Effie Review

When perusing potential video games to play, part of me is always on the lookout for third-person action-adventure games. It’s a genre I grew to enjoy on the N64 and PlayStation with the classics like Mario 64,  Banjo-Kazooie, and the Spyro the Dragon series. This enjoyment was solidified on the next generation of consoles, the PlayStation 2 in particular. Games like Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, and the Ratchet and Clank series combined vast worlds and level variety with the familiar gameplay and at the time top-notch graphics into memorable and fun experiences. Inverge Studios have released their own third-person action-adventure game Effie, published by Klabater, and have cited some of the classics I mentioned previously as part of their creative inspiration. All the familiar elements are there; a relatively large world to explore containing various levels with distinctive designs, as well as combat and an abundance of platforming. A few modern conveniences have been thrown into the mix as well, but how does Effie stack up to the classics? Can it hold its own, or does it fall short?

Effie starts with a cutscene in a dimly lit room with an older man and a young girl sitting in front of a fire. Quickly you learn that the game is named after the young girl, and the older man begins telling her a story of a young arrogant knight named Galand who gets cursed by a witch after he ignored her call for help when her cart broke down. This curse caused the knight to age instantly, and he became much older. In his desire to rid himself of the curse, Galand explains that the knight set out towards the Temple of Elder Protectors to ask the Elders for help. The gameplay starts in this temple which acts as an introductory level, initially just focusing on platforming and traversal. As soon as the gameplay begins you realize what you might have already been suspecting – that the old man telling the story is in fact the cursed knight. Throughout the game the future version of Galand (the one telling the young girl a story) acts as the narrator, this structure adds a fair bit of humor to the game, whenever you respawn after dying the narrator says stuff like “That’s not what actually happened”. After reaching the Elders in the temple and asking for help, Galand is initially denied. The Elders say that he must prove his heart is pure before they will intervene. In order to prove his heart is pure Galand must restore peace to the land of Oblena and its three cities which have been cursed by the same evil witch Melira. Galand doesn’t leave the temple empty-handed though, the Elders bestow upon him a magical shield with multiple uses, making Galand a sort of fantasy-styled Captain America.

The land of Oblena has a very distinctive look with red grass everywhere, this combined with the tranquil blue sky really makes the visuals pop. The character models and level art have a PlayStation 2 level of detail but with an HD polish, and the color choices make the art style appealing overall. There are three levels (the three cities) that must be completed before you can engage Melira in a final battle to lift your curse, and each level has a unique look and feel. Each of the three levels are massive and contain various platforming challenges such as disintegrating platforms, whirring saws, and barrels floating in deadly poisonous wine that must be navigated across in order to proceed. There are also some light puzzles to be solved but they mostly consist of pressing buttons in the same order as a sequence displayed openly in the environment. Each of the levels have runestones and relics hidden around corners and behind locked doors, some sections are somewhat intricate and overall the level design shines. The Woodborn level changes the time of day as you play from night to day and back to night again, this gave the level a spooky feel while also making the area feel more alive. I did encounter some graphical bugs during gameplay with some textures appearing distorted, there were also occasional draw distance issues as well as a few other graphical hiccups.

Effie has a simple leveling system, runestones you collect add progress to a bar at the top left of the screen and when it is filled your health and stamina bar are given a small permanent increase. Overall the UI design is sort of basic and generic-looking, and it took me a little while to realize what each section represented.  There are a lot of runestones throughout the game, some easy to reach and some not so, and the bar increases very slowly so sometimes it can feel pointless trying to collect them all. The relics are the game’s sole form of collectible, they are always found in white chests and come in various forms, like books, rare items, and bestiary notes. There’s a section in the pause menu where you can see how many you’ve collected for each area, this is helpful because you can’t replay the three levels. Each relic has flavor text that adds some backstory to the narrative and can be read in the same menu.

The hub area, The Red Plains of Oblena, is rather large but fortunately your trusty shield doubles as a hoverboard. This is a fantastic addition to the gameplay, reducing travel time and making things more interesting. When surfing there are pillars of light dotting the land and when you hover through one your speed increase – you can end up going pretty fast if you go through enough of them. Besides the three main levels, there are a few other distractions for Galand to explore. There are smaller settlements that sometimes contain a relic as well as a hoverboard race you can enter and a gladiatorial coliseum with waves of enemies for Galand to fight. 

As I said the familiar gameplay elements are both there; combat and platforming. The platforming shines while the combat falls a little short. The combat is comprised of a basic attack and a strong attack and as you progress you are awarded new abilities such as the boomerang and earthquake attacks. Before getting the boomerang ability the fighting is very tedious with enemies taking multiple hits to kill and there’s no lock on, so Galand sort of flails around in various directions. In spite of this the combat never really posed much of a challenge which adds to its monotony in most cases. I found the Boomerang skill to be extremely useful because it kills all smaller enemies in one hit and can hit multiple enemies with each activation. There are roughly ten different types of enemy which is another reason the combat is somewhat lacking in depth.

The boss fights with Melira are a highlight, although I was worried at first because the first two encounters with her consist of you having to fight waves of enemies to deplete her health bar which was somewhat boring, and I hoped the next encounters would be more substantive. Luckily they were. The game incorporates some of its tougher platforming sections into the rest of the boss fights with Melira. In the Woodborn level, you have to traverse wood cutting machinery, and if you fall you’ll land in deadly lava. The platforming in most of the game is fun and enjoyable thanks to the level design. You have to make your way up some large structures from both the inside and out, which adds to the feeling of magnitude in the levels. In one of the early levels, you gain the dash skill, which quickly becomes very useful. Garland can do a small double jump thanks to his shield but the dash move really adds to his manoeuvrability, letting Garland reach farther away platforms, and the developers make sure you are making use of this new skill.

Another modern convenience that Effie makes use of is frequent checkpoints. Some of the boss fights even contain them which is never a bad thing. Overall I appreciate the developer’s respect for my time with the speedy and fun travel mechanic of the hover shield as well as the frequent checkpoints. At this point in my gaming career, I’d rather not have to replay large sections of levels because a game is stingy with its checkpoints. Overall Effie had a decent playtime, sort of just at the right spot, I think it took me somewhere between six and eight hours. It doesn’t have much replayability value unless you missed a relic and want to collect them all.

The audio design is somewhat run-of-the-mill. The soundtrack fits nicely with some tracks adding to the tension of a hard area whereas others sound like something you’d expect to find in a fantasy game or hear at a renaissance fair. The voice acting is a mixed bag. Fortunately the voice you hear the most, Galand, is by far the best one. He has a friendly and boisterous tone and his narration throughout the game is always welcome. Effie on the other hand has a squeaky, whiney voice that’s not at all pleasant to hear. Melira the witch doesn’t sound as evil and strong as the main villainess should. She has a weak, sometimes wavering sound to her voice. The audio design has some of the more troublesome bugs I encountered in the game, nothing game-breaking, but it was annoying since it happened repeatedly. After you beat each of the three main levels, the game cuts back to the dimly lit room with older Galand telling Effie the tale, the audio would loop more than once each time and was rarely in sync with the movement of the character’s lips. At the end of the short cutscenes, you are transported back to the game world and the cutscene dialogue would repeat a little longer. In addition, each time this happened the regular audio in the hub world would be silent until you reload a checkpoint or enter into a new level. 

Conclusion

Effie is a decent entry into the third-person action-adventure genre, it features intricately designed levels and lots of satisfying platforming. There is a nice combination of old and new mechanics. The combat can leave a bit to be desired, and there were a few non-game breaking bugs/glitches but overall this is a nice call-back to a classic well-loved genre. Whether you want to get some feelings of nostalgia or you are new to the genre and are curious, Effie is worth a look.

This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox One console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.