Folklore review

Oct 4, 2007

Given that the Playstation 2 was once the mighty home to all things RPG, the PS3 is going through a bit of a dry spell. But we understand, the system's still in its salad days and probably doesn't want to embarrass itself by porting something unworthy of it's $600 prowess. So is Folklore going to ease the agonizing wait between infinity and a Final Fantasy game? Well the answer is: sorta, kinda, maybe and for the most part, not really.

The best thing up Folklore's sleeve is the massive arsenal of beasties at your disposal. You could hardly call it a hack-and-slasher because your primary weapon is, well, everything. Nearly anything you can kill you can also embody, allowing over a hundred different creatures, machines, and otherworldly beings with which to dole out pain.

You'll come upon an enemy, or "folk," beat it into submission, then suck the resulting "id" into your bodily repertoire with a pink tractor beam and a flick of the SIXAXIS. Gimmicky? Sure. But it's fun, it works, and its the closest technology has come to letting us feel like a real live Ghostbuster.

Playing as the grief stricken Ellen, or intrepid occult reporter Keats, you get to configure the spiritual monstrosities to your liking. Some block, some slash, some shoot, and some just rampage. And as you might expect, certain enemies have strengths and weaknesses, and we're talking beyond the mere fire, water and lightning touches (although they're here too). You've got a creature of flight called a Brownie that dumps immobilizing goop, or a towering hellbeast straight out of Where the Wild Things Are called a Bargest who's got a devastating swipe and also emits spines when swallowed by ruinous tentacles.

Folklore promises somewhere around a hundred beast-abilities and you've got plenty of time to figure out which abomination is right for you. And if that desciption has your head in a Pokemon-esque "Gotta Catch em all" tailspin - relax. Collected pages forgo the oceans of charts and numbers with stylishly drawn illustrations showing what works best against what. Anything can be swapped to the 4 face buttons on the fly with the help of the R2 button, 'cause there ain't no turn-based battles here. Folklore's action is all real-time, baby.