Graphics were very colourful but very basic, especially in the last section. It was if they ran out of money. The downside of the game is that the movement can be quite clunky or that keys would simply not work. I had trouble with the spacebar which made Marina pick up or put down objects or to climb or let go of a tree. There were times when the spacebar was ignored and I couldn't do an action and that was very frustrating. Spamming the spacebar didn't not work! And this happened continuously throughout the game. It is a fairly short game (3hrs) if you race through it and other reviewers found it boring. Children would love this as it is wholesome and cozy. If you want to wind down and play a relaxing game after work, this is it. No presssure, lots of eye candy and you're saving the world. What more do you want?! 7.5/10

Ich habe zwar selbst keine Kinder, aber ich kann mir sehr gut vorstellen, dass dieses Spiel als Elternteil, super mit kleineren Kindern (so zwischen 6-9 Jahre) spielbar ist =) Für Erwachsene kann ich dieses Spiel nicht wirklich empfehlen. Insgesamt ist es sehr kurz. Komplette Spielzeit so ca. 3,5 Stunden bei mir. Wobei ich sagen muss, dass ich mir wirklich ne Menge Zeit genommen habe und es oftmals auch nur laufen hatte, wenn ich mich hier um meine Katzen kümmern musste. Spielzeit ist vermutlich ohne alles, wenn man es am Stück spielt, so ca. 2 - 2,5 Stunden lang. Man kommt auf eine Insel, auf der man lauter Fotos von der Umgebung, den Pflanzen und den Tieren, für sein Journal, macht. Die Steuerung ist sehr einfach und intuitiv. Gerade für Kinder sehr einfach gestaltet. Es ist eine Art Foto - Walking Simulation mit ein paar mini Rätseln, die aber kaum Rätsel genannt werden können, da sie denkbar einfach sind. Die Hauptfigur spricht immer mal wieder und gibt auch Hinweise und eine kleine Sequenz löst aus, in dem auf die Lösung hingewiesen wird. Die Geschichte ist voraussehbar und vor allem kurz vor dem letzten Kapitel schon offen gelegt. Die Tier- und Umwelt ist sehr bunt, geräuschvoll und farbenfroh. Die Hintergrundmusik bzw. die Töne und Geräusche spiegeln die Umwelt gut wieder. Die Errungenschaften macht man fast alle automatisch mit. Nur ein paar macht man nach dem Ende, da man dann zurück in die einzelnen Kapitel springen muss, um Dinge zu fotografieren, die man vergessen hatte. Ich hatte zwischendurch immer mal wieder ein paar Grafik Bugs. Der Boden viel weg, wurde weiß und die Umgebung hat nicht nachgeladen und Bäume bestanden teilweise aus Punkten. Nichts super schlimmes, allerdings etwas nervig. Ist man mit der Figur dann ein Stück weiter des Weges gelaufen, war alles wieder normal. Insgesamt würde ich hier eher nur mittelmäßig bewerten. Ein Spiel, was eher für Kinder ist, die gerne ohne Stress und Kampf erkunden wollen. Hier geht also eine Empfehlung eher an Eltern raus =D

This is a short game of about 2.5-3ish hours, fairly easy to get all the achievements in one run, but also mindful of your time and letting you hop back to a chapter once you finish the game. There's not much replay value outside of lining up different shots per your preference once finished. This game has bright, colorful visuals with a feeling of a lush and nature-filled habitat, with charming bugs and critters flitting around vibrant plants. It was a bit slow to charm me, as I think I prefer photography as more of a side-game than the main affair, but I enjoyed my time. The photography controls are very forgiving, letting you slide a bit both up and down in frame as well as zoom in/out. There's light puzzling, and the game generally tells you what's needed, with obvious placement cues on the ground and such. It doesn't let you miss critical photo opportunities, and it checks that you want to leave an area before moving on. There's a solid photo album, letting you choose which images are primary out of a selection of all you've shot, or delete undesired ones. If you like capturing shots and basic collectathon (in the guise of photos), then you'll likely enjoy this game.

It's cute, cozy, slightly lackluster. It's really cheap and has a nice gimmick, so I believe a lot of people will have a great time with it, but it's not really my thing (I did enjoy both Pokemon Snap and Umurangi Generation, though). The FOV is too narrow and movement is clunky. Sometimes you don't know whether the game is obtuse or if you're actually doing something wrong. Despite that, it's a colorful game that can really cheer you up if you like exploring.

Beast of Maravilla Island es de esos juegos indie de corta duración pero que te enseñan que a veces un juego de un par de horas puede mostrarte algo tan bello cómo las criaturas y paisajes que aparecen en este increíble juego. No esperes acción, ni una historia profunda, ni controles absurdamente complejos, tan solo desconecta y relájate explorando cada rincón de los 3 paisajes únicos que te ofrecen y trata de capturar todo mediante tu cámara de fotos. Es un juego para estar de relax y no buscar ningún tipo de complejidad.

Gosh, I wish this game didn't hold me by the back of the neck. Would have been cool to play it.

After playing The Headliners, I just wanted more games that make me take pictures of lil guys. I was ready to explore an island and find creatures to photograph, but in this game, you get to "explore" a single walking trail where all of the creatures just pop up in front of you. Off the main trail, there are only a couple of deadends that have incredibly simple puzzles that. I wasn't interested in playing past the first level. Maybe good for children or people who have no frame of reference of what a good game is, but if you're looking to explore/discover anything, this game is not for you.

[h3] I really loved being girly David Attenborough on Pandora. [/h3] This is a very sweet and short experience with beautiful locations and many intriguing creatures. It has a very relaxing gameplay, mainly consisting of taking pictures of flora and fauna, and some simple puzzles. Works perfectly on Steam Deck.

Bello.

Really sweet and short game that I played on the Steam Deck over the holidays whenever there was downtime. The premise of exploring an island full of mysterious and miraculous fauna and flora, whilst documenting them with the camera and having a little bit of lore bits and bops from your grandpa's journal creates a really relaxing and serene experience of just pure unadulterated exploration. In essence, it is just a walking sim, but I feel this constant need to photograph all of the living creatures on the island makes it fun and engaging, instead of boring and dull. Itsa good :)