Folklore a.k.a How not to do combat systems

So last week we looked at the...ummm...lackluster storytelling in Folklore. This week we get a lackluster combat system. While I think Folklore might be in the running for the gold medal at the 'Untapped Potential' Olympics the combat is, at least, when compared to the writing merely bland as opposed to outright bad. However drawn out over a long enough time in a game, bland can quickly spiral towards bad as the lack of variety chokes out the few interesting elements that initially had us holding our tongues when it came to critiquing the game.

Pictured:  Get in your damn Pokeball!!!

The first element that goes from “This may be interesting” to “This is starting to irritate me” is the enemy collection aspect of the combat. In short you beat an enemy up and...great, a capture mini-game. Now, it's worth noting that for weaker enemies you simply employ the clunkily implemented PS3 motion controls for a quick capture. For stronger (“stronger” is very relative here) enemies however you must go through a longer and more tedious exercise in motion controls and direction following every time you down one. And for bosses...it's even longer and more tedious. Think 5-10 minutes of beating down the boss then another 2-3 minutes of flailing around with the controller to capture it. I don't mind a long boss fight but what I do mind feeling like I'm being asked to clean up after myself when the fight ends.

Pictured: Living trophy collection.

So at this point it makes sense to actually explain how the combat works. First we start off by assigning up to four different Pokemon...er...folk and then activating them by pressing the corresponding button. That's pretty much it. Sure you can sometimes hold the button to charge up the attack or maybe press the button repeatedly to summon the folk for a series of quick attacks but really it's a pretty straightforward system. Press button attack enemy. So anyhow, you go around the various worlds capturing the different folk in order to what? I'm not really sure actually. I was never able to really differentiate much between the different attacks other than the fact that I quickly concluded that against the standard enemies any attack that required a long charge time was a really bad idea. Sure sometimes you're going to need to find an attack that capitalizes on an enemies weakness but generally you can get by with mashing on fast attacks until you pop the soul, sorry the Id (the red thing in the first picture), out of the enemy and adding them to your Pokedex.

Pictured: A pretty picture.

Now, when I picked up Folklore I wasn't expecting it to set the gaming world on fire. I wasn't expecting some undiscovered gem. I mean I picked the game up last year which for the mathematically challenged among us would be about 3 years after the games initial release. I'm not even sure if I was expecting better than what I got. However after playing the game for a little while I got the notion that since the art was so nice that this must simply be a game that had slipped through the cracks. Playing for a while longer made me realize I was wrong. It's a game with a lot of (unrealized) potential. I wasn't expecting the writing to be the next great American novel but I would have liked it to be a notch above the Sunday comics. I wasn't expecting the combat system to rival 'Devil May Cry' or 'God of War' but having the ability to jump or to combine attacks would have been nice. The longer I played the game the sorrier I felt for the art staff as they where the only ones who really held up their end of the bargain. If you have some time check out the videos on Amazon which highlight the many fantastical design elements that I didn't get to here to get an even better idea of what the games art and world design is further into the game. It's also interesting to note in those same videos the attempts trying (and failing) to make the enemy capture and combat elements seem innovative and exciting. Someday I may finish Folklore but that day is not today and it probably isn't soon. See you all next week.