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 smooth—and 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!
I <3 the illustration! this game seems to have a sweet design (like most of the japanese!)
ReplyDeleteThis 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
ReplyDelete