How often does a video game make you happy? I don’t mean happy in the way that you kill bad guys, or that you save the world, but simply just makes you happy? Happy to play it, happy to experience the adventure you are on?
NAIRI: Tower of Shirin is such a title and maybe one of the most charmingly beautiful experiences of 2018. It also proves that the narrative structure of a point-and-click adventure can do some incredible things. Games today tend to be fast, quick experiences in this world of disposable media, but NAIRI: Tower of Shirin is different as it revels in the slow nature of adventure storytelling with beautiful hand drawn characters in a living and breathing world.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”14″]Developer: HomeBearStudioPublisher: HomeBearStudio
Platform: Nintendo Switch [reviewed], PC
Genre: Point-and-click
Release: Nov 29, 2018[/perfectpullquote]
I’ve always been the kind of person that says the devil is in the details and NAIRI: Tower of Shirin is chock-full of details. it’s been a long time since console gamers have been graced with an actual true to form point-and-click adventure. Sure, Telltale Games used to do them before they went under but those weren’t really traditional point-and-click adventure games, they were more movies with some gaming elements in. NAIRI: Tower of Shirin is about as pure as it gets and it’s a more beautiful experience because of it.
A lot of this has to do with the incredible art style employed by the game. The hand drawn characters are full of life and each one is charming in their own right. You feel connected with the world that these characters inhabit. You feel that what you’re doing really matters in some way.
And while the story does have some serious elements to it (often touching on some adult themes) the whole thing just feels wholesome on a level that were not used to seeing. I’ve played a lot of video games on the Nintendo Switch this year, but NAIRI: Tower of Shirin stands out as one of the most gorgeous and wholesome ones to date, and this coming from a Kickstarter game.
I’ve long ago given up on Kickstarter as a platform for really quality games to come out through with so many dropping the ball, but this one has changed my mind on that. NAIRI: Tower of Shirin not only oozes quality but you can feel that the team behind this project really cared deeply about what they were putting out for everyone.
So often these point-and-click adventure games on consoles are pretty static affairs. You may have seen a few of these pop-up in the days of the Wii with its motion controls, but NAIRI: Tower of Shirin is nothing like those cheap imitations. Where those games were simply clicking on a screen looking for hidden items, NAIRI: Tower of Shirin makes you feel involved in the adventure at every turn.
Sure, you’ll essentially be clicking on items, looking for things, picking objects up, combing items and moving things about, but it’s not a clear-cut static screen as you do so. Characters often fill the screens as living and breathing NPCs. They will go about their small daily routines which just make the world feel more lived in.
The little animations that play out as you try and complete tasks just give the game a greater personality and a greater sense of depth. Again, this is what I mean by the devil is in the details as it’s those little touches that make the game really special. And as this is a point-and-click adventure game you can expect a lot of puzzles as you venture forth through the world.
A lot of these are fairly easy and straightforward as long as you look at them from a logical point of view, but you can expect to come across some that are a little more obtuse and require you to think a little bit outside of the box. During my playthrough of the game I came across several instances where I just didn’t know what to do, but after figuring out the solution through a process of trial and error the answer always ended up making sense.
The game does give you a small hint book that does actually help, but you can probably expect to be jotting down notes and writing things down trying to connect the dots. It’s been a long time since a game required that of me and it feels very nostalgic in the best possible way, helping you feel more involved.
A lot of times with these point-and-click adventure games I tend to give up or head online to some strategy guide because the answers can often be so obtuse that they just doesn’t make a lot of sense. Thankfully, that isn’t really the case here and most every puzzle you’re going to come through just requires a little bit of the old brain power.
And because of the relaxed nature the game promotes it becomes a nice experience to have the time to figure out puzzles and not feel like you’re rushed through any gameplay. You also have access to a PC-like save anywhere system on the Switch so you can easily step away from a harder puzzle for a little bit to clear your head.
I also really have to commend the musical choices that the game uses. Overall it’s a very relaxed style and feel but there are some special moments that really fit in with what’s going on in each segment. You’ll notice all sorts of small details right from the outset of the game.
The overworld music is nice but once you enter the wild duck, an early location in the game, the music changes, but not just in style. You get this beautiful acoustic guitar melody which is really pleasant on the ears but you’ll quickly notice that in the corner of the bar there’s a duck actually playing a guitar.
It’s these sorts of small touches that just help put a smile on your face as you play the game. Since these point-and-click adventures tend to be fairly static affairs and musical choices can really highlight an adventure in a way they don’t often do in other types of video games.
Another real stand out in NAIRI: Tower of Shirin is the writing it employs. It’s generally a lighter affair and it’s nice when it needs to be but also serious when it calls for it. There is this great balance and nothing feels forced or unnecessary, and a good dose of humor permeates throughout.
But NAIRI: Tower of Shirin isn’t a perfect experience no matter how it might seem from this review so far. While I might be a “fanboy” for these types of games I can’t ignore some really nagging issues that hold the game back from being great. The most damning issue is that the game like to lock on you.
There are a few sections in the game where if you access an item, or look at an object the game will softlock and not let you exit the screen. I thought I might have bugged the game in some way, but every time I replayed these sections it would lock up, meaning it’s a programing issue.
The most problematic is that one of these softlocks happens in the special room for Kickstarter backers. This means if you visit the room and look around at the games concept art you’ll become stuck. The first time this happens I hadn’t saved in a good chunk so it was a real pain to play the section several times trying to see what I did wrong.
Knowing there might be other segments like this in the game I had to change my playstyle which sort of killed the overall experience. Having to save every few screens really took away from the experience and fun, wondering if the next item or object I click could freeze the game.
Another issue isn’t so much with NAIRI: Tower of Shirin and more so with the Nintendo Switch. The controls are simply too finicky for my liking. Using the JoyCon like Wii pointer or mouse works okay, but with small items, motions and when clicking on text, it sometimes falls apart.
The pointer is too jittery and you’ll often have to click a small item several times before it recognizes it. Text boxes are really close together and there were several times I clicked the wrong option while playing. And I can’t tell you the amount of times I spent re-centering the darn JoyCon.
You can totally play the game with joystick controls, but I found this far too troublesome to enjoy. Joystick motion moves so quick that you’ll miss almost everything on the screen. For me it was almost useless and this is one title I say works best with the motion controls.
And the last issue with NAIRI: Tower of Shirin is in how you move around each screen. There isn’t a map so you can expect to spend a lot of time backtracking not knowing where the heck you are. Sometimes you’ll click the right of the screen but the way the world is laid out it might actually move you forward in space.
It’s a bit annoying, and when you couple this with how easy it can be to accidentally click the edge off a screen you’ll become annoyed at the game more than a few times. Then there’s the story which I absolutely loved until the one moment I didn’t. I don’t want to spoil anything, but you’ll probably feel a little left out to dry with how everything wraps up.
NAIRI: Tower of Shirin has some real issues that keep me from calling it great like I so really want to do. Thankfully, a lot of these issues can, and hopefully will, be addressed in a patch down the line. Once that happens the score could change, but at the time of this writing I just can’t be totally in love with the adventure.
That said, I still recommend NAIRI: Tower of Shirin, and at only ten bucks you’ll get a lot of enjoyment out of this one. My dream here would be that the game gets a nice patch and the publisher teams up with someone to release a physical copy.
“NAIRI: Tower of Shirin is a gorgeous gaming experience that’s only held back by some annoying bugs”
Final Score:
3.5/5
*Review key provided by publisher*
About Author
