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Daedalic's Night of the Rabbit

abnaxus

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 31, 2010
Messages
10,849
Location
Fiernes
game's okay. the storytelling lacks a decent structure, the writing is boring most of the time and the characters aren't worth mentioning. while obviously childish the gameworld itself is sorta interesting.

it's worth your ten bucks but i wouldn't spend more.
Par of the course for almost all German adventure games.
 

Sòren

Arcane
Joined
Aug 18, 2009
Messages
2,350
Satinavs Chains was amazing btw. one of the most beautiful and "purehearted" games i know.

but that's just my very personal taste.
 

Cool name

Arcane
Joined
Oct 14, 2012
Messages
2,147
Just finished this.

You have to love (not really) a game with writing so very awesome the entire 'plot' is given to you in a very long expository cinematic after you do defeat the big bad. Before then? Nothing. You just wander around doing shit, then you fight evil dude, then you get the plot. When it no longer matters, yay.

And the awfulness of the writing doesn't stop there. There is a recurring character that is suposed to be one of the main character's 'allies' or even 'friends.' His role is transporting you through the game so you don't have to walk. Problem is, the gameworld is so small and so full of shortcuts you never use him because, fuck, it's faster to walk. Cue the 'final battle' when he is suposed to be one of your two 'closest friends' and the villain uses the 'fact' you abused his generosity to move around because you were too lazy or shit, and there is a big 'epic moment' when he is freed from the evil magic thingie and friendship defeats evil and shit. In my playthrough I had talked to him, what? Two times? Three at most. BAD.

Amusingly enough the game does end with the promise of a sequel with both a much better (i.e: CUTE AS BLEEP) character and a much more interesting premise. Why didn't we play that one instead? Teh Lord knows.

Graphics are cool, as usual. There are a couple cool music pieces too. Puzzles are, uhm, I don't know. There is a single puzzle that got me stumped for a little while and that's because the game was not precisely forthcoming with what the fuck I had to do so I kind of completely ignored that shit and went around trying to do other stuff until I got it almost by accident.

And you better like collection minigames and hidden object shit because this game has lots of it. Collect dew drops. Yay. Collect stickers of baby mouses dressed in cute costumes. Yay. Collect magic cards. Yay. Collect stories. Yay. Just the stories are READ TO YOU so a tale that I could read in, like, five minutes takes around half an hour of some dude reading it to me. Not cool, man. I managed to go through, like, one. Then I got the second, started it, and jumped ship in the second chapter because I am not playing games to sit listening to someone read shit to me for half an hour. And there's a card minigame because, hey, why not? A card minigame you never have to play as long as you don't care about achievements, mind you. It's not very good, but it is probably the most fun I had with the game.

In short, bleep it. The premise could have been some awesome Myst shit with guys who travel the planes and solve shit. Instead it was... this, I guess. You travel the planes, like, four times. Every plane you visit is composed of two screens. Yeah. Two screens, and the puzzles there have to be self contained so don't expect much. Also, the premise could have been some awesome Loom + Quest for Glory as a Wizard, learn new spells, use those spells to solve puzzles, etc. Instead we get five spells. The first one is 'Please remind me of my objective', I.E: A hint system. The second spell is NEVER needed. You just use it to talk with stones, who say nothing of interest. The third spell you use a few times. The fourth spell you use ONCE. The fifth spell you use also ONCE. Both immediately after you get them.

All in all, kind of terribland.

Oh, and the evil dude? There is nothing about him until he does appear. No build up. No shit. You find posters about him and stuffies. Then he appears! And you are, like, 'oh, that dude from the posters? Cool. I guess.' Then you travel to face him, he throws you into a couple of trap thingies, you totally humiliate him, and then you defeat him in a shitty magic duel while your two 'true friends' or whatever defeat innumerable angry ghosts by playing flute and violin. Yeah.

Bleep this game. I love cute fairy tale stuffies but this is just bad. :(

Oh, and the game totally expects the player to care about a character WHO NEVER DID APPEAR, NOT EVEN ONCE, NOT AT ALL just because he's the main character's father. Only not even the main character does remember him. So, like, what? Can't I keep the rabbit instead? I mean, at least he has a great voice actor. Fuck dad and fuck his dog.

Though,

When the rabbit got into the main character's world a single being had to disappear so that he could occupy his place, right? So WHY DID BOTH UNIMPORTANT DAD AND UNIMPORTANT DOG DISAPPEAR? Isn't that like TWO BEINGS? -_-U

Anyway,

:1/5: or :2/5:

Just because the visuals are awesome, the rabbit's theme music is pretty cool and rousing, there is a lot of CUTE AND FLUFFY, and I had some fun playing cards with Kitsune.
 
Last edited:

Boleskine

Arcane
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
4,045
I'll pick this one up in the future, presumable when it's cheap in a bundle or high discount sale.
 

Name

Cipher
Joined
May 24, 2013
Messages
866
Location
Glorious Nihon
Frogware=Rabbit<<Deponia<Chains of Satinav=Book of Unwritten Tale>Telltale

So don't let this game stop anyone from trying other Daedalic games.
 

Name

Cipher
Joined
May 24, 2013
Messages
866
Location
Glorious Nihon
Just finished this.

You have to love (not really) a game with writing so very awesome the entire 'plot' is given to you in a very long expository cinematic after you do defeat the big bad. Before then? Nothing. You just wander around doing shit, then you fight evil dude, then you get the plot. When it no longer matters, yay.

And the awfulness of the writing doesn't stop there. There is a recurring character that is suposed to be one of the main character's 'allies' or even 'friends.' His role is transporting you through the game so you don't have to walk. Problem is, the gameworld is so small and so full of shortcuts you never use him because, fuck, it's faster to walk. Cue the 'final battle' when he is suposed to be one of your two 'closest friends' and the villain uses the 'fact' you abused his generosity to move around because you were too lazy or shit, and there is a big 'epic moment' when he is freed from the evil magic thingie and friendship defeats evil and shit. In my playthrough I had talked to him, what? Two times? Three at most. BAD.

Amusingly enough the game does end with the promise of a sequel with both a much better (i.e: CUTE AS BLEEP) character and a much more interesting premise. Why didn't we play that one instead? Teh Lord knows.

Graphics are cool, as usual. There are a couple cool music pieces too. Puzzles are, uhm, I don't know. There is a single puzzle that got me stumped for a little while and that's because the game was not precisely forthcoming with what the fuck I had to do so I kind of completely ignored that shit and went around trying to do other stuff until I got it almost by accident.

And you better like collection minigames and hidden object shit because this game has lots of it. Collect dew drops. Yay. Collect stickers of baby mouses dressed in cute costumes. Yay. Collect magic cards. Yay. Collect stories. Yay. Just the stories are READ TO YOU so a tale that I could read in, like, five minutes takes around half an hour of some dude reading it to me. Not cool, man. I managed to go through, like, one. Then I got the second, started it, and jumped ship in the second chapter because I am not playing games to sit listening to someone read shit to me for half an hour. And there's a card minigame because, hey, why not? A card minigame you never have to play as long as you don't care about achievements, mind you. It's not very good, but it is probably the most fun I had with the game.

In short, bleep it. The premise could have been some awesome Myst shit with guys who travel the planes and solve shit. Instead it was... this, I guess. You travel the planes, like, four times. Every plane you visit is composed of two screens. Yeah. Two screens, and the puzzles there have to be self contained so don't expect much. Also, the premise could have been some awesome Loom + Quest for Glory as a Wizard, learn new spells, use those spells to solve puzzles, etc. Instead we get five spells. The first one is 'Please remind me of my objective', I.E: A hint system. The second spell is NEVER needed. You just use it to talk with stones, who say nothing of interest. The third spell you use a few times. The fourth spell you use ONCE. The fifth spell you use also ONCE. Both immediately after you get them.

All in all, kind of terribland.

Oh, and the evil dude? There is nothing about him until he does appear. No build up. No shit. You find posters about him and stuffies. Then he appears! And you are, like, 'oh, that dude from the posters? Cool. I guess.' Then you travel to face him, he throws you into a couple of trap thingies, you totally humiliate him, and then you defeat him in a shitty magic duel while your two 'true friends' or whatever defeat innumerable angry ghosts by playing flute and violin. Yeah.

Bleep this game. I love cute fairy tale stuffies but this is just bad. :(

Oh, and the game totally expects the player to care about a character WHO NEVER DID APPEAR, NOT EVEN ONCE, NOT AT ALL just because he's the main character's father. Only not even the main character does remember him. So, like, what? Can't I keep the rabbit instead? I mean, at least he has a great voice actor. Fuck dad and fuck his dog.

Though,

When the rabbit got into the main character's world a single being had to disappear so that he could occupy his place, right? So WHY DID BOTH UNIMPORTANT DAD AND UNIMPORTANT DOG DISAPPEAR? Isn't that like TWO BEINGS? -_-U

Anyway,

:1/5: or :2/5:

Just because the visuals are awesome, the rabbit's theme music is pretty cool and rousing, there is a lot of CUTE AND FLUFFY, and I had some fun playing cards with Kitsune.

Those audio stories! Why are they so boring! Is there any single good one among the eight?

I heard three and they go like this:

1.They want to chagne the name Mousewood to Squirrelwood and in the end they decide not to change because people usually don't change their names.
2.The old magician decide to get to the post office for no good reason and have to babysit a rabbit and in the end it turns out the letter magician forsaw is written by the rabbit for recollection of the babysitting.
3.Three wooddwarves are grumpy or something like that, I have a mental meltdown in the middle.
4.???
5.???
6.???
7.???
8.???

The card game is actually decent lol.
 

Cool name

Arcane
Joined
Oct 14, 2012
Messages
2,147
You are a better person than I am. I did just manage to listen to the first one, the one about Mousewood name. Then I did start the second one and went, like, FUCK NO halfway through, when the wizard was talking to the mouse lady.

I believe the sixth or seventh one is related to the plot in some way, or to the 'other plot' (the one about the crows going insane and the pharmacist mouse dude who got lost searching for the origin of it) but, uhm... I did, say, forget to listen to it. Yeah, that's what happened. I forgot. Promise. :(
 
Last edited:

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
Joined
Mar 27, 2016
Messages
9,175
Location
Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Just finished this.

You have to love (not really) a game with writing so very awesome the entire 'plot' is given to you in a very long expository cinematic after you do defeat the big bad. Before then? Nothing. You just wander around doing shit, then you fight evil dude, then you get the plot. When it no longer matters, yay.

I concur with pretty much everything written, heavy exposition at the end is a failing grade in storytelling 101, but in NotR's defense there was some foreshadowing:

- The rabbit is shown to be an unreliable narrator from the very beginning, due to his amnesia, so trope-savvy readers will know there's something up.
- All the tree crystals point out that the protagonist too has some kind of amnesia, so if you weren't paying attention before, you should be now.
- Lots of important characters freak out when they meet the rabbit, they describe a much more sinister figure, quite different from the character you have met, so you know there's more to the story going on.
- Lots of minor characters remark that magic have been absent from their world for a long time, and the magical hall of fame is clearly in ruins.
- The magical hall of fame has a lot of portraits, but from the lack of symmetry it seems like one is missing. There are no rabbits in the portraits either. Hmm who could it be...?
- If the player collects all the droplets (yes, its bullshit to hide storytelling behind collectibles like ubisoft does), you get an additional clue - the rabbit had another human apprentice. Hmm who could it be...?
- Could it be the person on the poster you see everywhere, the poster that has something to do with the sinister stuff going on around town?

And in some ways there is too much foreshadowing: The card minigame art basically spoils most of the plot elements.

But yes, these sorts of Big Reveals should be spaced out more evenly rather than come all at once. Overall I can see why someone who expected a Books of Magic / Sandman + Mouse Guard / Mice Templar type story would be disappointed with what was ultimately a more conventional hero's journey archetypal fairy tale.

As for the limited use of the spells, and the linearity bait and switch, yes, all that is mediocre, but at least most of the puzzles take place in the Mousewood realm with its dozen or so screens with lots of hotspots, and the puzzles do require paying attention. That's better than most these days. And you gotta admit, the sequel hook stinger was pretty badass. Also good on Daedalic for including this:


LMAO i didn't know about hot coffee stuff.

lmaooooooooooooo
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
I really liked the game, because of the setting which is maybe my favourite kind of setting, except I prefer to directly play as a mouse, and because the big part in the mouse world was very cool to solve, it took me a while. I don't remember being impressed by the story but I liked it.
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
Joined
Mar 27, 2016
Messages
9,175
Location
Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
this is definitely lower tier daedalic game. it's not bad, just really weak af
 

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