Folklore

October 19,2007 - Folklore certainly has a better head start into its release than its predecessor Genji did when the PlayStation 3 launched last year. With a certain amount of anonymity to its credit, the game tries to reel you in with an interesting story, unique graphical style, and good, logical use of the Sixaxis controls as the bait to picking up the game with the crowded fall lineup of games looming ahead. Should you take the bait or look for another tasty treat in the gaming pond?

Folklore starts off with two characters, Ellen and Keats, getting word that something interesting was in the Irish town of Doolin that they need to check out. For Ellen, it was a note from her mother, who had been dead for most of her life. For Keats, it was a hot tip that he could use for a big story for the paranormal publication he writes for. Once they reach the small town, they soon find out that things are definitely not what they seem. A peculiar event happened 17 years earlier that tore apart the town and things are finally coming full circle with their mysterious arrival in Doolin. The town has a secret, in that people with special powers are able to travel to the Netherworld, a place where the living can meet the dead before they move on to, well, resting in peace.

Folklore is broken up into several chapters with the option to progress Keats’ or Ellen’s story every time you finish a chapter. Unfortunately, you’re not going to be able to follow one person’s story through to the end without progressing the other’s story, as well. That means that you’ll also be playing the same netherworld levels, though there will be different folk inhabiting the level for each character to collect and use. Luckily, the two stories are not the same and you’ll see the other person’s activities mentioned enough that your curiosity should be peaked enough to play their side of the chapter, too. Ellen and Keats’ storylines do, however, cross paths a few times. You can then make a decision that alters the other’s storyline once you get around to playing their side of the story. It’s unfortunate that the story is told in a disjointed fashion, with fully-voiced cutscenes being the highlight, but not used enough over the text-filled cutscenes that you’ll see the majority of the time.

Though you may be navigating the same Netherworld levels in search of the Folklore, the different folk you’ll find differentiate how Ellen and Keats play enough that it doesn’t feel that repetitious. Even the folklore, the final boss, requires a different strategy because of the difference in available folk. You will be able to find pages of a picture book as you navigate the Netherworld level that will give you hints on how to beat the folklore, which is a good reason to explore all the crevices of the level for new pages. To add to that, Keats has the ability to transform as the corresponding meter fills up and with the press of the two analog sticks, Keats gains great strength and power that can take down folk more quickly than before. The closest that Ellen has to that are the cloaks she can collect, as she meets the required criteria, that can give her new abilities. To extend the folk action after you finish the game, the dungeon trial mode offer you the ability to create your own dungeons to upload for others to play while being able to download new dungeons to play and gaining points to see how well you rank amongst others on the online leaderboards. You’ll get over a dozen enjoyable hours out of Folklore with more there if you want to max out your folk and find all of the cloaks.

Visually, Folklore is a visual splendor with a certain style that looks great in any of the settings you encounter. From fields of colorful flowers to war zones to an underwater city, you’ll always be in for something new each time you visit a new Netherworld realm. The real world looks good, too, but it’s even more restrictive in what you can interact with that it shows how the developers were able to create such detailed levels. Even the Netherworld levels are broken up into smaller levels to maximize the detail and minimize the hit the engine would take to do the same thing for larger levels. The folk themselves feature the same visual delicacy that makes each folk look unique and interesting. With the small sections in each level, load times are a big concern, but as long as you install the game to the hard drive, you’ll see the load screens for maybe two or three seconds at a time instead of much longer time without the install.

The music of Folklore is certainly a good complement to each level you visit, but it’s not going to blow you away. The town of Doolin has an eerie music playing as you move around town, which fits well with the murder mystery-vibe of the story. The Netherworld levels feature their own appropriate music, though the war zone level features an oddly familiar tune that resembles the Dragnet theme, which is more of an exception to the rule that most of the music in Folklore aren’t memorable, but are still pleasant t the ears. Taking place in Ireland, the cutscenes that star Ellen or Keats show off the nicely down Irish accents. They’re not so thick that they’re understandable, but they’re not completely devoid of any accent at all. That could be a reason why the game relies so heavily on text instead of fully-voiced cutscenes, but still, captions would be the obvious solutions for any thick Irish accents you’d hear.

What you’re getting with Folklore is a solid game that takes a few chances to differentiate itself from the norm and gets most of it right. There’s solid gameplay and depth that are kind of hampered by the requirement of playing both sides of the story and replaying levels twice as a result. The optimal situation would have been to leave that choice up to the players, as an option for those that really want more of that story.

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