htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary
Score: 70% ESRB: Teen Publisher: NIS America Developer: Nippon Ichi Software Media: Download/1 Players: 1 Genre: Puzzle
Graphics & Sound: When I first heard of htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary, I wasn’t sure what to think. I like the concept of a puzzle game where you have to switch between characters to solve puzzles. The execution of this seemingly simple concept leaves much to be desired. Graphically, The Firefly Diary is beautiful, dark but very well done. The world is obviously post-apocalyptic, but you’re given no clue as to why. Your surroundings are very bleak and everything is drab colors and ruined. When you flip to the shadow world, things are only black and blue except for Umbra's purple light. The few times that you will get bright color are in the Memory Fragments. It looks like things were happy and cheerful in Mion’s past. The music perfectly matches the scenery. In the present day, it is dark and sinister, especially when Mion nears shadow enemies or dies. In her past memories, the music is happy and cheerful, making you feel like life wasn’t so bad for Mion at some point.
Gameplay: htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary opens with a small girl called Mion. She is apparently alone in an abandoned building in some kind of apocalyptic wasteland. Actually, we have no clue what is going on outside this single building. Inside, the firefly Lumen and her shadow firefly Umbra are trying their best to help Mion get outside. Mion will follow Lumen anywhere without hesitation, which can be a bit annoying when you forget this fact and walk her off of a cliff just because you’re trying to see what’s up ahead. You can tell her to sit down and wait by just tapping on Mion with Lumen. Mion will not follow Umbra. You use Umbra to go into the shadow world and interact with objects that you might not be able to get to in the real world. Along the way, there are a few things that you should look for. Flowers are Memory Fragments. Other than the first one, these are not easy to find. They’re hidden behind things and in out of the way places. I did find that sometimes you can see them hiding if you go into the shadow realm. You will also find little teddy bears that Mion will collect. These can be hard to reach sometimes, but if you work the puzzle correctly, you will be able to get them. Basically, you need to just keep working out the puzzles to get Mion past all of the dangers and try to find her stuff along the way. At the end of each level, you will have a boss battle to deal with. These can be very difficult as they first require you to figure out how to even begin to damage the boss and then how to time it just right to kill it. Good luck!
Difficulty: htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary is probably the hardest game that I’ve played in a while, and not for good reasons. At first, I fought with the controls. The touch screen controls are horrible because your hand is in the way more than I wanted. Once I got that fixed, I found myself wanting to throw my PSVita over the number of times I died and couldn’t figure out what they wanted me to do. There’s a reason I keep my Vita tied to me to keep from breaking it and The Firefly Diary definitely tested that tether strap. You will find that there is very little direction as to what you need to do. I don’t think I can count high enough to count the number of times I killed poor little Mion. Of course, the fact that she runs slower than a snail made me not feel quite so bad when the monsters caught her. Basically, the game is a continual trial and error to find just the right spot with just the right timing. The further you get into it, the harder that timing becomes. While I am sure the true ending of the game makes everything worth the trouble, I am not sure I have enough patience to find all the memory fragments to actually unlock the true ending. The one thing that kept me from actually throwing the Vita was the fact that the game autosaves for you at pretty much every new screen. Also, you have unlimited continues. This means that you can kill Mion over and over trying to figure out what to do, but you don’t have to go back very far to restart that segment.
Game Mechanics: htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary has controls that are very different from any game I’ve played. They definitely developed the game specifically for the PSVita, using the touch screen and the rear touch pad. You are actually controlling Lumen, the firefly and Mion simply follows everywhere. For example, to go up or down a ladder, simply move Lumen up or down when Mion is near and that’s where Mion will go. Mion will automatically grab boxes. She will move them as you move Lumen and then she can climb on them. The rear touch pad will let you move to the shadows. There, Umbra will guide you the same way Lumen does in the light. You have to use the rear touch pad to control Umbra. Umbra has to follow a shadow, so if you are having trouble moving her around, make sure Mion is touching a shadow that can get you where you want Umbra to go. Inside the Memory Fragments, you will simply control Mion by touching where you want her to go. Personally, I found the touch screen controls clumsy to use and difficult to get where I wanted to go. You can go into the Options at any time and change the controls to a different mode. There are three. Personally, I found the third the easiest to use. It sets the controls to use the Left Stick to move, the (X) button to interact, and the (Y) button to enter shadow mode. I am sure that The Firefly Diary is an excellent game to some people, but I am not one of them. I can definitely see how it can be a fun game to play. The scenery is amazing with the perfect music to match. The story is intriguing, but I wish that there were more of it. I think if there were more (or maybe somewhat easier to find) memory fragments, I would have wanted to keep playing more. The puzzles were just too frustrating for me to want to play anymore than I did. If you’re looking for a challenging puzzle game, check out htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary as I expect you will love it. If you get frustrated easily, don’t play or definitely tie your Vita to your wrist.
-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl
Related Links: htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary on the NIS Website
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