Folklore Review

By Dave McCarthy Published 27 July, 2007

Folkssoul oh brother.

Version tested: PlayStation 3

My mum was once the Rose of Cork. My dad taught Donal Lenihan how to play rugby. That's apropos of nothing other than to establish my credentials for reviewing a game set in Ireland (or Oirland as it's more commonly known in the videogame voice-acting community, with Folklore no exception).

But since we're talking about my mum, when she was a little girl, she used to play in the fairy rings around her grandmother's house - and Irish fairy rings aren't patches of mushrooms like they are in this country, but ancient burial mounds that are also the homes of faeries and the entrance to their magical realms.

And it's this world - the world of Celtic folklore and make-believe - that forms the starting point for Folklore. Except, since it's been developed under the guidance of Yoshiki Okamoto (of Onimusha, Devil May Cry and Resident Evil fame), it's got a vividly Japanese twist. One thing that is authentically Irish, though, is that it starts, as so many good Irish adventures do, down the pub. Taking on the role of either Keats, a writer for an occult magazine, or Ellen, a girl in search of her mother, you'll find yourself in the village of Lemrick, where the living meet the dead.

'Folklore' Screenshot 1

Early parts of the game see conventional spirits, such as this Bugaboo, but later worlds give rise to more outlandish creatures.

Which is a rather grandiose way of saying that you'll find yourself engaged in a pretty conventional adventure game: go round the village, talk to people, discover clues and so on and so forth. It's pretty boring, even when you discover that by night the pub is peopled with an amiable assortment of banshees and spirits and monsters listening to Danny Boy on the radio. But eventually your investigations lead you to the Fairy World, which is where the action really starts.

That action consists of proceeding along a fairly linear path, punctuated occasionally by safe areas where you can talk to the fairies if you so choose, or save the game, or go through a portal that returns you to places you've previously explored. Outside those safe areas, you'll spend your time fighting with fairies and spirits. The catch is that you use your Sixaxis to catch the souls of those spirits, and then you'll use those souls to fight other spirits.

'Folklore' Screenshot 2

You can pick up hints that tell you how to beat some of the tougher folk.

The combat system allows you to map each newly acquired soul to one of the four face buttons, which you then press to use those souls to attack other folk. When they're reeling from your attacks you reel them in by holding R1 and shaking the Sixaxis. Then you're free to map your newly acquired soul to one of the face buttons and so on.

Clearly, then, there's also a gotta-catch-'em all sort of thing going on here, as well as the bland adventuring and pretty standard dungeon crawling. But like those two parts of the game, the Pokémon-lite mechanic doesn't quite work. That's because all of the attacks enabled by captured folk souls are pretty similar. One or two allow you to block, or provide ranged/aerial attacks, but the vast majority are simply variations on the standard attack. If it weren't for the fact that some folk are only vulnerable to certain other folk, you'd never really need to swap them over - and the fact that some folk are only vulnerable to certain other folk feels a bit like a contrived way of providing an incentive to catch 'em all.

'Folklore' Screenshot 3

Submarine World. Imagine the fun we could have had if it they'd called it Sea World.

Certainly you wouldn't want to swap them over otherwise, because when you do, it gets confusing trying to remember which folk you've got mapped to which face button. But the real drawback with the controls is the whole Sixaxis thing. Indeed, with Sony publishing the game itself, it's difficult not to see Folklore as little more than a contrived attempt to build a game mechanic around the controller, which is a shame because the Sixaxis dynamic is frequently annoying, occasionally imprecise, and utterly tedious when you get to some of the tougher folk, because they require even more shaking than usual.

And so Folklore turns out to be one part boring adventure game, one part underdeveloped collect-em up, and one part standard dungeon crawl. The only aspect of the game that rises above the mundane is its technical polish and the vibrant creativity with which its imaginary worlds have been created - the vivid luminescence of the Fairy World, or the scratchy, Ian Miller-esque authenticity of the War World for example. Apart from that, it's totally average (and in case you're thinking of importing: if you don't read kanji you'll need a translator or to wait for the US/UK version, because the occasional - impressive - cut-scenes are the only bits in English).

5 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
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About Dave McCarthy

Read more articles from Dave by visiting the Dave McCarthy archive page.

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Comments (81) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Devious_Droid #1 5 years ago

    FIRST!

    edit:bollocks
    Edited by 1 at 27/07/07 @ 11:22

  • morriss #2 5 years ago

    Oh dear.

    The usual suspects.

  • Psychotext #3 5 years ago

    Ouch

  • GamesConnoisseur #4 5 years ago

    Was expecting this to be one of the game I will want to add to my small PS3 collection, but this import review thrown a spanner in the work! So will wait on other reviews and to try the demo before I make my mind up.

    Edited by 1 at 27/07/07 @ 11:48

  • JediMasterMalik #5 5 years ago

    That's quite harsh. Nothing in that review indicated the game was bad, just that the reviewer found it dull. I can't say I feel the same way about the demo, I loved the capturing mechanic, and thought the soul capturing use of motion controls felt good and made sense.

    Maybe one for the bargain bins.

  • richardiox #6 5 years ago

    JMM - "nothing in the review sounded bad, just the reviewer found it dull"

    Dull is bad, isnt it?

  • morriss #7 5 years ago

    Yeah, wait until the Official Playstation Magazine reviews it, then buy it. :)

  • Cappy #8 5 years ago

    The real question is can Dave McCarthy read Kanji?

  • Aretak #9 5 years ago

    Lost Kingdoms goes next-gen.

  • LonesomeRoad #10 5 years ago

    I liked the demo.

  • Wayne #11 5 years ago

    Based on the review, Luigi's Mansion springs to mind.

  • penhalion #12 5 years ago

    It looks great (this seems to be the theme from sony lately) but lacks in the gameplay department.

    As I'm sure we have all been burned by the "Great graphics, no gameplay" thing before. This doesn't really come a s a suprise. We should have all put our collective anti-crap helmets on when sony claimed to have 300 games coming in the next year. Honestly I hope this isn't them starting as they mean to go on i.e. create great looking crap simply to buff out their games library.

  • Psychotext #13 5 years ago

    I liked luigi's mansion!

    \o/

  • LeD #14 5 years ago

    I thought it looked poor. I wasn't far off.

  • TILT #15 5 years ago

    Good thing I played the demo and liked it. Very much so, too. And what kind of statement is this?
    The only aspect of the game that rises above the mundane is its technical polish and the vibrant creativity with which its imaginary worlds have been created
    Vibrant creativity is a good thing, no? A rather rare good thing, for that matter. That gets mentioned, in passing, in the last paragraph. The last paragraph of a not overly long review. I seem to remember that there have been games where the reviewer would talk at length about the game world's creative virtues, then to criticize the game mechanic a bit. Such games would usually get a 7 or something IIRC.

  • Chaote-Imagicka #16 5 years ago

    Oh well. All I was really planning on getting was the beautiful looking art design. So still getting, I can live with dullish action for beautiful worlds. And how ****ing hard is to shake a controller anyway? I make cocktails regularly, shouldn't be that hard.

  • dazzaman #17 5 years ago

    Read a couple of good reviews in other mags, they liked it despite not being able to understand much of it.

    Each to their own perhaps?

  • menage #18 5 years ago

    Yikes, didn't see this one coming. Nice.

    I was expecting this to be a game I envied PS3 gamers for. Seems I have to wait till the HS review.

    @Chaote

    Seems a bit weird to put up with a crap game because it looks good.
    Edited by 1 at 27/07/07 @ 11:47

  • Schiraman #19 5 years ago

    Seems a bit harsh.

  • ilmaestro #20 5 years ago

    Cappy asks a pertinent question.

    Some reviewers on here read the comments, so don't (I think). Which camp does Mr. McCarthy fall into?

  • Aretak #21 5 years ago

    Which camp does Mr. McCarthy fall into?

    Did he not post a comment on RLLMUK in the wake of the RE4 Wii debacle? I may be thinking of something else.

  • Steroyd #22 5 years ago

    The only thing I didn't like of the demo to this was the music, must have been the first time I've ever wanted custom music feature to a game EVER.

  • Monkey_Puncher #23 5 years ago

    I always thought the game play on this one looked dull to the extreme, looks like I was right! It is made by the "SMASH WEAK SPOT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE" folk though, so I guess expecting anything else would be rather silly.

  • Chaote-Imagicka #24 5 years ago

    "@Chaote

    Seems a bit weird to put up with a crap game because it looks good."

    He didn't say crap, he said dull. Dull is also a very subjective value - my brother pretty much passes out from the tedium when he so much as glimpses me playing a jrpg. I on the other hand find Halo2 as dull as ditchwater. If the design continues to be as captivating as it seems from the trailers and videos I've seen I'm sure I'll be more than entertained by it.

  • Darren #25 5 years ago

    Oh what a shame... I am quite interested in this game. I guess I'll have to see what the other reviews say about it before I make a decision whether to buy it or not. I feel the EG review didn't go into enough depth for me to decide... really need a playable demo...

    P.S. Isn't this game by the developers of Genji on the PS3?

  • Xerx3s #26 5 years ago

    Oh dear.

  • SBfistfun #27 5 years ago

    ZOMFG teh power of teh cell!

  • Xerx3s #28 5 years ago

    I read a favourable impression by Siliconera a couple of weeks ago, that's why this was a bit of a surprise.

    Well, if that was more to your liking then go with that advise. After all, it's all opinions. One man's garbage is another man's treasure.

  • Steroyd #29 5 years ago

    @disc can't remember the menu music but when you're battling enemies it made me want to put it in mute it was too circus-y far too often for my liking.

  • OfficialBlue #30 5 years ago

    Thats a bit harsh! it's prob cause its an import!?

  • Dizzy #31 5 years ago

    JRPG is boring shocker!

  • menage #32 5 years ago

    @Chaote

    Ok, dull then, you want to play a dull game then because it looks good then?

    5 = crap to me.

    of course it's subjective, aren't al reviews in some way.

    But giving it a 5 doesn't bode very well.

  • Steroyd #33 5 years ago

    It's wierd because I barely ever pay attention to game music during gameplay unless it's a liscenced track I know of or I'm forced to listen to it through cutscenes or credits.

  • decibel #34 5 years ago

    Are you people on crack?

    The demo was ... really generic. I think the review is fine for actually giving it an 'average' score - it really is average.

  • Walshicus #35 5 years ago

    @Cappy

    Kanji's just a poor man's Hanzi. ;)

  • Yossarian #36 5 years ago

    good thread so far, will revisit

  • Dizzy #37 5 years ago

    >It's not quite a rpg Dizzy, it's more something like Pokemon without the RPG parts

    Ha really? Wasn't clear from the review ;) I take my words back!

  • krudster #38 5 years ago

    "I only have a go at Kristan, because he needs it."

    Why's that then, Disc? Because I didn't like Resistance as much as you? Let it go :)

  • rashes #39 5 years ago

    I've total respect for EG review scores .. especially as they are one of the only places to recognise Overlord as a really good game!

    Fecking GamesTM only gave it a 6 or something....

  • Yossarian #40 5 years ago

    disc v krudster the eternal conflict

  • MadMirko #41 5 years ago

    FWIW, the game totally flopped in Japan, maybe it's really dull.

  • Yossarian #42 5 years ago

    Famitsu is after me lucky charms

  • Machiavellian #43 5 years ago

    I must say I was looking forward to this game for the PS3 but a 5 even if the game scores higher at other sites still makes me feel there will be moments in the game where I probably would feel renting it would best serve my money.

    Anyway, I hope more games will stop with the shake mechanic to perform certain actions in a game. I really hated that in the Heavenly Sword demo and I know I will hate it in FS.

  • drumbaby #44 5 years ago

    Ah....

    I'll get a cheap Ebay version then.

    Shame :(

  • MadMirko #45 5 years ago

    @disc

    Famitsu scores are not very reliable. The fact that it sold only about 30k copies is more telling.
    Edited by 1 at 27/07/07 @ 13:35

  • MadMirko #46 5 years ago

    Okami also got good reviews in reliable publications, and sold more than Folkssoul in Japan. :)

    EDIT: About 5 times more, BTW.
    Edited by 1 at 27/07/07 @ 13:38

  • Yossarian #47 5 years ago

    can't we all just respect disc's faith?

  • Bill_Gates_Bitch #48 5 years ago

    Another shit ps3 game. What a surprise.

  • Monkey_Puncher #49 5 years ago

    Call me crazy but I don't think Folklore being shit will spell the end of PS3...

  • rudedudejude #50 5 years ago

    ps3 in shit game SHOCKER

  • The_Inquisitor #51 5 years ago

    You're mum was the Rose of Cork?

    PIC!!!!!!!

  • konniehuqfan #52 5 years ago

    what a shame, this looked like a good game :(

  • presbyterrorion #53 5 years ago

    "Call me crazy but I don't think Folklore being shit will spell the end of PS3..."

    No but sub-par games, even worse ports, and the ps3's price tag will.

  • miiiguel #54 5 years ago

    just watch movies with it and call it a day. game nearly over.

  • JYM60 #55 5 years ago

    Seems harsh, but if its not, its really dissapointing. The demo showed huge promise I thought.

    Of course it would be pretty hard to enjoy a game to its fullest if you needed a translator so I assume the score will go up in the pal review.

  • Qbert2k #56 5 years ago

    @WaxBrazillian

    Why would you spend Ł425 on a console and sell it after 3-4 months (assuming you bought it at launch)?
    Edited by 1 at 27/07/07 @ 16:10

  • JYM60 #57 5 years ago

    Pointless review, I'm not that bothered if it isn't great because there is so much good stuff out this year. But what crappy review. I could have wrote that from just playing the demo.

  • afghan_jones #58 5 years ago

    "But what crappy review. I could have wrote that from just playing the demo."


    It is of course entirely possible that the full game simply offers more of the same and doesnt have much more substance than the demo.

  • woodnotes #59 5 years ago

    From the makers of the 5/10 Genji games comes.... 5/10 Folklore!

  • spliffhead #60 5 years ago

    It can't be as disappointing as the Dragon's Lair/Heavenly Sword demo surely?

    Pipe and slippers at 998mb.

  • drumbaby #61 5 years ago

    Must've missed the Dragons Lair demo. Thanks for the heads up.

    ;)

  • Waldo #62 5 years ago

    Sounds like Pokemon crossed with Zanzarah: The Hidden Portal.

  • JYM60 #63 5 years ago

    Dragons lair? wtf?

    Pass the spliff please. :)

  • Machiavellian #64 5 years ago

    Thanks disc
    I was on the fence with Heavenly Sword because I really hated the shake in order to pull off the aerials. The demo was very short but it did provide enough combat for me to at least consider buying it.

    Too many games are tacking on the motion controls for the SixAxis and it's not making me happy. Most deal with shaking the controller which is not fun in any shape or form IMHO. I wish they would think of something more inventive then shaking the controller that feels very forced and unsatisfactory.

  • Scimarad #65 5 years ago

    As someone else said, I'm inclined to disagree based on my experiences with the demo;-)

    I'd just like to say that this game doesn't seem to really require 'shaking' the controller, at least not in the demo. It seemed to me you use it to yank the souls out of the enemies...
    Edited by 2 at 27/07/07 @ 19:57

  • miiiguel #66 5 years ago

    screw PEter More, some big company get this guy - as702ecs - he knows every detail, or he has an amazing crystal ball. The PS fundamentalists are funny, 1st it was "let PS3 see the light of day and no one plays any other system" now it's "just wait for 2222 and we'll dominate"..., funny.
    360 sales hit a brick wall, hummm, taking a look at the games charts I don't see any wii or PS3 game..., not even in Sonyland - Europe.

    Communities already made their decisions, video-gamer enthusiasts are using 360's, girls and families are using Wii's and somebody should use PS3 2008-2009, right as702ecs ?
    Edited by 1 at 27/07/07 @ 21:03

  • Steroyd #67 5 years ago

    I see Resistance (ya know another "average" game) and Motorstorm still in the UK charts.

    Mind you it is quite hard to get PS3 and Wii games in the charts if you don't release any new games.
    Edited by 1 at 27/07/07 @ 23:22

  • MrsPacMan #68 5 years ago

    lol, shit then

  • QotSAfan #69 5 years ago

    "you'll find yourself in the village of Lemrick, where the living meet the dead." So they captured the theme of stab city perfectly!

  • JYM60 #70 5 years ago

    @miiguel

    Worst post ever!

  • NotSoSlim #71 5 years ago

    Suprise supris EG review a PS3 game and give it a crap score.

    I am suprised people actually take these reviews seriously. Download the demo & try it yourself.

    SIMPLE!!!

    Also EG review the enlish language version.

  • Kenshin001 #72 5 years ago

    CVG just gave this 8/10. "It seems like PlayStation 3 has its first gem."

  • flapps #73 5 years ago

    I'd like to see if Eurogamer revisit this once the english language version comes out as I feel that this review is way too premature. It's light on detail, insightful thought and commentary and seems as if the reviewer played the game for about an hour and decided that 'they thought it was dull'. I'm not even sure the guy could understand the story or read kanji. Poor attempt, 5/10 for Eurogamer on this one...

  • dreamkin #74 5 years ago

    I lost my trust in EG reviews when Oblivion got 10/10...

  • Les #75 5 years ago

    "If it weren't for the fact that some folk are only vulnerable to certain other folk, you'd never really need to swap them over - and the fact that some folk are only vulnerable to certain other folk feels a bit like a contrived way of providing an incentive to catch 'em all."

    Totally agree. I also hate it in other RPGs that you have enemies with specific elemental weaknesses and that you have to acquire all magic spells to effectively deal with it. Why not just one monster status of “elemental weakness” and one spell “elemental magic”?

    Played the Folksoul demo and the game seemed very old fashioned when it comes to the overworld. After Oblivion (crap game though that may be) it’s quite hard to put up with invisible walls anymore in next gen games. But liked the gameplay. At least in the demo the sixaxis controls were simple and effective and added to the experience.

  • Monkey-Wizard-Ken #76 5 years ago

    Oh dear

  • Blazing_Shadow #77 5 years ago

    My questions are "Does he read Japanese?" and "If it's "average like he said, why is it a 5 instead of a 7?"

  • dysonlu #78 5 years ago

    Whoever gives this game a 5/10 is just either being juvenile or biased. If you have the chance, download the demo and try it for yourself. Solely based on the demo, it deserves a much better score than a lowly 5/10. I've been gaming for more than 20 years and I can tell you it is simply impossible this game is below average. I played the demo and had fun. In fact, I was impressed. There is originality put into the folks and enemy creatures. The use of the sixaxis to pull and absord "souls" is a nice touch. It's simple and not overused that it becomes tedious and annoying. The only small complaint I have is that the demo was too easy and a bit linear. I don't know about the entire game but the demo merits at least a 7/10.

  • Les #79 5 years ago

    @ dysonlu

    I agree, EU demo is good fun and much better than the Japanese version. That was more about the story/setting and actual gameplay was quite limited. Whether it holds up after prolonged play, I can't tell, however the terrific art direction is sure to cary me through the full game. But it's definitely an acquired taste.

    Review score in general are useless IMO (like any human opinion they’re subjective), that’s why I actually reed the text in order to support a buy/no buy-decision. This review is one of the poorer ones at EG, criticizing a game for being a game. Might have been due to the language barrier. It sure isn’t import friendly if you want to follow the story.

  • Syrok #80 3 years ago

    I still can't believe this got a 5. :)
    Edited by 1 at 28/10/08 @ 23:05

  • MisterSlimm #81 3 years ago

    Damn harsh.