21/01/2014

Avalon Code (2): Lovely idiosyncrasies



I love when my RPG strays from the classical path and offer some original features. And with Avalon Code, I certainly got my fill of such things. There would be tons of interesting details to mention; but for the sake of brevity, and to avoid spoiling too much of the game, I will only expose the five points which struck me as the most original and endearing while playing Avalon Code. There are no major spoilers here, so you can proceed unworried!

1—Gone with the wind

Take a good look around: nearly everywhere you go in the world of Avalon Code, you can see pieces of grass and leaves gently floating in the air and being carried away by a seemingly endless soft breeze, while your own coat is constantly moving in the most graceful way. When you walk next to some trees, you can see flocks of birds take their flight. All these lovely aerial animations give the game a touch of sweet, poetic liveliness that is entirely enjoyable. 

2—Night trespassers—herm, suitors

The world of Avalon Code is indeed a strange one. Guess how potential love interests who are smitten with your declare their flame? Not by offering you flowers, taking you out for a romantic stroll, offering you dinner, or any other classic way. Instead, they sneak into your house at night, coyly greet you with a “Guess Who?” and demand that you actually identify them from the sound on their voice asking that question alone; and if your guess is right, they will then profess their undying love for you. Now, I wonder if this is supposed to be taken literally: are these freaks really trespassing on your property in the middle of the night and standing next to your bed while blurting out their confession like creepy stalkers, or is it supposed to be something more allegorical? Like, a projection of your own affection for them, or maybe some kind of telepathy? Guess we’ll never know for sure. But at any rate, it’s certainly original and quite memorable.

3—Courtesy is SO overrated

Maybe this whole night trespassing is falling into a larger pattern of general callousness that prevails in Avalon Code’s world, after all. For let’s face it, people in this game are downright rude. Some NPCs will sneer at you and hand over good doses of sarcasm, all the while seeming to enjoy it immensely, if the smug expressions on their faces while doing so are to be believed. Others will simply repeatedly refuse to speak to you and rebuff your communication attempts in the bluntest manner. Others will purely and simply insult you and belittle your abilities—and that category includes your supposed best friend and your sword master, of all people. Talk about keeping your enemies close. But don’t start thinking that your character is the only pure, gracious, courteous little lamb in a flock of rude, bullying rams, for that is not quite the case. As a matter of fact, your character gives others a run for their money by being, every once in a while, as rude and blunt as the rest of them. During several cutscenes, your character will basically and literally turn their back on a NPC in the middle of an explanation and start to walk away, visibly bored to death by the drone of the said NPC. I kid you not. You have to see it to believe it, and it’s actually somewhat of a light jaw-dropper, for being so uncommon in the RPG world, where heroes are always eager to listen to whatever woes are plaguing poor, unhappy NPCs. Still, don’t get the wrong idea and let this put you out: all this lack of courtesy belongs to the goofy side of the game, and is handled in a humorous, tongue-in-cheek manner that will often have you smile and grin. And let’s face it, it’s a refreshing and quirky change from the classic goody-goodiness and immaculate politeness boasted by heroes and friendly NPCs in most RPGs.  

4—Bookworming galore

The Book of Prophecy is, well, a book. And as such, it contains tons of interesting data. You have codes and maps, of course, but there is actually more to be found. By poking your stylus on the areas looking like lines of text in the pages of the book, you can uncover some information about the content of the page that you’re poking, from enemies’ weaknesses to the particular piece of lore linked to a certain spot. Uncovering this data is as exciting as flipping through the pages of a good encyclopedia in real life, and it adds a lot of depth to the game world; it also brilliantly shows the love, passion and dedication of the game developers, who went to great lengths to create a fully-fledged and deep game world. 

5—Pixel hunting

As you start playing Avalon Code and roam the game world, you may notice very quickly that by pressing the A button while standing in certain spots, you can trigger hidden captions describing elements of the scenery. Those captions are cleverly concealed in every piece of the world map outside of dungeons, and uncovering them can raise the value of the Book of Prophecy and sometimes reveal hidden items. This is some kind of secret feature, for it is mentioned neither in the instruction booklet nor in the paper-thin in-game tutorials; and yet, for some reason, every Avalon Code player seems to know about it. And while uncovering these secret captions is by no mean a mandatory task, it can still become surprisingly addictive. In some areas, the dispatch of the captions follows some logic, and discovering this logic can be thrilling; in others, it turns to random pixel hunting and can really test your patience. But at any rate, it adds some depth to the game, by virtually turning every section of the map into a mini-game of its own, and shows once again the dedication and care poured by the developers in the creation of the game world.

Bonus: When darkness falls (light spoilers)

Remember that moment, at the end of The Two Towers in the Lord of The Rings book trilogy, when a dark cloud creeps out of Mordor and spreads all over Gondor? Well, there is a similar event in Avalon Code. Towards the end of the storyline, darkness spreads across the whole world, accompanied by a perfectly fitted piece of music, all ominous double bass and burial bells. Pretty impressive, and very efficient in reminding you that, you know, the end is near. Brrrrr.

Bonus: Welcome to the Matrix (light spoilers)

At some point in the game, you have to learn a new fighting style, which is taught to you in a way that is very reminiscent of Morpheus’s martial art lesson to Neo in The Matrix. Just like in The Matrix, it happens at a point in the storyline where your vision of the world have been shaken to the core, and is certainly one of the finest and most well-crafted moments of Avalon Code. Not only is it bound to have a great psychological impact on the player, but it’s also highly enjoyable to play, for the said new fighting style is quite sleek and smoothand very Matrix-like in style, indeed.

Like I said, there are many more original and endearing details woven in Avalon Code’s virtual fabric. If you’ve played the game, let me know which ones struck you the most! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

2 comments:

  1. I <3 the illustration! this game seems to have a sweet design (like most of the japanese!)

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  2. This game IS definitely beautiful, and the design is lovely! In fact, it's very likely one of the most beautiful games I've played on the DS. <3

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