Drawn To Life Month
I don't think there's
ever been a video game franchise with a perfect track record. Maybe
it exists. Maybe it doesn't. Keep in mind I said “Franchise”,
which means more than one game, usually more than two. Name a famous
video game franchise. Chances are that it's got at least one bad game. Plus, since
everyone's tastes are different, not everyone will like the same
games. No game is universally loved, no game is universally hated
either. There are just games that are appreciated more, or games that
are disliked more. And when you make a Top X list of your favorite games
in a franchise, your list can be radically different from another
gamer's.
And no, Drawn To Life
doesn't have a perfect track record. But it's an odd case with this
franchise. You see, I consider both versions of Drawn To Life: The
Next Chapter to be part of the same continuity. Even though, it's the
same title, so it's the same game, right?
Wrong.
The Wii version is
extremely different from the DS version. 5Th Cell
delegated another enterprise, Planet Moon Studios, to make the Wii port of The Next
Chapter, while they worked on the DS sequel to their hit game. The
result is two games that are radically different. So different that
you can't count them as one.
Now, I know the ending
of The Next Chapter (DS), and I still consider it to be the end of
the whole series. There's just no way you can add something beyond
that ending that will not feel superfluous or out of place. Which means that The
Next Chapter (Wii) is either a different continuity altogether, or an interquel set between the two DS
games (as the Wii game pretty much states it begins after the first
Drawn To Life game, with Wilfre dead, apparently, Mari having
replaced her father as Mayor, and the saved Raposa still living in
the village – yes, even some of the weirdos, like Crazy
Bark; even Mike is there!). The result is a game that you will probably not understand
unless you've played the first game on the Nintendo DS, a game that
leaves still enough story arcs open that you need the sequel for the Nintendo DS in order to get the full story. And as luck
would have it, The Next Chapter (Wii) just isn't as good as the other
two... Oh, it's not “bad”, just not up to par with the other two.
But I'm getting ahead
of myself. How about we get an idea of the plot in this game?
P.S. I am using screen caps taken from the Let's Play of a user named Jeff J. on Youtube. The link leads to Part 1, but there are 26 parts to watch. If you want to see the full game, watch his LP! |
First the Creator draws
the planet, the sun and the moon. Next, a narrator presents the
Raposa village to us and a few Raposa: Jowee, the adventure fan;
Mari, the Mayor, who replaced her father after he was killed in the
first game; and Circi, the deputy mayor-
Is it me or the 3D makes these characters look REALLY cute? |
Circi, you have no business here! You're an original character! |
Wait. Circi? Who's
Circi? Never heard of a Circi before! Where was that Raposa girl in
the first game? All these questions, and more... will not be
answered today. Or at least, not in depth. All we know for now is
that she's a deputy. Thus, she's close to Mari, and as a result,
Circi is quite important in the story, if only because of her
closeness to the other main characters... who existed before her,
which means she shouldn't be so close to them... right? And if she
wasn't even in the first game, assisting the then-Mayor, why is she
here helping Mari in her mayor duties? Hm, my Mary Sue sense is
tingling... Soon enough she'll be running and jumping through the
platform levels like they're a gymnastics course, going even faster
than the actual hero.
Looks really nice, though. Feels peaceful. Lookie, a smiling sun! Which you would have drawn. |
By the way, you'll
notice something very odd with this game. The hub world – the
Raposa village, to speak in simpler terms – is not shown in a bird's view like it was done in the DS game. It's actually shaped
like a platforming level, with houses scattered around the place,
with the villagers outside their houses. The only bonus is that there
are secret zones that can be accessed with floating platforms, air
currents, and so on. You can also enter some houses to access additional secrets. Okay, it's kind of a good idea, but as a result,
you aren't given all the freedom you had in the original game; one of the first game's strengths was that all NPCs unlocked up to a point
could be found and talked to, and most changed dialog every once
in a while, after major moments of the plot. Here, I don't think you
have that. Here, they do, but some of them don't change much.
Mari looks upset. She
tells Circi that the Book of Life has gone missing, and many other
objects in the village have disappeared. Circi thinks Crazy
Barks took the book, but is afraid of speaking to him. There's a lot
to do and the Raposa are still rebuilding after the damage done by
Wilfre, so Mari asks the Creator to help them once more.
As you'll noticed, Jeff J., who made this Let's Play, has made a character all black with simple lines. A stick figure. I can understand; I can't draw much better in this game. |
Then, you go to the
drawing tool to draw the Hero. One thing you'll notice VERY quickly
in this game: Drawing is a pain. On the DS, it wasn't so bad, because
you could have some sort of precision with the stylus on the touch
screen... but here, the Wii's cursor keeps moving. So straight lines
and pretty pictures are nearly impossible... which defeats the point
of the game in the first place. Your creativity is lessened by the
bad mechanic. Unless you got the drawing pad for the Wii, but seriously, who has that thing anyway? Thankfully, unlike the first game, the developers have
included existing templates for all the objects, creatures and things
you'll have to draw, so you can just select those instead. It still
takes out much of the creativity, but at least you don't wind up with
horrible pictures all around... or black squares everywhere...
Soon on Youtube: Drawn to Life - a bridge! Okay, that was kind of a lame pun. |
The Hero appears and
goes to look for Crazy Barks, but the bridge over a river has gone
missing too! Thankfully, the Creator can draw it as well (or load the
pre-existing template... the developers save the day!). The group
reaches Crazy Barks, who is accompanied by Heather. Did I mention she
learned to speak again thanks to him? No? Whoopsie! At the end of the
first Drawn to Life game, Barks somehow shows her how to speak. She
had been mute during the whole game before that point. Anyway, she
says Barks smelled danger, which is why he took the Book. Circi
doesn't get why the Book is so important, so Mari makes a quick recap
of the first game: Wilfre took it, made his own creations that were
evil, turned evil too, the Creator's avatar killed him, all's well
that ends well.
Obviously he had to draw monsters and skulls and bats. Obviously. Guess flowers, bunnies and kittens weren't for him. |
Action Canvas: They really milk out all the potential that idea had. Seriously, you need a lot of intelligence and a bit of luck to beat this game. |
Jowee theorizes that
Zaz... Sazash... shazsazszhazshazhs... Ash took the lost objects, so
he tells the avatar to go look for the thief in Jangala, the forest
world of the Raposa. Yeah, the worlds have actual names here. Neat.
So, during this first level, the avatar is introduced to the new game
mechanic: Action canvas! Those are canvas located in sections of the
platform levels, in which you can draw lines in to create platforms.
These platforms are vital to avoid endless pits or to get a little
further in the levels. Each action canvas has a limited amount of ink
you can use, so don't make too many lines; however, you can erase
your first line in a canvas by pressing Z within the boundaries of
said canvas, or hold Z inside the action canvas to erase all the
lines. The lines also erase themselves after some time, so act fast. The first level only has blue action canvas, with lines
staying in place, but later levels also have red action canvas, in
which the lines will fall to the ground; for those, you'll usually
have to draw squares or other things so that you can use to reach higher
places; in some cases, your character can even push these blocks
around. Finally, there's also green canvas, in which the lines stay
in place and act like trampolines. Your lines get all bouncy!
By the way, if you
thought the levels in the first DtL game were long, get ready,
because the ones in this Wii game are LONGER. Oh God. No pun
intended, but I'll expand on this a little later.
"Oh oui! Great rewards! Like ze soufflé! Ze éclair! Ze dessert that has an E wiz an accent!" |
The Hero reaches the
end of the level, where he finds Zaz... Ash's mask, and brings it
back to the village. It goes back to Mari to show her the mask. By
the way, this game is special as it introduces another idea that
wasn't in the previous game: Mini-quests! Basically, some of the
villagers will have quests for the Hero. Farmer Brown will want the
avatar to find a plant in a level, Officer Cricket will ask it to
capture many monkeys around a level, and Chef Cookie may ask it to
bring back ingredients for a recipe.
The Hero goes in the
second level and gains a Monkey Tail he can then use to swing around.
When he returns to the village, he speaks to Isaac, who says that the
door to his house is missing... which somehow means there's a wall
stopping him from entering his house. Oooooooh-kaaaaaaaaayyyyy... So
the Hero goes in the third level and finds a door to put there. He
replaces the door, but then reports come that Farmer Brown's banya
crops were also stolen! And the footprints around the farm are shaped
like a monkey's... so the avatar goes in the fourth level to retrieve
the banya.
The Hero comes back,
the Creator draws banya, and then Jowee says that monkeys really did
steal the crops. Mari says they've made a pact with the Monkey King
of Jangala, so it's very odd that the monkeys are causing mischief...
To find the Monkey King, they ask Piratebeard about its location, but
the pirate cannot answer as he has lost his map in Jangala. Here we
go again! The Hero retrieves the map, returns to Piratebeard, and
finally gets to know where the Monkey King is. (We also find out that
Mike has made machines for the Raposa and is traveling to other villages, so we have no
idea where the little 'human' is at the moment.) The Creator's avatar
goes a final time to Jangala, where he reaches the place's boss...
and you get one try as to who it is. If you answer is “The Monkey
King”, well... it's an understandable mistake.
Funny. I thought the Monkey King would be less scrawny. But they got the speech pattern down perfectly! |
After a long level, the
Hero – and Jowee, how he can follow the Hero around is a complete
mystery – reaches the Monkey King, who has gone crazy and captured
Zash... Zsasha. Ah, I finally managed to say it correctly! Actually,
the King isn't gone crazy, he's scared of the Ink monsters. The hero
has to go up the platforms, avoid the rolling balls of purple ink –
which behave like barrels – and defeat the “Inkies”. Hey, is
that a Donkey Kong reference? Dammit, this is about to become a video
game cliché! Either way, the Inkies are destroyed, the King returns
to normal, and the Hero goes back to the village with Zaz....
Zaszsazaszhhh... DAMMIT! Anyway, the thief explains that a shadowy
person tried to steal the mask. Could it be Wilfre? Hasn't he been
destroyed? Is he still around? Oh, this doesn't sound good...
By the way, more
challenges are added by the villagers. Piratebeard gives you timed
challenges, asking you to beat some levels in a certain time limit.
The thief asks you to retrieve some items for him in the levels.
Gotta give that to this game, even though its plot is kind of
unclear, at least the game has got plenty of side-quests for you to
complete. If you manage to remain interested in this game long enough
to complete them, that is. Sadly, it's not my case.
This game suffers from
the basic same problem as the first one. The levels are horribly long. And in fact, they're much worse here than they
were in the original Drawn To Life game. It's sad, in a way, as I
really want to get invested in the story, but here, the long levels
are too annoying. What artificially lengthens the levels is the
puzzle aspect added with the Action canvas. These parts can be very tricky, as you will often need great precision
when you're drawing – and since you draw using the Wii remote,
precision isn't exactly easy. You know, long levels are fine, when
they're used with moderation. But if your game consists only of long
levels – marathon levels, as called by sites like TVTropes – then
you just lose interest. It becomes less of a pastime, it starts
feeling like a chore. It just stops being fun after a while. Compared
to the levels in The Next Chapter (Wii), Drawn To Life's levels are
just the right length. That gives you an idea... I'm using a Let's
Play on Youtube to get my pictures for this review. No level takes
the player under five minutes. They all take between 5 and 15
minutes.
Woah, this looks scarier than Rapo City from the first game! |
Anyway, after the Hero
and Jowee report the reappearance of shadow blot monsters in Jangala
to Mari, she and Circi hope that this doesn't mean Wilfre's return.
But there is one way to be sure: The Shadow City world. Mari tasks
the Hero with exploring Shadow City and look for traces of Wilfre.
They do not find him... but they do find a page from Wilfre's
journal.
Is he in full "CrazyBarksguardshisrock" mode again? |
At his return, the Hero
finds out that Crazy Barks also entered the Shadow City gate and is
lost in there! Guess what: You have to go rescue the guy. Let it be
clear, though, that I'm only doing this because he helped Heather
speak again, like a clown making a traumatized person laugh for the
first time in days.
The avatar ventures
through Shadow City, which is HUGE, and retrieves Crazy Barks. Back
at the village, Heather translates Crazy Barks' speech, which is made
entirely of barks. The crazy one has found a way into the Shadow
Labyrinth, which means... Yep. Another freaking marathon level!
Goddammit! That one ends with the avatar and Jowee discovering a
secret passageway near a giant clock... and that passageway leads
directly to the village. Yep. So THAT'S how the thief can enter and
leave the village so fast! And thankfully it's not Ash...
Also, the secret passageway is located right under a giant grandfather clock. Bonus points for the awesome idea. |
The puppet enters the
world again to get four barrels of Wilfre's bad ink – wait. I
thought he didn't need bad ink, he was just the result of messing
with a reality-warping book... I thought it was normal ink until he
turned evil... I thought it came from him? Oh well. Apparently Wilfre
needed a factory to make all of this work, and it's up and running
again. But who could have done that? Wilfre? But he's dead! ...Right?
...Right.... ...Right...
Haha! We've drawn a mustacke and a goatee on the portrait of Wilfre! Funny! ...Wait. WHO IS THAT? |
As a result, the Hero
enters Wilfre's lair, in search of Wilfre, but he's nowhere to be
found. Though, there are many paintings of him, that you can deface
thanks to the Book of Life. I gave him a Groucho nose! Oh, but
wait... Who's that shadowy Raposa-shaped figure over there? It
doesn't look like Wilfre... But at the same time, it's almost all
black... ….wait, “almost”? That can't be Wilfre! Wilfre is
completely black! Unless...??? No,
it can't be. Wilfre is a sly Rapo, sure, but he's also a ham,
egotistical, filled with pride. He wouldn't be a sneaky little
villain stealing stuff around. No, he would be launching a full
attack on the village with an army of darkness. A literal one, made
all out of black ink. Or he would use dirty tactics to cause chaos.
He just wouldn't work behind the black (no pun intended). Therefore,
I declare the dark figure a “Not-Wilfre”.
Oogie Boogie called, he wanted his character design back. |
Either
way, Wilfre's journal could reveal what he's up to. So guess what?
The Hero returns to Wilfre's lair and goes to look for the journal.
Except when it's found, the Hero accidentally awakes a large ink
monster. Uh oh. The monster is destroyed when the Hero creates
its weak point and then punches it. Thrice. I mean, this has to be
done thrice, you create three weak points. Between each stage of the
fight, the Hero has to climb up, which is extremely difficult with the ink rising fast.
Great storybook-style drawn cutscenes, by the way. |
Once
that thing is defeated, the Hero returns to the village with Wilfre's
journal, pen and pencil. The main trio of Raposa – Mari, Jowee and
Circi; who is still new to the whole series, so she shouldn't be main
character, I stand by my point – starts reading the book. In there,
Wilfre has written that if his first plan fails, there's he could still succeed thanks to a few
Artifacts of Power: The Crystal Mask (uncovered from the Monkey
King), the Pen and Pencil (also found), the Eternal Furnace, and
Branches from the Tree of Ages... Wait a second, there wasn't a Tree of Ages in the first game!
...Whatever. Turns out Creation Ink can be made by burning branches
of the Tree of Ages in the Eternal Furnace, so Wilfre could reshape
the world at his will without the Book of Life.
I still stand by my point: These characters are friggin' adorable. This style isn't helping; I'm really trying to sound like a grown man, but... aaaawwww! |
I
guess the race is on to find the remaining two items before the
villain covered in black finds them!
Tune in Monday.
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