For a one man project, this is definitely impressive. Sure, it's a bit flawed and ridden with bugs, but it's still a fun and interesting piece. The game is very enjoyable, engaging and cute, even though it's buggy and unpolished. I had a lot of fun as I left a sense of childlike wonderment guide me through this journey of evil fairies and suffering gnomes. I still have a long journey ahead of me, but I felt like writing this review right away. I may want to change some things as I progress through the game, but I'm pretty sure my positive recommendation will stand.
The game's story, as the title would imply, revolves around a war between fairies and gnomes, the latter of which have been imprisoned by the former. As the sole uncaged gnome, you must set out on a quest to save the other gnomes and retrieve their resources from the evil forces of the fairy queen. I quite like the fairies' character designs, they're appropriately cute in just the right way for a treacherous set of female villains: cute, but never nice. I like the intro scene, with the rock band rocking out while telling the player of the adventure he's about to experience. Overall, the story is obviously no Lord of the Rings, but it does its job well in motivating the hero's journey, and it's rather endearing in its silly fantasy manner.
One thing I noticed right away is that the camera is, so to say, hyperactive. It seems to move with any little thing that happens, constantly trying to follow the character around. It made me a bit dizzy when I started playing the game. Still, I eventually got used to it and stopped having problems. I do think a more modern and comfortable camera layout would do wonders for this game.
The gnomes look like garden gnomes, which is kinda cool in my opinion. The female gnomes could be cuter, they're a bit creepy for some reason. I like that you're given the option to choose your character's gender, I wish more games would do that to help the player identify with the hero. The sceneries look like tiny fairytale landscapes, and the songs are pleasant fairytale-like jams. I really enjoy the setting and the environment of this game, even though it's not too polished nor graphically advanced, as it has a lot of charm and personality.
Gameplay-wise, this is a mix between an action RPG and an N64-esque 3D platformer. You jump around, fight enemies, collect tokens and avoid traps just like you would in a 3D platformer, but you also get to obtain items, upgrade your gear and level up like you would in an RPG. I really like this mix, and I'd love to see more games following this formula.
In every level, you're given three main tasks: retrieve a crystal shard, capture six evil fairies, and release six imprisoned gnomes. The imprisoned gnomes may sometimes be helpful, for instance, when they hand you a cool piece of gear. The fairies may sometimes put up a fight, and their beams can do more damage than most enemies. Anyways, whenever you save gnomes, a few more free gnomes will show up in the hub world. It is so satisfying to "populate" the world like that, but it's a bit of a bummer that not all gnomes will show up in the hub, and some levels will not even get any of its gnomes to show up outside.
Anyways, the levels contain the typical stuff you'd expect find in a hybrid between an RPG and a 3D platformer: platforming sections, enemy groups, tiny simple puzzles, and, of course, tokens. The most abundant tokens you find, which are tiny coins with a spiral pattern, are used as currency to buy new gear and items. Then, of course, there are also the tokens you must get in order to clear a level's missions, like keys to release the caged gnomes, and evil fairies you must catch with a bug catching net. The keys and fairies are occasionally cleverly hidden, but never overwhelmingly hard to find. Overall, the levels are fun and well designed, even though they are a bit too easy.
The level structures are semi-linear, including a main path and a few branching ones. The smaller branching paths usually lead to extra tokens or objects that you need to use in order to progress through the main path. The levels are in general fun to traverse and well designed, and even though they're mostly linear, they'll occasionally contain small secrets to reward exploration and curiosity.
Also, there's a main "hub world" that connects all individual levels, and exploring it may sometimes reward you with 1ups, heart upgrades, spiral coins and a handful of very useful items if you know where to look. I also like how you can ride the cute mice by feeding them cheese, and the freaking airship that you can loan from one of the shops.
The monster groups are usually not too much of a threat if you know what you're doing. In fact, most monster encounters are a bit on the easy side. In spite of that, I'd be lying if I said it isn't satisfying to slash the crap out of evil fiends with swift, smooth sword swings. Not only that, but mastering the balance between melee and ranged attacks may lead to better, more efficient ways to defeat enemies, which in turn may make a level's traversal faster or less dangerous. I really enjoy this battle system, even though it's so simple.
One thing I find really interesting about this game is the element system. You may sometimes encounter crystals that allow you to change elements. That not only changes the element of your attack, but also allows you to interact with different objects and scenery features. For instance, if you're currently with the fire element, you can't jump on blue mushrooms, but you can climb red clouds, and so on. This mechanic lends itself to some nice backtracking sequences that I enjoy a lot.
I also like the key-and-keyhole mechanics of the game: you get to explore new things once you obtain a new power. That comes not only in the form of the element system, but also with certain tools you may pick up along the way. For instance, you can open up certain walls by exploding them with bombs, in Zelda fashion.
The game has its fair share of bugs, and I think I need to cite them here. Hopefully, the developer will get around to fixing those:
- I once triggered the "interact" button while on the options menu when my character was close to a gnome, and a dialog box opened up where the first letter of the gnome's dialog showed up, and for some reason that locked me up and impeded me from closing the menu and returning to the game, which forced me to quit and restart.
- I saw a cage clip through the floor in more than one occasion in the first ice level, I don't know why.
- After I reach the bottom of the slide in that icy hub world, I continue sliding on the non-icy floor, and I have to jump in order to reset back to running mode.
- Fairies somehow make you lose two lives whenever they kill you.
- This is not a bug, but a tiny incorrect information: the default button for accessing the inventory is TAB, not F, like the in-game options menu said.
- You can buy bombs before you can actually use them, as you can only use them after finding a chest that contains them in a level.
- In the music island, you may sometimes get stuck in the dialog box when talking to your groupies.
Overall, I'd say this game is more than worth its price. It is a tad unpolished and easy, but still very endearing, fun and worthwhile. When you keep in mind that this was made independently by a single developer, the game gets even cooler. Also, when I learned that the developer had kids, I kept imagining how awesome it must be to play a game created by your dad. I wish my dad made games for me when I was a kid, but alas, he hates videogames :(
I definitely recommend this game, but only for people whose inner child is still alive. Go play the hero of the gnomes in his journey against fairies in this adorable fairytale setting.
Allow me to fire shots here: this lone dad made a game that I enjoyed a lot more than Playtonic's Yooka-Laylee. Let that sink in.
