Keepsake preview
 

The always lovely Emily has written a preview of Keepsake for your pleasure. Go ahead and read it (by clicking the link or via the AG home page) and share your thoughts on this interesting game here.

I haven't played a lot of the classic fantasy adventures like King's Quest so I don't have any nostalgia that would make me REALLY excited about a game like Keepsake. I should mention that I DID play one of the Kyrandia games and loved that though. Yay for the uber-awesome villain, Malcolm. Yay.

I certainly like the idea of some RPG developers wanting to make an adventure game. Good for you, you wicked people!

I'm surprised this game isn't generating a little more buzz. Cool fantasy setting with great looking graphics... made by a team of RPG veterans (though a pure adventure, they won't be constrained by a traditional mindset)... and most importantly, they're Canadian!... and it's another rare adventure coming from North America. *D What's not to like?

I think the game looks incredibly promising. I just hope the gameworld isn't TOO isolated, though a sidekick done well can really help bridge that gap.

I'm excited! (Though I guess I now know more about it than most people do.) And although I understand Terabin's statement about the KQ games, the fact that I've played all the KQs isn't why I'm excited about Keepsake. I think the gameworld looks lovely and the story sounds interesting and different than a lot of what we get nowadays. I don't think I really noticed that there has been a hole in the genre, but now that it's been pointed out to me - yeah, it's about time we had a fantasy adventure to play.

The fact that the team has been relatively quiet during so much of the game's development is a good thing, I think. A lot of developers make announcements before the game is very far along and then the game changes, but the announcements can't be retracted, and the players wind up disappointed after months / years of anticipation. (Ahem - legacydarkshadows - ahem.) I get the feeling with Keepsake that there's already a lot finished - the screenshots look pretty good (and varied) and Q2 2005 is not too far away, so they must have a lot done.

-emily

The in-game hint system is nice. I'm (languidly/vacationy) playing Under a Killing Moon now on easy and using the in game hint system. It's fun to just play the effing game and not have to go Googling or UHSing for stickiness cures. I've always resisted in-game hint systems before but it's actually cool (though in UAKM you have to reload if you don't want to lose points). I like that the Wicked team is using the game characters to coach you along too.

Well I am impressed with what I have seen and heard (Emily whispered some secret info to me also - *giggle*) so far. Yup, I agree the game seems far along the development trail, so this is entrenched.

It HAS been a while since there was a solid fantasy-adventure game out there. Yummmm

I really don't have any reason to be nostalgic either, but I still think it looks pretty cool. :z

*buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzz*


"Wow, that was a large fly..."

Psst, Igyy.

"okay"


I can't wait for this game.


"Yay, Dragons!"

Yay, Dragons!


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[Delayed reaction . . .] Emily, great review! The first time I read it it was about 5am or something and all I got out of it was "Montreal"; "fantasy"; "system specs are . . . ". I thought, hm, I wonder why she didn't say anything about what the game is about? D'oh. :rolleyes:

I think the game looks really interesting. I like the fairy tale element to it--Lydia looks to be at least in part a grown-up, turned-around Little Red-Riding Hood figure (she even has the wolf (dragon)). Re: fantasy in games--Emily and Jazhara, would you say that TLJ (in the Arcadia part) wasn't what you were thinking of, or is it something darker that you are looking for?

LauraMac, if we poke you again will you divulge the secret info, or does that only work once? :D

What do you mean, exactly?

Do you ask if I was expecting Arcadia to be different from what it actually turned out to be?

If yes, then I have to say, I am not sure. I remember that I had imagined to moving in between the worlds to be different - that you could move between them at will (I had only read one review).

I really liked the Arcadia part in TLJ. It is not your "0-8-15" kind of fantasy world; it is original.


But I also like what I have so far seen of the Keepsake world.


I can't really think of a setting in a fantasic world that I did not like in at least some way, rifht now (even "Torin's Passage", which in my opinion was ruined by the ending, had a good setting. The World-inside-world-inside-world-etc. idea was really good).


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Are you asking why I don't consider the Arcadia portions of TLJ to qualify it as a fantasy adventure?

Personally, I have a few reasons... I liked Stark and April's interactions in Stark better (having recently graduated from college, I got a kick out of playing a college student, which went away once Arcadia was introduced) and I guess because April is not *from* Arcadia -- she's a stranger in a strange land -- it's hard for me to see TLJ as a game set in a fantasy world. In my mind it's set on a futuristic Earth, and the protagonist visits a fantasy-type world from time to time. Maybe if the game had started in Arcadia and then moved to Stark I'd have felt differently (but I don't think so). April is out of place in Arcadia, and by extension the player controlling April is out of place there, so it can't be a truly immersive experience. Compare that to the world in a King's Quest game, or Keepsake, where all of the characters know no other world... so by extension, the player knows no other world, and becomes immersed.

I agree that Torin's Passage has a wonderful fantasy setting. I've never actually played the Kyrandia games... so in my mind, Torin's Passage is the last great fantasy game that came out.

-emily

Oh, the Legend of Kyrandia series was great too.


Now I understand the question.

I am not sure about what to call "The Longest Journey". I think it is a class for itself. It's like a Platypus - it looks to be not completely a mammal, but neither is it a complete duck.

It's like a hopeful prophecy, that the myths really existed, but that they are just somewhere else at the moment (Of course, dragons exist. There's one sitting in my room. ;) )

I love the Longest Journey, and I wouldn't live without it. I love it the way it is, but I don't think you could call it entirely fantasy. It is more like a story based on parallel universes/dimensions , where one happens to be fantastic, with magic and everything.

And who knows? Maybe there's magic in our world? There's more to this planet than meets the eye.


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Science Fiction and Fantasy have a lot in common, though.

--Erwin

A true word, if ever I heard one.


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Yes, that's what I was asking. :) I see that I'm still not making sense now, even though it's not 5a.m. *D This was a very thoughtful explanation--I mean, I had never thought about TLJ that way before. I found the Arcadia portions of the game much more compelling than the Stark portions--I thought the dystopia was fairly familiar and repellent, and the Arcadia stuff much more creative--the old guy on the pier, the cranky pilot, the Ambassador who is unstuck in time, even that freaky crab-person who can only sort of Morse-code for help. But, it might be a question of temperment or as you point out, where you are in your life when you play . . . or else how much other fantasy you've encountered (me: not enough!) But I agree with you and Jazhara, TLJ is a platypus (or maybe a centaur? or how about a mermaid!), so couldn't truly qualify. Anyway, I will stop rambling before the thread about how great your preview is turns into the TLJ fan site. :D

Must be the cold weather. I'm in Newton right now visiting my parents... BRRRR!

:D emily

I know--I just got back to Cambridge last night after visting MY 'rents--and now I have brain freeze! :rolleyes:

Come on! That would mean that I couldn't think straight for like six months each year!


Actually, you might have a point... :rolleyes:

I'm not admitting anything 8-)

But.... I do really love cookies :9

Lol . . . I think it's the transition between climates . . . although Emily has it much worse than I do in terms of temperature swings between parentals' and here. So the point is, you might only be brain frozen when the seasons change, and if you travel . . .

:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:


Wha? . . . :confused:

Is this an invitation to bribe you with Mrs. Fields, or a techie term (like, website cookies), or a Little Red Riding Hood reference? (Brain is DEFINITELY frozen.)