Gnomes vs Fairies: Greckel’s Quest (GvFGQ/GvF) is a game asking to be judged more so for its gameplay than its story, but it's still a pretty good time all around. The game follows in the vein of Spyro-esque games that rely on a loosely guided plot while prioritizing fun and engaging gameplay. In this regard GvF achieves what it set out to do while falling short in a few key moments, and I believe it's fair to orient a review around gameplay/balancing.
Gnomes vs Fairies: Greckel's Quest is an indie game best compared to a 3D action platformer, but realistically anyone that grew up playing late 90s/early 2000s collectathon style games (Banjo Kazooie, Spyro, or even Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga) will have a good baseline for comparison of what feelings this game is trying to evoke. Each section of the game is segmented into 4 distinct worlds linked by 1 central hub that visually displays your progress through each. Each world further has 3 levels (with 1 shared state level between worlds) that consist of 2 separate 6-item collectathons and typically 1-2 abilities. Progress is linear as you progress the game one world at a time.
In GvF you play as a gnome, Greckel, armed with tools and a magic staff and sword tasked with facing the big bad boss of the level to earn back a piece of an element crystal. Along the way Greckel collects boots, capes, swords, and hats that augment his natural abilities in various ways. These can include running faster, increased magic damage, wall jump, triple jump, flight, etc.. The main gameplay gimmick is that for most of the game you have 4 different magic elements to choose from, and will frequently find doors or obstacles that require a specific element, but Greckel may not be the right element to activate it leading to a puzzle where the player has to find a “power crystal” to convert themselves to the right element sometimes multiple times for a single door. Gameplay-wise, changing elements gives you a different damage type, a different strong sword attack, and lets you interact with and activate that element's part of doors or obstacles.
Most gameplay that isn't element-based puzzles is, broadly speaking, either a collectathon evoking a thematically similar puzzle of trying to find an item/get to a part of the map, or combat that frankly wasn't all that engaging. The collectathon aspect was the real meat-and-potatoes of most levels, and leads into the first serious compliment I'd give the game: The level design is stupendous especially for being what seems to be a close to first time project with not a lot of hands on deck. Traversing the levels and figuring out their gimmicks and different gameplay tricks was fun and where the game shined most.
That being said, I did have to critique how the combat fell flat. Enemies don't react to you hitting them and there's enough health upgrades throughout the world that realistically by half way through the game you shouldn't find most enemies a threat, and by the time you finish the game you should pretty much have to try to die. Also I think some enemies have elemental weaknesses, however, by about the halfway point I found the feature almost entirely optional if not pointless. There's not really a serious difficulty curve and I never had a boss where, even if they did have a weakness, I felt it was critical to my success that I use the element they're weakest to. Overall combat feels like it's best treated with little thought: the game is attempting to be a mildly challenging power fantasy, not a dark souls, and that's alright.
GvF does have some slight balancing issues I'd critique:
-Health doesn't matter about halfway through the game. I had no fear of dying and the lives (which reset every time you load the save) themselves felt superfluous especially after getting flight.
-Unless I misunderstood the game is completely linear? I think there's no reason to gatekeep how the player progresses after, say, completing the ice crystal, and I can't easily spot some design aspect that would require the game to have those gates.
-Some of the abilities (I.e. wall.jump) felt like sidegrades– not upgrades. Some abilities (i.e. chromatic shield) I also didn't use once. I think there's telegraphs for when to use these items made available. I just don't believe they were readily accessible to the player.
-Those boulders on the final lava level as well as the lava before the lava world do an absurd amount of damage and present an unintentional difficulty spike.
-Airships are a neat idea but break and disappear unless I ram the ship into nearby collision and come to a complete stop before getting out.
-The “element conversion crystals” felt neat but never really required.
-After a player finishes the game they should have some compass or guide to show them items they may have missed. I got every crystal, gnome, fairy, and shop and level item but still have 91% which would be fine but games in the collectathon genre should have some way to ensure the average player can guarantee themselves 100% completion, which doesn't currently seem possible.
I want to be clear that GvF is actually a really good game that unfortunately struggles from not having much of a budget. The game is fun, unlocking the abilities and exploring the levels and the developer’s ideas is fun, and finding the collectables in each level is fun. It's just hindered by the lack of polish and balancing that one would only realistically expect from a AAA studio.
Overall I did actually really enjoy GvF even if I think it has some teething pains. The game had been in my backlog for quite a while, but I'm glad I finally got around to playing it. I think this game, especially at its current price point, is well worth anyone's time and is fun and a confident demonstration of what one person developer can accomplish.
8/10 would recommend.
