Slave of the Fireflies | htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary Review

<p>The Playstation Vita has a rear touchpad&period; Maybe I&&num;8217&semi;d forgotten about it in my roughly 8 billion hours of playing Persona 4 Golden&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s there&period; Sure&comma; it may not be the most used feature on the handheld&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s there for developers to &lpar;hopefully&rpar; use&comma; otherwise Sony spent a lot of money integrating that extra bit of kit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Enter htol&num;NiQ&colon; The Firefly Diary from NIS America&comma; a game that completely ignores the analog sticks and clicky buttons of the Vita and instead goes two-fisted on the touchpads&period; While an admirable attempt to explore the more interesting technical aspects of the handheld&comma; it does so at the expense of playability&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>htoL&num;NiQ &lpar;actually pronounced &&num;8220&semi;hotaru no nikki&&num;8221&semi;&rpar; starts with Mion&comma; an antlered girl who awakens on a slab in the middle of a ruin&period; Strangely enough&comma; you don&&num;8217&semi;t play as Mion&period; Instead&comma; you guide a green firefly around the rubble with the Vita&&num;8217&semi;s touchscreen&comma; and Mion follows the incandescent insect wherever they go&period; This doesn&&num;8217&semi;t allow for the deepest of puzzles &lpar;look at most iPhone games&rpar;&comma; so the game shortly thereafter introduces a pink firefly that only lurks in a shadowy otherworld&comma; who is controlled by the rear touchpad&period; Double-tapping the rear pad freezes the &&num;8220&semi;real world&&num;8221&semi; and allows players to guide the fuchsia firefly through the darkness to activate interactive hotspots and reveal hidden secrets&period; Tapping a weak beam can bring the roof down on a pursuing beast&comma; or build a makeshift bridge for Mion to clamber across&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05020916&sol;HTOLniq-1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-79400" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05020916&sol;HTOLniq-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"HTOL&num;niq 1" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"544" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The gameplay itself is reminiscent of Capcom&&num;8217&semi;s underrated Ghost Trick&colon; Phantom Detective&comma; with timing and proximity dictating a lot of the puzzles&&num;8217&semi; structure&period; The pink fly can only traverse shadow&comma; so perspective and environment need to be manipulated in order to provide a bridge of darkness for the fly to move across&period; The front screen is a little less restrictive&comma; but the firefly&&num;8217&semi;s true freedom isn&&num;8217&semi;t reflected in the doddering Mion&period; Therein lies the rub&colon; in spite of the best intentions of the game&comma; this method of indirect control starts to unravel in more time-sensitive moments&period; Oftentimes the game relies on trial-and-error&comma; forcing you to randomly bring up the &&num;8220&semi;shadow world&&num;8221&semi; to sweep the screen for hotspots&comma; bringing some of the more harrowing events &lpar;the Chapter One boss is a glaring example&rpar; to a screeching halt as you look for a glowing pink mote that will help you advance&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not a completely broken system&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s clunky enough that it partially invalidates the goodwill it earned for creativity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s a damn shame&comma; because the game itself is intriguing&period; Visually&comma; the game is stunning&comma; with graphics that evoke a children&&num;8217&semi;s storybook viewed through a grimy lens&comma; making the resultant deaths that Mion experiences a slightly more disturbing affair&period; There are also unlockable flashbacks that bring back memories for Mion&comma; and their candy colored pixel-art style stands in stark contrast to the hints of nuclear devastation on the fringe of their scenes&period; Unfortunately&comma; these top-notch elements are still hamstrung by a game that&comma; mechanically&comma; just isn&&num;8217&semi;t very fun to play&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;thosegamingnerds&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;Hotaru-no-Nikki&lowbar;05-29-14&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"764" height&equals;"433" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;