In the depths of a labyrinthine ruin, a young girl named Mion rises from a deep sleep. Lost, alone, and with no memory of how she got here or where her parents are, she is greeted by two fireflies—one composed entirely of light, and another who lurks among the shadows. By shifting between a world of light and a world of shadows, these two fireflies must work together to recover Mion’s memories and lead her out of the ruins, where voracious shadow beasts, ancient machines, and treacherous traps lie in wait to bar her path.
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Another old backlog game I tried to get into but just can’t enjoy. It looks beautiful, I like the genre (puzzle platformer) and some of the ideas shown, but it’s executed badly. The controls are the worst aspect of this game. I’ve tried different control methods in the options menu and don’t feel comfortable with any of them. Because of this and due to the way the game is designed, there is a lot of trial and error. Sometimes it’s also not clear what you’re expected to do. I’ve made it up to chapter 3 (out of 4 and there is a 5th secret minor chapter too), I don’t feel like continuing with this.
So, I did an Exhuminator the other week and bought some random Vita game because it looked cool and I'd never seen it before. Though I did look up some reviews online in the store before I checked out, I was fairly interested with a weird-ass title like that, although healthily skeptical given that this is a game published by NIS. I heard of several comparisons to LIMBO, and was warned to change the controls ASAP to version C as to turn off all touch controls and switch them to joy-stick ones. Both of these turned out to be very true.
The comparisons to LIMBO were very apt. It's a very beautifully drawn puzzle platformer that has virtually no text in its story-telling elements. However, the story telling is a good bit more in depth and complicated than LIMBO's, as well as the gameplay. There are cutscenes between each chapter, as well as one memory fragment in each stage which reveals the backstory to what you're going through (you need them all to get the true ending and final boss, but that's not too hard a task with the stage select feature). The story does get fairly dark, and really had me switching on who I was actually rooting for, which I commend, given that its told completely without words of any kind. The simple interactive cutscenes portray their story well, and I was satisfied with the true ending (the regular one is like "wut").
You have a fairy you control with the left stick, and the player character follows it. Follows it down passages, up ladders, can tell her to sit still, interact with objects, the works. You also can toggle the world into shadow with triangle, and move with the darkness fairy through the shadows of the world to activate far-away items or switches. They're fairly neat mechanics and are explored in quite fun ways. There was never a time when I was just completely, unfathomably stuck. There was always some way to progress. The only puzzles I straight up didn't like were the "don't touch the walls" mazes, which could be very annoying because of how somewhat inaccurate the sensitivity with both the touch controls and analog controls can be though. Far from a game breaker though. Just a bit annoying.
Verdict: Recommended. If you enjoyed LIMBO, this is a good one to pick up to scratch a very similar itch. It's not too long a game, and the art and music are great, so that someone could very easily enjoy watching you play a fair bit if you were to slap it onto your PSTV.
The comparisons to LIMBO were very apt. It's a very beautifully drawn puzzle platformer that has virtually no text in its story-telling elements. However, the story telling is a good bit more in depth and complicated than LIMBO's, as well as the gameplay. There are cutscenes between each chapter, as well as one memory fragment in each stage which reveals the backstory to what you're going through (you need them all to get the true ending and final boss, but that's not too hard a task with the stage select feature). The story does get fairly dark, and really had me switching on who I was actually rooting for, which I commend, given that its told completely without words of any kind. The simple interactive cutscenes portray their story well, and I was satisfied with the true ending (the regular one is like "wut").
You have a fairy you control with the left stick, and the player character follows it. Follows it down passages, up ladders, can tell her to sit still, interact with objects, the works. You also can toggle the world into shadow with triangle, and move with the darkness fairy through the shadows of the world to activate far-away items or switches. They're fairly neat mechanics and are explored in quite fun ways. There was never a time when I was just completely, unfathomably stuck. There was always some way to progress. The only puzzles I straight up didn't like were the "don't touch the walls" mazes, which could be very annoying because of how somewhat inaccurate the sensitivity with both the touch controls and analog controls can be though. Far from a game breaker though. Just a bit annoying.
Verdict: Recommended. If you enjoyed LIMBO, this is a good one to pick up to scratch a very similar itch. It's not too long a game, and the art and music are great, so that someone could very easily enjoy watching you play a fair bit if you were to slap it onto your PSTV.
The gameplay is quite unique. You can't directly move Mion, but instead guide her motions as a firefly. This was clearly designed for the ps vita touch screens but it translates pretty well to mouse controls.
The story is quite touching and the overall presentation is very beautiful. It's best to experience that without giving too much away about it; it's quite impressive how it unfolds without any dialogue. There are some interesting and well thought out puzzles as well. The world feels well realized.
My two complaints are that some puzzles require more precision than could be reasonably expected from the control scheme and that two areas have falling obstacles that are semi-random and will kill you with little warning.
The story is quite touching and the overall presentation is very beautiful. It's best to experience that without giving too much away about it; it's quite impressive how it unfolds without any dialogue. There are some interesting and well thought out puzzles as well. The world feels well realized.
My two complaints are that some puzzles require more precision than could be reasonably expected from the control scheme and that two areas have falling obstacles that are semi-random and will kill you with little warning.
SteamDeck then PC with mouse
6 hours (bad ending)
I want to tell everyone to play this game, but you are probably better off watching a video of someone else playing it.
Great setting, it's an atmospheric puzzle horror game with terrible controls. I started the game out on the SteamDeck and finished the first 2 chapters with it. On the 3rd chapter I had to switch to PC. I read other views that mouse is the best way to play this game. Mouse made it much easier to control but it still was frustrating at times.
For a game with bad controls, you need to have very good timing for certain puzzles. You'll die a lot in those parts. Some of the puzzles felt luck based, especially chapter 4's boss fight. Good thing for video recording and .25 playback speed. Even at .25 speed, it was hard.
Even with all those complaints the setting makes up for so much of it, which is why I said you're probably better off watching someone else play it. It's a great looking storybook game. I played The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince last year which I enjoyed a lot. I plan on checking out other games by Masayuki Furuya. I like his art style for games.
6 hours (bad ending)
I want to tell everyone to play this game, but you are probably better off watching a video of someone else playing it.
Great setting, it's an atmospheric puzzle horror game with terrible controls. I started the game out on the SteamDeck and finished the first 2 chapters with it. On the 3rd chapter I had to switch to PC. I read other views that mouse is the best way to play this game. Mouse made it much easier to control but it still was frustrating at times.
For a game with bad controls, you need to have very good timing for certain puzzles. You'll die a lot in those parts. Some of the puzzles felt luck based, especially chapter 4's boss fight. Good thing for video recording and .25 playback speed. Even at .25 speed, it was hard.
Even with all those complaints the setting makes up for so much of it, which is why I said you're probably better off watching someone else play it. It's a great looking storybook game. I played The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince last year which I enjoyed a lot. I plan on checking out other games by Masayuki Furuya. I like his art style for games.
This game makes me sad. It's not because of the cryptic and morbid narrative, nor is it because of the beautifully dour environments. It's because the game isn't fun. I'm not looking to start an argument over the topic of "some games aren't meant to be fun"; I mean that the gameplay isn't enjoyable to me in any capacity.
The gameplay reminds me of two different Nintendo DS games. First is Kirby Mass Attack, because you guide your character via a floating, glowing object. Second is Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, because you freeze time and use normally unseen paths to activate distant objects. These ideas are both squandered by a few major flaws, though. Mion is extremely slow and unresponsive to lead around. She's also constantly in life-or-death situations. Unclear trial-and-error puzzle solutions where one mistake results in what feels like entire minutes of undone progress. I would compare this style of game to something like LIMBO (scary atmosphere, child MC, high risk situations/puzzles), but in that game you have direct control of your character. Any moments of clever design in this game are constantly undercut by being forced to do them over and over until you're sick of it. I'd argue it undercuts the interesting aspects of the narrative too. You spend so much time feeling foul about the gameplay that it overwrites the good stuff.
You may be asking, "Hoob, if you hate this so much, why did you keep playing it?" Well, I was drawn like a moth to a flame after reading that the team at NIS that made "The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince" made this first, and I am here to tell you that they learned from pretty much all of their mistakes in that game. I see bits of that game in The Firefly Diary, like the beautifully dark aesthetic, or Mion's mannerisms. As harsh as it'll sound, that's the most praise I can give this game. I'm glad the team behind this went on to make more enjoyable, memorable experiences afterwards.
(Also what the fuck is up with that English title? After staring at it for a good while, I understand that it's meant to be the Japanese title, "Hotaru no Nikki", but what sane person would realize that without looking it up? I'm glad that subtitle was there, because would you, the average consumer, buy a game called "ntSo@kPy"? I wouldn't think so.)
The gameplay reminds me of two different Nintendo DS games. First is Kirby Mass Attack, because you guide your character via a floating, glowing object. Second is Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, because you freeze time and use normally unseen paths to activate distant objects. These ideas are both squandered by a few major flaws, though. Mion is extremely slow and unresponsive to lead around. She's also constantly in life-or-death situations. Unclear trial-and-error puzzle solutions where one mistake results in what feels like entire minutes of undone progress. I would compare this style of game to something like LIMBO (scary atmosphere, child MC, high risk situations/puzzles), but in that game you have direct control of your character. Any moments of clever design in this game are constantly undercut by being forced to do them over and over until you're sick of it. I'd argue it undercuts the interesting aspects of the narrative too. You spend so much time feeling foul about the gameplay that it overwrites the good stuff.
You may be asking, "Hoob, if you hate this so much, why did you keep playing it?" Well, I was drawn like a moth to a flame after reading that the team at NIS that made "The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince" made this first, and I am here to tell you that they learned from pretty much all of their mistakes in that game. I see bits of that game in The Firefly Diary, like the beautifully dark aesthetic, or Mion's mannerisms. As harsh as it'll sound, that's the most praise I can give this game. I'm glad the team behind this went on to make more enjoyable, memorable experiences afterwards.
(Also what the fuck is up with that English title? After staring at it for a good while, I understand that it's meant to be the Japanese title, "Hotaru no Nikki", but what sane person would realize that without looking it up? I'm glad that subtitle was there, because would you, the average consumer, buy a game called "ntSo@kPy"? I wouldn't think so.)
I'll declare right here and now that I'm an absolute sucker for these small games NIS gives us. And even if the story is not the best or not the most captivating out there, the visuals are worth it a hundred times over.
So this time we got ourselves a little girl with horns traversing dangerous post-apocalyptic factory following the green firefly. That's the only motivation she got and that's absolutely fine by me. Yeah, the story later unravels and brings to light its collection of closet skeletons but you just want your girl to survive. I mean, look at her go with that umbrella!
Unfortunately, the controls suck a major ass. Even more so when game throws you a labyrinth for you mouse and starts violently moving camera right at the moments you don't want it to. Also I cant believe how fucked up the boss in fourth chapter is. I mean, you have to perfectly go through twenty-four (24!) rounds guessing right in a shell game with each round going faster. There is no way I could've completed it without my dude OBS and its recording superpower.
So yeah, rough around the edges, borderline unplayable sometimes but still charming and making me smile. And I think that's totally worth it and want to thank our NIS overlords.
So this time we got ourselves a little girl with horns traversing dangerous post-apocalyptic factory following the green firefly. That's the only motivation she got and that's absolutely fine by me. Yeah, the story later unravels and brings to light its collection of closet skeletons but you just want your girl to survive. I mean, look at her go with that umbrella!
Unfortunately, the controls suck a major ass. Even more so when game throws you a labyrinth for you mouse and starts violently moving camera right at the moments you don't want it to. Also I cant believe how fucked up the boss in fourth chapter is. I mean, you have to perfectly go through twenty-four (24!) rounds guessing right in a shell game with each round going faster. There is no way I could've completed it without my dude OBS and its recording superpower.
So yeah, rough around the edges, borderline unplayable sometimes but still charming and making me smile. And I think that's totally worth it and want to thank our NIS overlords.