Folklore, a game developed by Game Republic, takes us in the village of Doolin where a dark mystery covers the death of villagers, 17 years ago. The game is presented from the view of Ellen, a young woman who receives a letter from her long-lost mother, telling her to come and look for her in Doolin, Ireland. At the same time, Keats, who is a reporter for an occult magazine called Unknown Realms (the original name of the game in Japan), receives a phone call from a woman with a desperate voice asking him for help, and amongst others mentioning Doolin. The two characters meet in Doolin, witnessing the death of a woman falling off the cliff. Ellen is determined to find her mother while Keats stays to investigate the death and perhaps get a good article for his magazine.

Little did they knew, that soon their lives will change forever. Once the nightfall comes, the whole village changes into something else, a mystery world inhabited with spirits and faerys. Ellen and Keats soon find out that Doolin is actually a village where the living meet the dead, a portal to another realm called Netherworld .

In order to find Ellen's mother and for Keats to solve the murder, they must venture into the Netherworld where characters like Scarecrow or Belgae will help them along the way. The Netherworld was once a beautiful place until a mysterious traveler created chaos. Now it's filled with monsters and folks (bosses you'll have to fight at the end of each chapter).

In the village there are several houses with some inhabitants, and each villager has a story to tell in this puzzle. In the center of the village is the pub, from where quests can be assigned by the bartender (living or dead) with the option to download different quests from the internet. These quests consist in escorting different creatures from Netherworld, kill xx monsters or accomplish tasks for faerys.

There are seven chapters to roam into, but if you want to finish the game, you'll have to play it from each perspective, Ellen's and Keats'. The way you play with each character is unique; Ellen uses strategic methods to trap her enemies while Keats uses a more traditional direct attack.

"Shake it"

Like I said earlier, you need to complete chapters (or realms) filled with monsters and folks. Each time you defeat a monster, his spirit (or ID, as it is called in the game) will float above him, waiting your move. If you don't absorb it for a certain time, the monster will come to life again. Depending on how many spirits you absorb at once, your experience will multiply. Benefiting from the Sony Sixaxis feature, the spirits can be absorbed by shaking the controller up. More powerful beasts, once defeated will require more skill before absorbing their souls. You need to move the controller to the left and right, smashing the spirit to the ground or tilt up the controller at specific times, until you finally flat out the soul into submission.

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There are over a hundred beasts, monsters, faerys and characters to interact with. So there will be plenty of souls to catch. These captivated souls can then be used against other enemies, each monster having its abilities. Some monsters can block attacks, other attack with fire, lightning, wind or have a normal attack. You can use up to four creatures to attack, assigned on the face buttons. You can simply assign creatures by pressing L1 button and choose from any captured soul. The downside is that once you define the buttons for the four creatures you still have to sit and test again the creatures just to see which goes where.

Finally before battling Folks, you'll acquire books, showing you what type of creatures do you need and in what order you must use them. If you have some experience with adventure games, they won't pose much of a challenge. Then, the next realm will present itself with different adventures, monsters and folk to slay. Each realm is farther into the Netherworld than the previous one.

There are certain safe zones in each realm, zones where you can save, return to Doolin, go to the previous realm or speak with the faerys living there. Almost forgot. I said in the beginning of the article that you can take quests from the pub. Depending on what realm you are currently, side quests can be found at the bartender. The rewards can be very satisfying, ranging from special items to costumes with enchantments (damage, protection), each looking more beautiful than the other.

You will often find yourself in a certain area and just stop to admire the finesse of artistic design, that special Japanese touch; after all it was developed under the direction of Yoshiki Okamoto, the creator of Onimusha, Devil May Cry and Resident Evil.

Another thing that the developers thought it would be nice, is the comic-style dialog. The animation is shown frame by frame with dialog bubbles around the characters and somehow it really fits the game.

All in all, the game has its ups and downs and there's a lot to talk about the game but you really need to play it to understand it. And trust me, it's worth it. It's like in the song of ATB "it's the little things that makes you crazy". The story, dialogs, the combat, the graphics and everything else that makes Folklore a good game.

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Gameplay: 85

A unique type of gameplay, combining an action-adventure with quests, fighting, lots of monsters and mythical creatures, along with a smart puzzle and a good story. The characters have their own personality and advance differently on their path. Although the game has some slight downsides, like becoming repetitive at some point or the very often loading times, that's not going to rip your gaming experience too much.

Graphics: 88

Being under the direction of Yoshiki Okamoto, the Japanese style can be clearly seen, a touch of Final Fantasy someone in the back yells; the dialog style is comic-book like and the world so peaceful and so imposing at the same time. The graphics are very good indeed; after all, it's a game developed for Playstation 3. But there are some limitations and it seems that the power of the console is not fully revealed.

Sound: 87

A violin, maybe some piano, some more violins, give Folklore one hell of a soundtrack. It's been a while since I've heard background music so relaxing and beautiful. The voice acting is not bad at all, the characters make you feel emotion, doubt or fear and they can even make jokes sometimes.

Multiplayer: N/A