Hirogami

I want to recommend this game but I can't in its current version. First the positive: The game has a good art style and soundtrack. The story telling is nice and doesn't feel artifical. It has characters and isn't just "story to fill the game". The controls are sometimes weird but overall feels nice once you get used to it. Now the negative thing that ruined this story game for me: boss areas do need 10/20/30/40 golden craniches. You can obtain them by running levels and clear specific missions like "Collect 5000 paper" or "Defeat 10 animals". Some of those missions can be cleared first time because you don't have any pressure. But then there are also missions like "Finish the level in 10 minutes" or "Stay above 3 hearts" which you can't complete first try. So you have to replay the mission maybe once, twice or more times... Else you can't go further with the story. I am at 26 golden craniches and need 30 for the next boss. I am stuck because all the easy missions I already did so I only have missions left that I don't like. So I can't proceed with the game unless I try missions that I don't like. This was such a letdown for me that I am softlocked by my own skills for a chill game.

Sigh, I really didn't want to leave a negative review on this game, because I feel in my heart there is something potentially fun to be had in Hirogami's unique origami aesthetic, but unfortunatley the game is bogged down by an issue so ingrained into the game, that I don't think it would be an easy fix. The hardest adversary in Hirogami is its terrible camera angle, and aggravating missions tied to completing the main game. In order to progress through Hirogami, one must collect paper cranes that can be earned in each level, however some of them are locked behind conditions like not falling off a raft, keeping health above a certain threshold, etc. these missions combined with a horrendous camera angle makes them next imposible combined with extremely long levels, Hirogami makes itself a slog to get through, which is a shame, because i think there is some merit to be found in the game.

I'm reviewing this game after the major update of October 23rd, which resolved a lot of the "boss locking" issues mentioned in many other reviews. Positives: [list] [*] Great art style and soundtrack. [*] Solid story telling, doesn't feel forced or artificial. [*] Fun platforming and puzzles [*] Easy enough for casual playthroughs, yet enough of a challenge for completionists. [/list] Negatives: [list] [*] The camera can sometimes be a bit wonky and not give you the best viewing angle for that moment. [*] Couple of small bugs/inconsistencies here and there, but nothing that will stop you from continuing. [/list] Conclusion: Fun platformer with great art and innovative ideas. Give the game a chance if you have the time! For those who stopped playing because of the level locking the major update helps a lot and I hope you can finish it up further.

I'd only recommend getting this on a deep discount if you really want to play it. Was excited to play this because I love the origami art style. The shape shifting to solve puzzles looked awesome too. The first half was great until you needed a certain amount of cranes to advance the story. The game pretty much forces you to replay levels or try to 100% as many levels as you can to meet the next crane requirement to continue with the story. The camera and controls were fine in the first half, but became increasingly buggy the second half. Made it frustrating because the platforming bumps up in difficulty the second half of the game. For instance, I would fall off of something and my camera would still be fixed on that spot, not allowing me to move back over there to try again because it created an invisible wall. I had to purposely die to fix the camera. The button inputs for shape shifting weren't as snappy in the second half as they are in the first half of the game. The second half of the game requires a lot of switching between shape shifts, so I would die when a shape shift didn't change fast enough. Or I would die when it doesn't grab when I press it to grab. Normally wouldn't have a problem dying often, but when you have to meet the required amount of cranes for the next area it becomes annoying because you're trying to clear a stage above a certain amount of health or do a no hit/damage run to earn your crane.

I really enjoy a lot of the aesthetics and music of this game, and found the first half of the game to be quite fun. However around levels 7 I started to feel frustration develop over the controls and hard camera angles making depth perception difficult to make out. I played with controller, and often found myself having the game not respond to my button inputs when trying to shapeshift, which I could mostly ignore until it would happen during platforming segments or battles. The difficulty really begins to ramp up in the later levels, which can be welcomed but at times the difficulty felt like a byproduct of the controls not being as responsive or the camera angles being not very helpful. There is a skill you unlock for one of the animals you transform into that is necessary to progress and became the most aggravating to use when platforming. If you let go of the triangle button the skill ends and I would often find myself letting go due to discomfort at holding the button just to then fall into a pit. I did not recall seeing a setting to make the button a toggle, which if I missed that's my own incompetence, but I really would've liked for there to be that option. Initially I had been trying to replay levels to get more upgrades and materials, but after a certain point it just started feeling not very fun to do. Especially when a majority of the levels have a bonus objective of not taking damage and often getting hit in situations that felt very bs. Otherwise, I didn't have the same gold crane issue I noticed in a few other reviews. The last complaint I have is over the final boss of the game. There were at least two instances where in the early phases a dialogue box would appear needing player input. Now normally this wouldn't be an issue, but for whatever reason the boss would start doing an attack while it was on screen and Hiro would be frozen in place just to get hit no matter how quickly I mashed the dialogue to regain control. This makes getting one of the bonus level objectives extremely difficult to get in a fight that feels very long and not very rewarding to do, which feels crazy to say considering it's the last boss and what you've been building up towards throughout the story. I don't know, I really wanted to like this game as the visuals really spoke to me and the demo was pretty fun. It was really fun to replaying some of the early levels just to casually see how fast I could do them, and going back with new abilities unlocked would be fun at times to see what items I missed or going "Oh now that I have this, I can go check out that level again and see if this let's me get past that one thing!" So I think what most frustrates me after having beat it is that I did like it in the beginning, but as the game went on I just started to feel more and more annoyed with it. I hope the game gets a few updates, and I really hope it does well as I think it really has something going for it. I just unfortunately have been left feeling unsatisfied with Hirogami.

This game is an absolute joy to play! Never heard of it before but stumbled across the demo previously and really enjoyed so was looking forward to the full game. The Origami style graphics are excellent. Has a sort of sackboy vibe to it. The music compliments the game really well too. This is a solid 3D platformer with your usual mini puzzles, enemies to beat and abilities to learn along the way. I love that there are challenges for each level and they are tracked in real time during the level. You can click LB at anytime to see where your tracking at. This is awesome and I wish all games did this with specific level challenges. This is one of those games that just has a special charm about it. You can't quite put your finger on it but it all comes together really well and it's a joy to play. Looks stunning in 4K as too! I hope the developers are making DLC or a sequel is on the cards, as they could build on this and add lots of new features Fantastic game! 👏🏽

Hirogami got a unique art style that uses origami to fold animals shape to get over the platform obstacle. Consider this is the first game from Bandai Namco Singapore the visual is really stunning. As i am still in the early stages, this is more heavy on to platformer game, than focusing on isometric combat adventure, it got a really simple combat mechanic. The story progress through venturing in Chapter stages like in Mario and there missions to do in the stages to get 3 star levels . First Chapter YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbgLspeDEKg Gameplay: Good Graphics: Great Music: Good Story: Fair PC Requirements: Normal

Full Gameplay Walkthrough - https://www.youtube.com/@dualshot66 Hirogami is a charming 3D action-platformer that stands out with its origami-inspired art direction and inventive transformation mechanics. Playing as Hiro, who can fold into animals like frogs, armadillos, and apes, makes traversal and puzzle-solving feel fresh and playful. The visuals are crisp and delicate, evoking the feeling of exploring a living paper world, while the Japanese-influenced soundtrack adds warmth and atmosphere. That said, the game isn’t without flaws. The combat feels serviceable but a bit shallow compared to the creativity in exploration, and some camera issues can occasionally break immersion. Overall, Hirogami is a delightful platformer with a strong identity, perfect for players who enjoy artistic worlds and unique mechanics, even if it doesn’t fully reach its potential. Score: 7.5 / 10

This is a gem.

at first i found the price-tag to be a bit daunting but as i begin to experience the game itself, i can't help but fall in love with the fantastic aesthetic, polished gameplay, and unique origami-themed setting. thus far (in the first levels of the game) we have some relatively simple platforming and puzzle solving employing shape-shifting mechanics. i'm loving it...if that changes, the review will be updated. but so far so good.. update...fell into the pitfalls of nearly every modern platformer by increasing difficulty too much too fast from levels 2-4 always disheartening when one gets into the flow of game and is really enjoying the relaxing gameplay and enjoyable puzzles but then a wrench, like some horrendously tedious platforming section with terrible fixed-camera placements comes up and just ruins the entire experience. so much so that i'm retracting my postive review, uninstalling, and re-labeling this game within my subfolders as one of those that is "difficult to the point of tedium"....after having a great time completing levels that felt great to finish...now finishing levels feels great because i can quite the game (as level completion is the only point where a game CAN be saved)....i just keep replaying levels to hoard reserouces but they haven't served me any purpose thus far (other than to allow me to die dozens of time in a single game before the level progress is reset...which doesnt even matter because you can't save your intra-level progress anyways). gonna refund and maybe repurchase (if i remember it) in a few years when its less than ten bucks and there are mods to get through the unncessary tedious parts. so to be clear, the price tag is not wrong - its just not the game i wanted it to be and expected it to be after playing the demo and the first two levels (and first 3/4ths of level 3 which became unplayable after 30 consecutive deaths). i so desperately wanted this to be a casual platformer with some fun story elements...its a precision platformer with some cool graphics, interesting if not clunky game mechanics (the shapeshifting is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ nightmare in mid combat thus adding to the ultra-difficult precision platforming the game seems to be leaning toward)...i would continue playing the game to give a more rounded review...but i just can't waste more time on this when i can get my money back and play something that is fun AND pretty instead of just "pretty, fun for an hour, rage-quit inducing platforming). final note: it is truly unfortunate for these devs (and most indie devs) that steam's refund policy is going to force me to get a refund before i can get into the meat of the game to see if it balances out or improves because i fear losing my money on something that no longer feels worth it.