Chiaro and the Elixir of Life

Colorful and charming adveture. I liked it a lot.

I wanted to like this game as it does appear to be interesting and the music really is nice but it doesn't feel like it's worth the $30 they're asking for it. Upon first playing I ran into one consistent bug, the sound for the cutscene wouldn't play. I had to open the Steam menu and then close it just to get it. The cutscene was also very strange being a movie played on a curved black wall that could oddly be moved around if you touched the touchpads. The controls seemed rather odd as well but that could just be Valve's attempts to integrate the WMR headset into their platform. Interacting with the world around you was especially strange. Around Chiaro's home were these frog-like slug creatures you could pick up. Tossing or dropping them they just went into this weird pose and remained like that. Carefully setting them down they immediately went back to sleep as if you weren't ever there. Assembling Boka as well didn't feel very interactive. Grab a part, carry it to the right spot and it "pops" into place with the accompanying popping sound. What killed it for me however was after assembling Boka the scene fades out to transition into day as you wake up. I had the nice surprise of falling through the floor and terrain. The only way to resolve it was to force quit the game since I couldn't see the book to choose to exit. Side note about the book, it's a neat little touch. If only the controls weren't so overly sensitive however... But again that may have been because of the Windows Mixed Reality controllers. While I wouldn't recommend the game I wouldn't say avoid it either. If it goes on sale maybe pick it up. There might be community patches for the bugs that it seems the developers have yet to fix. But for me I'm going to apply for a refund and pick out something else.

Took me a bit to decide whether to recommend the game or not and, in the end, had to go with no. Game is pretty short (like 2-3 hours short) and it doesn't really have much going for it. It’s a story puzzle game that has neither an interesting story nor particularly interesting puzzles. They have a really neat concept with the knife but failed to deliver engaging content for the vast majority of the game. It's also not nearly as pretty as the screenshots on the steam store page make it out to be but if you leave the well beaten path (which you're encouraged to do with the collection mini game), you'll quickly find all the repeat textures and bland environment surrounding the tunnel that’s been provided for you. I didn’t enjoy Boka much either; not that the character was bad but it was neither particularly likeable nor particularly interesting. You're intended to feel for your companion but, unfortunately, the connection with your alive machine is not developed so there is no real attachment to it. Even despite all that, I'd probably have given it a 'buy it if you can get it for a couple bucks' if not for the bugs. The game soft-locked on me twice and, since there's no save, you just have to start the chapter over again. Overall, its probably still worth picking up for $5 or if you have a youngling who's easily impressed but cant recommend it. There are better 'experiences', better stories and better gameplay out there to spend your money on.

I'm about half-way through the game. The voice acting is good, graphics are good (cartoony), DEVS are planning teleportation and smooth loco (tele only now), music is light piano music (acceptable). The game is charming and often feels like a child's game, but with puzzles too hard for most kids. It wants to draw you into a story line about living machines, a great war between machines and humans, magic elixir, etc., but because of the childlike nature of the game with a silly penguin robot, I was getting mixed signals. It takes place in a devastating post-apocalyptic setting (complete with your parent's graves in the front yard) mixed with lighthearted humor and fun adventures with a slapstick sidekick. Overall I enjoyed the game so far, and recommend it primarily because is has a fleshed-out story campaign that offers some unique VR game play with a portal tool, and pretty good AI for the penguin. There is no combat in the first half, and really nothing scary or shocking. The puzzles are moderately difficult, and occasionally irritating, with a lack of direction for what the DEVs have in mind as a solution. One example is having to climb a mountain side with the portal tool, and even though I can throw the tool to the top of the cliff, it won't allow me to teleport there, because there must be some "special" way to get there. Recommended if you want a charming puzzle adventure game, especially if it goes on sale.

Chiaro is what VR was meant for. It has an incredibly immersive world, delightful music, and some physics-based gameplay. My only complaint is that you can't save mid-episode and have to repeat it if you stop during it, but that is so minor. Buy this game if you want to play something that just makes you feel good.

This is a cute title that is very much like being part of a children's fairy tale. You play as Chiaro, a boy in search of the Elixir of Life that will restore life to the machines long since wiped from the realm. Some areas have a lot of detail graphically while others not so much and remind me of an earlier, simpler video game era. The puzzle elements are not particularly tough, but the Steampunk theme and story are interesting enough to continue on through the chapters. It's very much a kiddie fantasy game and I enjoyed it for what it is.

Es wäre ein tolles Spiel wenn es nicht so buggy wäre. (W.M.R.) Es passiert immer wieder das Objekte einfach verschwinden, nicht in der Position zum nutzen ist oder nicht nutzbar sind. Auch kann man sich an gewissen Stellen teleportieren welche man danach nicht mehr verlassen kann. Habe mir ein HowTo angesehen und die Dinge, welche man finden soll, einfach nicht da sind. Z.B.: Wenn ich mit dem Ruderboot irgendwo anlegen ist es nach dem Aussteigen nicht mehr da. Am Anfang dachte ich, bin doof und kriege es nicht hin, aber nach mehrmaligen Neustarts ändert es nichts an der Lage. Auch eine komplette Neuinstallation brachte es nicht. Schade, sieht echt toll aus.

Chiaro Review: Chiaro is a light hearted and charming adventure game through a unique and beautifully designed world. Visually, the game is beautiful. I would say the VR hardware (OG Vive) holds it back from looking better as the screen door makes everything blurry even when highly supersampled. It’s a shame and makes me look forward to a next gen headset that will really allow games like this to shine. With regard to the gameplay, Chiaro feels very simplistic. You spend most of the time searching for objects or using items from your inventory to solve puzzles and progress the story. There is a really neat item which you get further in which allows you to create portals as well as throw explosives. This item really improves the gameplay and makes the latter half of the game much more enjoyable! The level design is also very impressive. You really feel like you’re in this fairytale world and I was especially impressed by the amount of verticality in the later levels. The characters are also done really well. The main character sounds like Elijah Woods, although I don’t think it is. The one thing that did bother me however was the ‘jank’ factor. Playing it on Vive was a sub par experience. This is due to the ‘throwing’ mechanic just not working right. It’s baffling they wouldn’t fix it as the game relies so heavily on this mechanic. Not being able to throw correctly is infuriating enough to make you want to rage quit. I also encountered a few minor bugs where my hands would suddenly be way too big. Also, the gray Vive screen appears often- usually while loading a new level and it’s very jarring and immersion breaking. Overall, I was at least interested enough to see the game through to the end. If you like simple light hearted adventure games with interesting characters and varied mechanics then this game is worth the sale price, although I would suggest Vive users pass due to poor controller implementation.

Without Chinese, I feel bored, it is inconvenient to throw, too little fighting content, too much dialogue, general quality and disappointment.

Was great and whimsical at the start, but as I made more progress the bugs started appearing. Over sized hands and constant falling through the ground. No sign of the devs for months. Until they make an appearance and fix these bugs I have to give it a big thumbs-down. Shame really as it seemed so promising at the start. Buying from steam can really have a risk to it. I don't recommend anyone purchasing this until they fix the problems. Cannot continue until they do! 4/10