Chiaro and the Elixir of Life

2 Minute Video Review → https://youtu.be/77uA-ThCdy4 Chiaro is a whimsical fairytale adventure. You’re a young inventor that can make machines come to life with personality. At the beginning of the game you build Boka, a confident little robot that’s full of personality. And together you go on your adventure. The environments and overall design of this game is very good looking and enjoyable. It’s a pseudo steampunk magical world with bright colors and pleasing music. The main adventure is a series of simple tasks. All of the tasks involve objects that are in the same room or very close by, it’s pretty straightforward. So it’s not a challenging game, but still enjoyable. If the current objective is unclear you can look in your journal for a hint on what you need to do. About midway through the game you’ll get a teleporting wand with a detachable sphere. Toss the sphere to where you want to go, then trace out a portal for you to step through. That’ll allow you to reach far places. There’s teleporting locomotion, and sliding locomotion as well if you prefer that. You’ll finish the main story in about 4 hours. So for $30 it’s a little pricey for the length. It’s not a deep fantasy adventure, but it’s full of charm and good for a casual adventure, and perfect for kids as well.

A narrative experience with [i]a lot[/i] of varying physical interactions, to a surprising level really. Lot's of voice over, varied environments, puzzles and challenges. I enjoyed it quite a bit, got stuck a few times, but nothing too terrible. Definitely recommended if you enjoy narrative VR games.

Chiaro and the Elixir of Life brings a fantastic abundance of VR mechanics. The story and the puzzles you experience and have to solve are both enjoyable and immersive. The beauty of the locations and scenes within this game are both wonderous and pleasant, which is fantastic to see this early in VR gaming's lifetime. The gameplay is awesome since the use of portals and building a machine for the first time is definitely amusing. The simple mechanic of playing a ball game of 'Catch and throw' is simple but demonstrates that small/simple mechanic can make a VR game a very significant experience. It is also great how the mechanic is then reused to progress through levels along with your mechanical companion. The story has a good mix of twists and my personal favourite character has got to be the Pig that you will encounter as the game progresses. I unfortunately cannot say too much about the character without spoiling the experience you will come across in the game, but the developers definitely went all out with design as much as possible. There are a few elements to the game that took a few retries to understand what I needed to do but eventually I figured out what was required to progress. Although it is a short, story-orientated, linear game, the developers have shown the potential they have for creating a unique video game experience that only VR can deliver. I look forward to future instalments.

I like this game a lot! There some things that could be better. I had some audio problems. But nothing serious. You can see that the developers put a lot of love in this game. Graphics are also very good. Also they put a lot of detail in the environments. I'm only 1 hour in the game yet, but what I experienced till now is good. Hope this game sells well, so they can start a new project :-)

Super schönes Spiel, sehr schöne Grafik und eine tolle Atmosphäre es zieht einen gleich hinein. Die Interaktion mit den Gegenständen hat mich hier am meisten überzeugt. Was ich jedoch sehr vermisse ist die Free Locomotion auf der Oculus. Dies soll aber bald nachgereicht werden. Kann das Spiel aufjedenfall empfehlen. Hier unser Video dazu: https://youtu.be/Qepaac3spTI

The game seems to be quite buggy and the achievements don't work, but the story is great and the place is beautiful. So I still liked to play this game.

I'm afraid I don't get all the positive reviews. This is almost as bad as Loading Human, though with opposite aesthetics. I stuck through it till chapter 9 based on specific comments from reviews about Ch 9 being great and the game starting slow. While it is better than most of the rest of the chapters, Ch 9 only rises to the level of OK. Well, the first half. Because I finally gave up on this game. Nearly every chapter I hit a point where I got blocked on what ended up being a gratuitously non-obvious interaction or hidden object or location and I got stuck towards the end of the Ch 9 fire section. I'm not replaying all that even if I knew what to do. The way that is supposed to work is the player mentally connects things after some thought. At least it should look meaningful afterwards (like in Riven where a opening the door to get in blocks another doorway). At worst, trail and error in an obvious interaction point. Pros: - Checkpoints within chapters (but not if you exit!) - In Ch 1: [spoiler]you hear gentle (and quite good) singing and follow it meet a character[/spoiler] -- I had hoped for more moments like this or something along the lines of the feel-good vibe in Along Together - I enjoyed the mixed fantasy/steampunk vibe. That's what made me want to try this game in the first place. -- CON: But sadly it doesn't work that well in the game. The narrative aspects of the dichotomy are too disconnected and it ends with pretty arbitrary choices rather than a true synthesis (Bioshock did it far better). Cons: - The humor isn't funny and whimsical, it's flat and lame. Prat falls, cheesy jokes and ditties, funky walking. - The voice acting is definitively above average for VR, but that isn't saying much. - The story, dialog, actions, and morals are all over the place. -- [spoiler]This is the worst described conflict I've ever seen. The phrasing and pacing are awkward and the logic of the events is off.[/spoiler] -- [spoiler]Repeatedly the story emphasizes the path forward as cooperation and harmony between humans, machines, and nature. But the game has you playing basketball with giant snails and shooting rockets at "chickens".[/spoiler] -- [spoiler]The mechanic hates alive machines with a passion and tries to destroy Boka. But as soon you walk around back w/o Boka, she has no problem with you (a creator of alive machines) and actively aids you to be able to make more.[/spoiler] -- [spoiler]The mechanic is looking for her cat in one line and right after there's randomly a line from the earlier sequence against Boka.[/spoiler] -- For dialog that is otherwise quite cheesy and kid-like, the player character curses d*mn when you fail some of the time limits. --- I have no problem with cursing IRL or in movies or games. But generally it should be for characterization, situational, or other import. And in this case it's out of character, a minor context, and potentially problematic for much of the target audience. - The gfx are only OK. Even on max they are pretty flat and blurry. The screenshots looked pretty good but it doesn't scale well to VR res and immersion. - Can't restart at a checkpoint when loading a chapter after having exited the game. - The controls are clunky and very imprecise. -- While having both teleport and free movement (with snap or continuous rotation) was nice, both are glitchy. With free roam (stick) I was constantly falling through the floor or off edges. And teleport control wasn't precise, had no built in rotation, and didn't handle non-flat sections well. -- If I wanted to be a baseball pitcher, I wouldn't be playing a video game. I'm not talking about the quick game of catch, but the fact this is used as a required teleportation method. With location, accuracy, and how many tries it takes you all mattering (there are timed sections). And the response to angle and speed seemed touchy and inconsistent. And this goes for a half-dozen throws in a row multiple times, mostly that you have to start from the beginning if you screw up. -- The object grab was off center and used trigger instead of grip button. At various points you had to use control small virtual knobs and buttons that lacked clear interaction zones. I found the music machine in Ch 7 impossible, esp because of the big hand glitch. Only another glitch that made me fall through the world and somehow start in Ch 8 let me keep playing. -- Aside from throwing the teleport ball, there's no real reason to stand vs sit. But the game doesn't adjust perspective for a comfortable sitting experience. Lowering the floor just creates the opposite problem.

Aesthetics are amazing, some of the best I have seen in VR. The music is good and the game play and story feel fun so far. Some small glitchy behaviors but nothing game breaking.

**Note** I've only put about 30 minutes into the game, but really wanted to get my review live in hopes it will help boost the game. I'll update my review once I've been through the entire game. It's hard to be disappointed by any real attempt at making a VR Fantasy RPG since there is very little in the way of choice, but even if that wasn't the case, Chiaro would have been on my "must buy list". The visuals are stunning, the dialog is excellent, and the gameplay is above average. There is a lot missing from this game that would make it a AAA title (and I"ll list those below), but I am absolutely loving it so far. If you're a fan of Fantasy and a steampunk vibe, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this one! I'd love to know if the devs have any future plans with this game as DLC or other titles! I am hopeful. Pros: - Set in a beautiful fantasy land - Exploration feels good. - Characters don't seem flat and dialog is high quality - The controls work well. - Interacting with the world feels genuine. Locking/unlocking a firebox, pouring water, carrying tea, this is what makes this game stand out. Cons. - From what I read, it's a bit short (3-5 hours). I wouldn't expect a 60+ hour game, but I'd hope for at least 10 hours - While what you can interact with feels great, some of the things you can't interact with really pulls you out of the world. - The world boundaries (which are invisible) also take away from the immersion. An easy fix for this is to let the player go a little further out, then put a hill, cliff, fence, river, or anything else. It doesn't have to be large, just enough for the player to think "ah, I reached the edge of the area and I can't go that way" instead of "whoa that area looks cool! But...I can't go there..." It's the same idea, but a visual one instead of an invisible one. - The movement system is still a bit buggy. Teleport sometimes doesn't let you go where you know you can go and locomotion freezes up. This is in no way unplayable, and the devs are working on this, but definitely need to mention it. This could also have something to do with my vive tracking, though it's the only game I've had an issue in. Bottom line: Visuals: 4.5/5 Gameplay: 3.5/5 Characters/dialog: 4.5/5 Music/SE: 4/5 Controls: 3/5 (this could be issues with my vive tracking, however) Immersive: 4/5

wow this game looks amazing,great atmosphere and graphics.. I only hope that the smooth locomotion in the next update works great. If so ,then do buy this game this is how vr is done! i tried now a beta update with smooth locomotion... guys let me tell you this... they nailed it! Buy this now and support this game!