Ceville

This game looks pretty good and manages to do that rare thing of making 3D work for a point n click, the voice acting is o.k. even some of the puzzles aren't bad but alas for me it was still a total miss. My problem is the story... is there a story... I don't know... the collection of seemingly random loosely connected events. It felt like the game was made backwards, they made a point n click engine which is genuinely good then had to come up with a game to fit in to it. It seems to grab bits and pieces of other fantasy stories and characters and shoe horn them together to create a collection of puzzles. These puzzles sometimes are quite good but the story is so bad you just don't care. I chugged all the way through this one as I did want to like it as it felt like a lot of effort had gone in but it was a grind and I was glad when it was over. Probably more like a 2.5 star game.

First: This adventure is one of my favorite ones, but - usually I'm used to that the other way round - the translation is really... not that good. Like many other "funny" adventures, this one stands and falls with the humour and the jokes. In German this adventure, the voice acting, the jokes and references are (if you like parodies and dark humour/sarcasm-cynism) all-in-all great. Sadly this is almost completely missing in the English version. The lame (English) voice acting can't decide between Nicolas Cage and Kristen Stewart (where in German you get a Johnny Depp/Christoph Waltz), the mixing... ugh, and the jokes are meh as well. Just as an example of the loss of quality: In German the reference would be "I'm selling these fine leather jackets..." and the English translation: "Do you want to buy a coat?" - or like that cliché when there's a neverending dialogue in English and the eastern european translator just says: "I like you.". 'Cause of that, I switched back to/started a new game in German after 12 - 14 minutes. 800 % improvement. Graphics are good if you enjoy "fake-3D" adventures like Monkey Island 4 and ok if you don't. Like all "funny" adventures, this game doesn't really tries to get you with a complicated and twisted story but with entertainment/jokes instead. I can't emphasize that enough: Too bad it does a great job in German and sucks at it in English, what's a good explanation for the very mixed (German/English) reviews in gaming mags.

Took me about 14 hours to complete. Used the walkthrough a couple of times. POSITIVES: * Decent (English) voice acting * Multiple characters to control well used. * Puzzles are in most cases sensible * Stable NEGATIVES: * The "i-am-evil" (and evil laughter) attitude of bad characters getting old rapidly. * Subtitles little bit small and difficult to read (@1920x1080) * Couple of textual errors in the subtitles * Fuzzy screen for close up objects. Had a constant "brown spike/triangle" for the dumbwaiter * Navigation unclear. You do not know where the characters can travel to (invisible walls). * Loading/switching "worlds" is tad slow * You have to re-select an inventory item if used on another (wrong) item * Time based puzzles. Personally i do not like them. * Some videos do not load. For example the "credits" button in the main screen. But also for the ending * Abrupt ending (but maybe i missed something, see previous point) * No arc for Ceville. He is still "bad" at the end. Lilly helping him in his quest makes no sense? Conclusion: Seems one of the first games of Realmforgestudios and i think they did a nice job. Visuals were muddy. I would prefer simple handdrawn 2D. Probably cheaper to produce also.

If you like a good parody of fairytales, shoot for this. The sheer atmosphere of the world is sweet, art is even more sweet, referneces the game gives keep you engaged and the characters are one of the most fun around. Puzzles are okay, nothing really hard or brilliant. The story may seem to take shortcuts or be a bit unrealistic, but with the setting and lighthearted nature of the game, it does not really have to. The ending was unsatysfying, though. I reccomend it for anyone looking for light, unserious fun generator. You may not always laugh on its okay-ish jokes, but it does not stop it from being a good game.

The game is good but that's all. It has very good music and atmosphere. Graphics are cartoon-ish and I feel they fit very well to the genre and game plot. About plot without spoilers - is simple and I think it is not a bad thing all in all it's fantasy. For me the riddles were a bit hard since there is division into three characters which can use objects others can't - it was nightmare in late game. Slow movement of our heroes didn't help too. Voice acting is not bad nor good, but overall I like it (just listen how they pronouce "Faeryanis"). I can recomend this for anyone - good graphic design, very good music, as funny as tough.