Folklore

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Wow! That pretty much describes this game. Where to begin ...

Visuals: The first thing that will strike you is just how beautiful this game is. Every visual aspect of the game has been lovingly constructed, and it shows. There is a lot of great lighting, and the visuals really set the mood for the game.

Sound: Amazing! The alternates between haunting, wistful, and hectic (battle music) but its always beautiful. Never overbearing, always setting the mood ... its been a long time since I've heard game music this beautiful. Really, words cannot describe how good some of the songs are.

Plot: Great! Wow, finally a game with a GREAT plot. And I do mean great plot. It advances at an appropriate pace, and the 'chapters' that the game is broken up to make the experience of playing the game like reading a good book ... especially towards the end. I read some reviewers blasting the game for gratuitous text and while there is a lot of text, I found it to be the best part of the game. It really was like I was reading a book at points, except the book happens to have beautiful graphics and visuals to go along with it. And this is not a bad thing; in facts its a very good thing. That I can compare the experience of playing this game to reading a good book speaks volumes (ha, pun) to the depth and intricacy of the plot. This isn't just a pretty looking button masher this is a game with soul.

Action: Lots of action if thats your thing ... I actually found myself wishing there was less of it, so I could progress the plot quicker. That said, I do like collecting things in game, so I did get all of the special items, which slowed me down a bit. The action in the game is fun, and fast-paced. However, there are so many folks that you can potentially get, most of them really aren't going to see play. You'll have a few favorites and then some 'special' ones for special occasions. Which is sort of sad, but nothing to really do about that.

Format: I mentioned how the game is divided into chapters before ... this is a really great innovation (I'm not sure if its been done before) in my opinion. After a long hard day of work, I really don't have time to spend hours and hours playing in a sitting ... even on weekends I do have other obligations. Chapters allow me to play manageable chunks, accomplish something, and then go on the next night without feeling like I just paused the game for a day. I had the chance to just play through chapters without taking a break, and that worked really well too. Like reading a good book, the chapters would end at a suspenseful moment, and since you are switching off between Ellen and Keats you get a really good flow going.

Conclusion: This game is great. Hands down one of the best games I've played for any platform. It made me glad I dropped hundreds on a PS3 instead of an XBox 360. However, if you have a short attention span, or just want mindless killing, or some such thing skip this title, its not for you. If like intricate plots, stunning environments, and beautiful music (with a little action thrown in to spice things up) then go and buy this game right away. I cannot recommend this title highly enough it simply blew me away.

I honestly cannot think of any negatives for this game. The only thing that is a remote negative is that the downloadable content is not yet available in the USA. If you're in PAL territory or Japan (maybe all of Asia, not sure) its available though. Also, replay value is not super high once you know the plot you know the plot. However, its is without a doubt worth the money and worth the play-through.

I had the good fortune to play this game on an excellent 1080p hdtv (more than capable of handling the 720p format this game is in), and it really made a difference. While of course you'll still have an amazing experience on any TV, when a game has such stunning visuals as this one does make an effort to play it on an HDTV if you can. :)

So go and buy and play this game ... and have fun! :)

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Okay. I Love this game!!! The fighting sequences are not complicated in any way. Sometimes (always with the boss fights) you have to figure out how to beat the enemies by evaluating a picture. But this is also an easy task.

I have to say whoever made this has a wonderful immagination! I am always interested to find out what the next foe looks like! And the story lines are fun to solve. My attention is never lost.

This is the perspective of a 15 year old female...so I dunno how this will fare with others.

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Folklore is truly a sight for sore eyes. Its a brilliantly told story about a girl named Ellen and a guy named Keatz. You can play both sides of their tale.

The cut scenes are shown in several different ways. One of which is a very interesting comic-book style. Each and ever cut scene is well done and tells the part of the story they are telling very well.

In story, theres a murder in Doolin, the town of the dead, and you must find out why there was a murder while finding out about your past.

Gameplay-wise the game plays well both as an action adventure game with RPG elements tacked on which work great. Only problem is that whenever you switch out your powers there's about a 5 second pause in the action.

If you are wondering about the game download or find someone with the demo on their PlayStation 3.

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Folklore for the ps3 is a ACTION game with very minor rpg elements thrown in. Simply put the action is similar to that of the Kingdom Hearts series, you use a variety of combos to take out your foes. There is no traditional jrpg menu driven combat system in this game. Hence an action/hack n slash title. The reason why this game leans towards rpg is because you can select the types of attacks that you have on hand to use from a variety of attacks that you accumulate throughout the game. Its strong points are the very well executed combat system and the top notch design/graphics/visuals. Where the game falls short is the lack of rpg elements, and a lackluster story. I will elaborate in detail in the following paragraphs.

What is interesting about the combat system is the distinct use of the enemies you defeat. For example the first time you take down the "horned bull" and absorb its "spirit" you can then attack using this spirit and the "horned bull" is visually represented during your attack a few feet in front of your character, visually this is very neat. Furthermore linking together combos from various spirits makes for some distinct gameplay that in my opinion far surpasses the extremely repetitive nature of combat found in games like Kingdom Hearts. There is allot of room for creativity in how and when you combine your attacks/spirits. The combat is very fun and beautifully executed visually, if you are a fan of fantasy styled visuals you will not be disappointed.

Which leads me to what strikes me most about this game, the over all art design and wonderful use of color. The many environments, and various foes look just fantastic. Design wise I would describe the look and feel of this game as Hansel and Gretel meets Final Fantasy meets Wizard of Oz. Very distinct traditional story book vibe meets modern fantasy feel which had me deeply absorbed for the first 5 hours or so simply due to the solid combat and the distinctly gorgeous visuals. Though like most things beautiful that lack "heart", over time the flaws begin to outweigh the visual beauty.

When I said this game is NOT an rpg that is because it isn't in the traditional sense. Your character is in one very small town throughout the game and you interact with a very limited number of characters that you must interact with to unlock the next action driven playable area. There is no open world, various towns, player defined pacing of game play. Which is not a big deal to me, just do not go in with the expectation of jrpg styled exploration. This game is on rails.

And the story. In my opinion the story was convoluted, abstract and bland. There are really no memorable characters in the game. And by around hour 12 I had lost all interest in the unfolding "mystery", I simply didn't care about the story or characters.

That about sums it up Folklore. If you are looking for a different action title to mix into your gaming routine, then I say go for it, the combat is fun and distinct. Again the game looks just great, I am a fan of the art design and the graphics. On the negative side the game itself does not let you "explore", and the story was very hard to follow and boring. The characters are far from memorable and are all image and no heart. I really wanted to love this game as it made such a strong impact at the outset, though over time I just found myself not wanting to "hack it out" to learn more about a story/characters that I simply did not understand/care about. Three star game worth about $15-$20.

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While the big heavyweights tend to have legions of fans ready to pick up the game as soon as it's released, or at least till you've heard about it anyway, some games might have a smaller appeal and it becomes a classic case of "it might not be for everyone". One game that I had read about a lot prior to buying a Playstation 3 was Folklore, an RPG with a different battle system than selecting Attack or Item and a great visual style. So it naturally became one of the first few games that I played and while I'll admit the game has some pluses, the game also has its share of flaws that prevented me from being completely immersed into the experience which was disheartening because I wanted to like it but the game did things where I just couldn't.

Story: You play as 2 characters: Ellen, a soft-spoken young woman who receives a letter from her mother who's supposed to be dead and wants her to come to the village of Doolin and Keats, a writer for Unknown Realms, a magazine dealing in the paranormal who receives a strange phone call requesting he come to the village as well. When the 2 meet, they become investigators into the village's past and the many mysteries that lay in its home and roads.

The story is essentially a murder mystery so it's hard to tell whether the limited replay value will be an issue but my biggest concern is that in order to progress through the game, Ellen and Keats both have to finish each chapter separately which basically means going through the same paths, potentially picking up the same abilities (though slight deviations are found) and finishing the same boss fight with a different strategy than the other. On one hand it's fun to see some background into the parts where you don't see the other character or explanations for certain events, it makes the game feel a bit repetitive and also a bit slow since I couldn't bring myself to complete a chapter at a time, if that. It's intriguing sure but I didn't find it a page-turner, mainly due to the gameplay.

Graphics: Folklore is a game similar to the recently-released Valkyria Chronicles or Okami where the graphics look utterly gorgeous on HDTV sets. Mainly this is due to the color palette which is sharp, incredibly vibrant and well-presented with my favorite being the ethereal Faery Forest which has an absolutely beautiful flower field halfway through. Each chapter takes place in a different realm which are also stunning from the hellish Warcadia to the tranquil Undersea Palace. It's not exactly system-pushing but it's still great to look at.

Sound/Music: The music as well is especially pleasing to the hear from big orchestral scores during battles and the end-level boss to the melancholy piano playing during travels around Doolin which sounds similar to a sad freeform jazz playing. There's no real rousing tunes and the atmosphere created by the soundtrack is like a quiet evening at home with maybe some rain outside. There's some voice acting as well which is fine though it's rather infrequent and there's characters that have barely any lines to be said.

Gameplay: Putting the repetitiveness of replaying the same realm twice, Folklore's main draw is the combo system which uses customizable buttons for attacking. Basically your 4 face buttons acts as a way to initiate an ability that you've mapped onto that button. Throughout the realms are what's known as "ids" which when absorbed gain you access to that creature's ability so some create bombing runs, shoot missiles, powerful punches or act as a shield. With plenty to choose from, it's easy to customize your skills for the most effective though there's some that frankly, are kind of useless. You can also upgrade them by either absorbing a certain amount of them, killing a certain amount of ids with them or using items found in the realms.

And how do you absorb them? Well when you attack, a little blue ghost pops up but when it turns pink, you press R1 and jerk the controller upwards to "yank" their souls out of their bodies. They can also be combined with others showing the pink ghost for more exp though it's a little cumbersome to reposition your character so you'll get them all. There's also some enemies with special R1 tactics where one requires you to yank when it turns red, move the controller back and forth like a driving wheel to slam them into the ground while another has you position them exactly straight up for the greatest of damage. It's one of the few Sixaxis features found in PS3 games that actually has use as opposed to Ratchet and Clank's freefall or Heavenly Sword's Aftertouch system where you can use it though using the analog works better. My one problem is that the process is somewhat lengthy and trying to extract an id doesn't pause the enemies and the effect isn't cumulative so should you get hit, you have to start the whole process over from the beginning so it's best to get rid of the pesky ones before attempting it.

Part of me wants to recommend Folklore since it does quite a few things right, namely the graphics and music, but the incredibly linear story progression as well as the slowness of the story itself kind of prevents this. You don't feel like this is a game you wouldn't mind if you never beat it but if you do want to make it to the end, it's kind of a long, patient affair.