Drawn To Life Month
Hello, and welcome back! Now, we know Wilfre's goal: Find legendary artifacts that will let him make special ink so that he can reshape the world as he wants! Uh oh. That's not good. Thankfully, if the Hero gets those items first, then Wilfre's plan will be thwarted. We've got a Crystal Mask and a pen and pencil, now we need the Eternal Furnace and branches from the Tree of Ages. Only problem: It's not actually Wilfre, in my opinion, so the heroes are facing a “Not-Wilfre”, if you will.
Piratebeard
always seems to know where to find legendary items, so the Hero goes
to ask him where to get the Eternal Furnace. The pirate, jolly as
ever, says that it can be found in the Icy Wastes, the third world.
So the Hero goes through the Gate to the Icy Wastes.
We need skates? Go figure. No, wait. Go figure-skating. |
But
for some heroes, it's not enough, so after they return, Mari tasks
the Hero and Jowee with finding ice skates in the Icy Wastes' next
level. Because it's an ice world and it's slippery.
The
avatar ventures into the second Icy Wastes level, finds the skates,
and finds out that they're really great! Using them goes faster than
running!
Talking
about speed... kind of an odd timing to bring this up, but there's
another reason I'm not a fan of this game. The loading times. Before every level, after every level, as
well as before and after you go into Canvas Mode to draw an object,
there is a loading screen that can take up to ten seconds. I didn't
pull out my chronometer or anything, but I can tell you, those
loading times are pretty bad. We've got to be thankful, though; It's
not as bad as, say. “Sonic '06” (just a random example, I assure
you; no, really! I swear!), but it's still kind of annoying.
What
doesn't really help, either, is that every level asks you to draw
many things. Oddly enough, most of the time, each level will contain
one, maybe two important things, like platforms, buttons, tools...
But all the other things you can draw are just decorations for the
level. What's the point? If there's no point in drawing those things
aside from “It looks pretty”, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna do it. In
the first game, everything you drew in the levels had a purpose.
Everything you made would help you go forward. The decorations were in
the village, and even then, most of the time you just had to color a
picture that had been made already. Here? Sorry, the decorations are
pointless. Yet another reason why this is the lesser one of the
series.
You'll still have Cookie's banya foods- Oh. |
Wedding? The Creator wasn'r told about this! Who are you? |
The
Hero and Jowee come back with the frozen rose, only to find out that
Mike has returned from a trip (apparently, he was gone helping other
villages, or stuff, because he's all about machines and has helped
the village a lot even though they still treat him like the
“weird-ear guy”). But as soon as he arrived, we went though the
Icy Wastes gate to look for the Eternal Furnace. Because obviously a
human can survive in the cold without any winter gear.
Still,
after another long level, the Hero finds Mike, who says he knows
where the Eternal Furnace is. Thank God, only one more level in this
snow world!
I swear, that dark creature's shape is familiar... |
If
that shadowy creature attacks the Tree of Ages, things could get
ugly. And black all over. So the avatar's new task is to reach the
tree. For this, it has to enter the gate leading to the Eastern
Winds, a set of floating islands. Sadly, it's nearly impossible to go
through these levels without wings, so take a wild guess what your
first task is.
This is a fight-or-flight situation. Or it's both at once. |
In
this tedious level (By this point, they all feel needlessly long),
the Creator draws the windmills' blades, and they appear on all the
windmills in the levels. They also appear on the windmill in the
village. Phew! But now, another problem appears. The lighthouse has
stopped functioning, and as Mike says, this could be dangerous for
the crews aboard incoming ships at night, as they would not see where
to go. But since there doesn't seem to be a way to repair the
lighthouse yet, we'll have to resort to Crazy Solution A: Use
ultra-powerful fireflies in a bottle.
And on the way to the fireflies, we see even more puzzles. It's really not the place for that. |
Either
way, the Hero and Jowee (who really tags along for every single
freaking level, ain't that weird?) go on the hunt for fireflies and
come back with a bottle full of them. Great! Now, we hear that Cookie
wants to ask the husband and wife to-be what kind of cake they'd
like... But the lovers are nowhere to be found. They went to look for
places to spend their honeymoon... and thus they ventured into the
Eastern Winds gate into the next level. AND OF COURSE, YOU HAVE TO GO
GET THEM.
Carried away? You're lucky to be still alive! You IDIOT. I think this game annoys me... |
Doesn't
matter. The Creator's puppet goes to save them and comes back. Let's
get down to brass tacks: Time to look for Wilfre! Galileo (remember
him?) has spotted large ink monsters deep into the Eastern Winds, so
the Hero has to go investigate and defeat them, if these things
really are monsters. And gosh were there a lot of monsters! I sense a
final confrontation coming...
Once
the giant black bats are defeated (in a level with a puzzle that
takes minutes to be completed – as if the levels weren't already
long enough!) and the Hero returns to the village, Mari urges it to
get the branches from the Tree of Ages, FAST!
Hey,
I'm gonna try to do it fast, but those levels are way too long! I'm
sorry if it takes me more than 10 minutes, okay?
By
the way, I almost forgot to add this: You know I praised the B-plot
of the original Drawn To Life game, with Mari struggling in her
training as new Mayor, and feeling too much weight on her shoulders?
Well, it's not there as much in this game, but it's definitely there.
Mari is very stressed, she still has problems stopping quarrels, the
thing with Wilfre's return is deeply affecting her... She's almost a
secondary character this time around, but at least the game acknowledges that she
is still a young Mayor who cannot yet do everything right and still
feels the pressure caused by Wilfre's attacks. Or, rather,
Non-Wilfre's attacks. Whichever you see fit. She didn't go from
beginner Mayor to great Mayor in the timespan between the two games,
and that's pretty good. Kudos to this game for incorporating that
aspect.
The
Hero and Jowee go in the last level of the game... and discover that
the Tree of Ages has vanished! Oh no! How can we solve that? Well,
the avatar finds a canvas that let him draw an acorn from which will
grow the Tree of Ages. Further in the level, you draw a rain cloud to
pour water on the acorn. Yep, we'll make it grow.
Hey!
After
the tree has grown back, you find a canvas to make the leaves, and voilà, the Tree of Ages is complete and ready to give some of its
branches. FINALLY! (Side-note: That last part of the level had many
puzzle elements that made the level freaking long. Like, half an
hour, maybe more. 30 MINUTES FOR A SINGLE LEVEL, DAMMIT. I was
tempted to use the worse F-word, that's telling you how much I hated
that part!)
The
avatar and Jowee return to the village victorious, with the branches
from the Tree of Life. At the village, Circi goes to the City Hall
and starts... gloating? She has all the legendary items? She calls
Wilfre “my snookums”???
WHAT
THE HELL?
Okay, I knew I had a reason to hate you, I just wasn't sure what it was. Now I know. |
What
the Hell is wrong with these girls who fall for dark, brooding types?
“I can change him, I can change him”, screw that crap. I'd make
an Edward Cullen joke here, but it's not even worth it! Circi, you're
betraying your entire species only to bring back the one you consider
your love... even though he is the one who almost brought this entire
world to extinction, and by going his path, you're becoming just as
awful as he was!
You loved that egotistical jerkass? ...You have issues. |
But
now, it's time for the final boss fight! The river of black goo has
covered the village, all the Raposa are in danger! And the Crystal
Mask is controlling the goo monsters! As a result, the final boss in
this game actually looks like a voodoo doll made out of a mask, a
furnace and branches. Points for the creativity... I suppose...
The Crystal Mask as a head, the furnace as body, the branches as limbs... We've got a ridiculous monster here! |
Holy crap, that thing is huge! |
The
river of black ink vanishes along with the Legendary Items and Circi,
whose body is never found. Jowee is all happy to see the darkness
gone, and then praises Mari's leadership for leading them through
this new crisis. And does the Creator get any from of reward?? Nope. Everyone in the village celebrates.
The
end!
Well, gee, learn not to trust every single Raposa you meet. I got a bad feeling you're going to meet some undesirable Raposa folks sometime soon. |
THAT HAIR! I KNEW I HAD SEEN IT SOMEWHERE! |
What
makes me cringe is the playability. The levels are long and tedious,
and when I say it, I really mean it. The original game ended with
rather maze-like levels, but remained simple. For this one, the
levels turn into mazes pretty early on, though it's still simple to
navigate... until you reach the puzzle parts of the levels. To go
with Action canvas, the developers have put in a lot of puzzle
elements. Many of the things you create through the journey also come
and take a part into the puzzles. Sometimes, in order to progress,
you need to solve a puzzle that will then grant you access to the
next zone. Here's the problem, though: With the many canvas scattered
around the worlds and the length of the levels as they are already,
adding these puzzles only makes them LONGER and, as a result, even
more annoying. I'm all for smart platforming with puzzles, but don't
make your levels too long! You've got 24 of those! You think it's not so bad? Each level takes minimum 5 minutes, not counting the canvas. If you get stuck at a puzzle, it can take even longer. And the final level? Filled with those goddamn near-impossible levels!
Talking
about the canvas, I mentioned this before: In many of the levels, one
or two canvas are important and required to complete the level. The
others? Filler. There's over three canvas in every level, but most of
them are just decorations. What's the point of those? There is no
point to those. They just make the levels go on for even longer
because you can't always tell, on your first playthrough, whether or
not you'll need that object later. It lengthens the levels for no
reason other than “add something pretty!” The only one I actually
did was defacing Wilfre's paintings. Because those were funny, at
least.
I'm
not even getting on the subject of the loading screens! There's so
much loading in this game that you'll find yourself rolling your eyes
each time it happens. As I said earlier, it's not long, but it
happens often enough to be annoying by the end. Again, this isn't
“Sonic '06”, it's not an extreme amount of loading, but it's
still pretty bad for a Wii game.
There's
no major good song in this game, nothing that elevates above any
other. The graphics look very nice, though. The worlds are still very
detailed, and the switch from 2D to 3D has been done perfectly. These
levels might be long, but many are drop-dead gorgeous. I even like
the 3D models of the Raposa! They look like cuddly dolls! Or
plushies! They all look adorable! 5Th Cell's got some
merchandising to do with these! Circi fell for Wilfre, how many girls
would buy a Wilfre doll??? Or any Rapo-doll, in fact? I want a Mari
doll and a Jowee doll, right now!
I'm Rapo-bored. Let's Rapo-do something. Let's play Rapo-sports on a Rapo-Wii and try to give a Rapo-damn! |
By
the way, I should mention the mini-game mode, which has been added to
this game: There's a Raposa Coliseum in which you can play four
different sports with a friend. Wait a second, Drawn To Life with a
multiplayer option? Nonsense! However, I must admit that while the
four sport mini-games don't interest me much, it's definitely a nice
touch. Fed up of the levels? Blow off some steam in a soccer match!
Or hockey. That works too. After all the stupid, I'm in the mood for some hockey violence. I'll just imagine that the ones I hit are the idiots from this game. |
Final words, this isn't the best game I've played, nor the worst. This is definitely not the best Drawn To Life game; in fact, if I ranked the three games on a list, I'd put the DS games in first and second place, and this one would be third. Sorry, this is “the worst” Drawn To Life game; but truth be told, I'd rather call it “the least good”. The plot is just okay, but the platforming has many problems, and it doesn't really hold up as well in comparison to the other two games in both these fields.
Also,
I think it lacks something major... But what... Oh wait, I know: It
lacks a tear-jerking ending sequence accompanied of a song! How could
they forget that?
Eh,
it doesn't matter. I like to put this game as part of the Drawn To
Life continuity, but you could just skip it and play the two DS
installments of the series. You're not going to miss much.
Tune
in this Friday for my review of The Next Chapter (DS)!
“But
wait, Nicolas – Didn't you say you didn't have that game?”
Indeed
I did say that, but it's not technically a full review. I look at the plot of
the game, which I'll try to fit all of it in one
post (Maybe it'll take two parts, though), and then I will talk about the ending(s).
“There
were two endings? I didn't know that!”
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