Drawn To Life Month
Hello, and welcome back for the finale! Yeah, last Monday, I stopped after I saw a vampire Raposa. Well, guess what? Not only is there really a vampire Raposa, but he feeds on tomato juice! Ha! No, wait, "Tovato" juice, actually. Also, Count Choco (yeah, that's the vampire's name... No, I haven't ever eaten Count Chocula cereal... but I kinda see where the reference comes from) had a page for the Book of Life. It's a page for Kaorin berry bushes, which are dangerous. The Creator decides what they look like. Also, Samuel apparently knows how to use the berries, so the Creator's puppet goes to get him.
Those berries make you grow? That's berry hard to believe. |
By
the way, I should clarify something: How many levels are there in
this game? Fifty? Don't be silly. Forty? Nope! Twenty! Still a little
lower... Ten? More than that... In fact, there are fifteen actual
levels. Four in each world, with the first three worlds having an additional "boss level", and the fourt one having a final level with a boss (Wilfre) at the end. Yeah,
there are only four worlds in the game. I complained earlier about
the length of some of these levels; Well, some are still long and
tedious, but thankfully there isn't that many levels, so in a way,
it's really not as bad as it seems. Fifteen seems like just the right balance. (Plus, with one important Raposa joining the cast each time.)
Maybe you're the one who should stop coming closer! |
...notices
it has grown to gigantic size! Wow, a perma-Mega Mushroom! Gotta send
a few of those berries to Mario! On its way through the level, the
avatar finds a young character shaped like a Raposa... but it doesn't
have the trademark ears. ...Wait, what? Also, he's got a spiky
haircut. Apparently he's called Mike.
Ah,
come on.
Nope,
try again.
Now you're not even trying. Urgh.
When
the Creator's avatar returns, everyone is baffled to see that strange
creature with hair only on the head and teeny-weeny ears. A HUMAN HAS
ENTERED THE RAPO-WORLD. We don't get answers about that just yet, but
the next installments do give an explanation. I'll get there in due
time. Well, at least Mike thinks it's a dream.
What happened to your ears? "MY EARS ARE FINE, DAMMIT!" Yeah, it sorta becomes a running gag for the remainder of the game. |
The
Hero goes back to the Mayor and the Creator paints the colorless
door. The Mayor then asks the Hero to gather everyone, especially
Mari, who might be at the secret beach. The avatar goes there, only
to see Jowee talking to the pirate captain, He offers a place in the
pirate crew to Jowee. Mari arrives on the scene, luckily too late to
have heard any of this. Poor her... Jowee, her best friend, thinks
about leaving... When the Creator's puppet finds Mari and the Mayor
it sees the young Raposa yelling at her father! Telling him that she
isn't made to be a Mayor! That it's too much responsibility for her.
That she's afraid. She runs away, and the Mayor soon regrets
discussing that matter with her...
You
see, there's an emotional weight here. In the sidelines of the main plot,
there is a second story that unravels: The story of Mari, who is
going through so many hardships at once. Her friend would prefer to
go on an adventure than be with her. Her father the Mayor has chosen
her as his rightful successor, and her formation isn't going well. No
one listens to her, she's unsure of her capacities, she fears being
unable to solve the problem... It's not going well. Set aside all of
the main plot, with the Creator, Wilfre, the avatar... you get a believable story that could have taken place in just about any
setting. One that you feel for. You want to know what's going on,
because we've pretty much all been there at some point. Many have felt, at some
moment, like the upcoming challenges were going to be too difficult
and that we wouldn't be able to count on those we love.
Unagi is way too high-tech for this world. Again, it feels like this game was made with young boys in mind: What do they like? Spies? Let's put one in! |
We always need more security. Do you have any idea how powerful Wilfre is? He was WINNING at the beginning! |
Yes, you can even make it look like a Keyblade. What part of "you can draw anything" don't you understand? |
You two have a simple task: Protect the friggin' Mayor! You're not gonna achieve that if you keep fighting! |
As
the Hero approaches the City Gate, we are brought to the Forest Gate.
The Mayor is walking towards it when he hears a sound. Wilfre
approaches the Mayor! He tells the Mayor that if it weren't for the
Hero, none of them would have done so well. Wilfre keeps
speaking, saying how the Mayor ruined the village, and his daughter
will ruin it even more, yaddayaddayaddaSHUT UP!
Shut
the Hell up, Wilfre! You do not possess the authority to speak about
the Mayor that way! What have YOU done for the village? Last time I checked, you covered it in eternal darkness! You are not a
responsible, level-headed Raposa who can freely criticize the Mayor.
You're an irresponsible, egotistical, despicable, rude jerkass. You do not
deserve to criticize the heroes' work. You should have no say on the Mayor's work as you've been disconnected from the Raposas' reality for too long. And we'll feast when your
defeat finally comes at the hands of the Creator's avatar.
Wilfre
hurries to take the Book of Life from the Mayor... And then stabs the
Mayor. Not a little stab. A fatal wound. He killed the Mayor! He
killed the Mayor, and what's worse, he did it in an E-rated game!
The
Mayor... is dead... We knew he was in danger, but things looked so
good by now... we never could have seen it coming... Oh my God... We
never saw it coming... We, never, saw, it, coming! He's not coming back, either; his death is treated very seriously, his death is final. And of course, the
Creator's avatar is unable to tell the news to anyone until this
level has been completed. Oof, this hurts. Having to complete a level
with tears in your eyes... that won't be easy. A fire sword cannot
cauterize the emotional wounds of the heart... or bring back the
dead...
You arrived too late, doctor lady. Of course you had to be in the most painfull long level... |
The
creations around the village start disappearing. The banya, the
lighthouse, EVERYTHING that You created since the beginning of the
game. Jowee tries to reassure Mari, telling her she can take the
responsibilities. You know what to do: Go through the colored door,
defeat Wilfre, and save the village. (And possibly the world!)
Sparring with a scorpion? BEST BOSS FIGHT EVER! |
By the way, the tridents and stars he's using to attack? It's the ones you designed to go through the levels. He's using your creations from the Book of Life to attack you! |
Wilfre
is eventually defeated. The evil Raposa falls to the ground and
returns to his original appearance before disintegrating. Alas, poor
traitor, you had to vanish. The Hero returns to the village with the
Book of Life, bringing everything back to normal! Except that the
Book of Life can't bring back Raposa from the dead. What an ironic name. The avatar goes back to Mari, who doesn't feel ready yet to sign
her name in the book as proof that she is the new Mayor... but she
asks the Creator to sign. Yes, You sign in the game. Sadly for Mari,
Jowee is about to leave...
The
Hero finds them near the docks, where Jowee says goodbye to Mari and
the avatar. Mari accepts that her friend is leaving. Though, had they
become more than friends over time? It certainly feels like such.
Mari then returns to the village, where she reminisces over the past
days, remembering many important moments from the game. Oh, not just
important moments. The ones that contained the most emotions. The
ones she had with Jowee, from the beginning of the adventure up to
Wilfre's defeat. The montage is very powerful, using a song to
strengthen the emotions. You feel for these characters, more than
ever.
(Watch the video here. Sorry for the audio issues, it's really the best one I could find. The last discussion between Mari and Jowee starts at 4:25 approximately, so start there and watch until the end. The music also gets a bit out of sync after a while. If you want to hear the song alone, here it is:)
I
always tear up when I see the montage. The song itself, not so much, because I've listened to it dozens of times, but the montage that accompanies it... Oh, God... I tore up the first
time I saw it. I still do. I had tears in my
eyes when I saw that ending again. It works. It just does. You see this
relationship grow between Mari and Jowee, and then you see all of the
better moments... And if you still don't feel by the end of the song,
there's a final moment just for you.
Jowee
stayed, after all. Mari saw the boat leave, and thus she believed he
was gone with the pirates. Yet, he walks towards her on the secret
beach. He chose to stay... To stay for her. Wait, that's not enough.
Let's add... yes! The Creator's avatar looking at them from a nearby
cliff... no, wait, we need more... yes! The avatar is accompanied by
the spirit of Mari's father, looking over them. It doesn't sound much when it's in written form,
but try to imagine it. It's such a beautiful moment...
Snap
out of it, Nicolas. Now that you've explained the plot and said all
sorts of good things about the plot, it's time to talk about the good
and bad points of the game.
That's funny, I never knew I created a world until I began playing this DS game... |
On to the next part: The playability. Personally, I am not much of an artist, so most of what I draw in this game is either basic or ugly. Basic as in, I just fill the drawing fields with colors, and when I have to draw actual stuff, it's unpolished and kind of cheap. However, the drawing tool works very well, so you can make some pretty cool pictures if you take the time. Sadly, if you feel in a hurry to beat the game, you will have to cut on the creating time.
The ga,e starts as darkness covers everything, there is no light, snow is everywhere, and there's no hope. |
On
to the levels: The first ones are alright. The first world is simple,
you don't have to search much to get the three Raposa and the four
parts of the page from the Book of Life. Starting with the second
world, it gets a little trickier. By the third one, it becomes a lot
harder to find them. Yeah... The problem is that the levels are
rather long, separated in a few “rooms”, with places that feel
like mazes. And the canvas make these levels even longer, because you spend a few minutes drawing.
Aside from that, while the created objects in the levels work fine
for the most part, sometimes it gets a little complicated. If you
don't take all the given space to draw the objects, you will find
yourself having problems further in the level. As an example, if you
make the clouds a little too small, you might find yourself having to
re-draw them because you cannot jump far enough between the clouds. Also to note for the platformer aspect, you get new
abilities for nearly each world (the snowball gun for the Snow Gate,
the wings and the acorn gun for the Forest Gate, the scuba diving
equipment and the starfish gun for the Island Gate, the Kaorin
Berries, and then the fire sword, for the City Gate). Sadly, there's a
little delay between the moment you press the button and the moment
the character shoots, so you may be touched by enemies before you
hurt them. This is especially bad in the underwater parts of the
Island Gate, where the character's frantic swimming makes it
difficult to stop in time to avoid underwater enemies. As for hitting them? It's kind of a pain too. Same for the
fire sword, which looks awesome, but is quite impractical, as you
need to be in close range of the enemy if you want to hit it, also
making it able to hit you as a result. Plus, the sword swings in an
odd way, so you need a lot of precision; yes, even though I praise
its awesomeness, the sword is my least favorite weapon.
Strange, huh? Also, you can look further left, right, up and
down by pressing L, R, Up or Down; it prevents some bad surprises.
Mari and Jowee in front of the Creation Hall. Here, Mari is angry, as represented bythat black tornado of lines in her bubble. |
As
for the music: Some of it is rather basic, but there are many musical
pieces that are memorable. For obvious reasons, my favorite two are
Shadow Showdown (Wilfre's boss theme) and The End. Though, for The
End, that was kind of the point: It's the song that plays over the
game's ending cutscene. Of course you will remember it above any
other song! Luckily, you can buy all the songs in Isaac's shop, so
you can listen to all of them.
This boss fight theme is so good that it was retooled and remakes an appearance as the boss theme in the sequel, The Next Chapter, on the DS. Kinda sad we can't get a version with better sound...
By
the way, if you throw 10,000 Rapo-Coins in the wishing well, you
access the Developers' Corner. You can speak to the game developers'
avatars!
All
in all, this is a great game. I strongly suggest you give it a try. Sure, it's got problems here and there, but
the positive aspects greatly overshadow the negative ones. Now...
*sigh* I have to admit, it's rare to see a game series with a perfect
track record. No franchise has gone without at least a stinker or
two. In a way, I'm lucky, the Drawn to Life series has had only three
actual games (Four if you count the Spongebob edition, but it's a
completely different game that has nothing to do with the actual
series). With three games, the chances of having a bad game are slim.
Well... Tune in next week for my review of the Wii installment of
Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter.
Sure, this all looks fine and good... But keep in mind, this is just a bos cover... |
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