Review for Roki. Game for PC, Mac and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 23/07/2020
The fairy tales and legends that exude from the Scandinavian tradition they have been told for centuries around the hearth of the long winter evenings and have come down to the present day in writing to keep the embers of those nights alive. Among trolls, mermaids and goblins, there is no doubt that the Northern European imaginary still exercises a certain charm today and that it has inspired a literary genre (modern fantasy) and other arts, including video games. Titles such as Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and the reboot of God of War draw heavily from this infinite source and this is also the case with Röki, the latest effort by Polygon Treehouse.
Röki talks about adventure, courage and folklore, and about a girl who tries to pick up the pieces of a family devastated by mourning. Did it also pique your interest?
The tales around the fire
Alex Kanaris-Sotiriou and Tom Jones - the two founders of Polygon Treehouse and the minds behind Röki - played for years at Sony and Guerrilla Games before betting on their small development house and betting everything on a modern adventure that looks to the past. on PC and Nintendo Switch. Röki is based precisely on an original tale inspired by Scandinavian folklore in which the protagonists are the jötnar, the giants, but with a depth that is difficult to find in the pages of a story book.
It is a cold night, as is often the case in the forest. Tove and her little brother Lars just got home. It is up to Tove, the protagonist of the game, to do the chores: prepare food, add wood to the stove, send her brother into Morpheus' arms. The father does nothing but sleep in a rocking chair, it will soon be understood that he has lost the will to live since his wife died, and sleeps in the hope of seeing her again in dreams. Now Tove is the housewife, and like a good older sister she pleases Lars by reading him a fairy tale.
A sudden attack from a creature Tove didn't believe existed will upset this daily numbness that only little Lars doesn't seem to feel. It will be he who will pay the price and be kidnapped: this will launch the brave sister to his rescue.
The friend of the forest
Controller or mouse in hand, Röki presents itself as a modern and exploratory point and click; its main elements are precisely exploration and puzzles. The heroine carries a backpack (inventory) with her and can interact with objects that light up by simply pressing a button. Most of these objects can then be taken and used by dragging them with the cursor with the environment. They can also be combined to create new ones, such as a torch or a bridge, to unlock new areas.
Tove will soon realize that the forest is populated by fantastic beings and her innocence will allow her to make new friends, helping various creatures on her path by obtaining objects or information in return useful to save her little brother. The choice of the young protagonist is not accidental starting from the name, taken from the Finnish writer Tove Jansson. His age and courage will strike creatures often considered hostile like the trolls, who will hint at a change in diet, or reticent beings like the guardians of the forest, far from the canonical jötnar. Tove will therefore be able to break into everyone's heart thanks also to its tragic story, which anyone on a human level can understand.
The characters themselves who populate this forest that comes to life are characterized with details and small stories, and this is also why Röki wants to be a game accessible to all for developers: No unnecessary violence, candid scenarios and content make it challenging even for young players even if they will need a hand or two with puzzles.
Röki is indeed one puzzle matryoshka: from the second chapter, which is the heart of the game, it will be possible to explore at will all the areas that make up the forest by changing the order in which Tove can solve them and narrow the field to a single path that leads to Lars. This free structure of the title is encouraged by particular secular trees that have the important function of fast travel and connect the whole map, dotted with places such as lakes or old churches. As Tove visits areas never seen before, he will update the diary he always carries with him. This is an important addition to take stock of the situation and sometimes reveal what needs to be done to proceed. Soon, in fact, the objects in the inventory will multiply as well as the things to remember, and consulting the diary will not be up to a quick consultation. For this purpose, we suggest you playing Röki with a sheet of paper and a pen next to it to write down everything, as it was once done.
The freedom proposed by Röki means that without a good memory the game is dispersive: the puzzles are interconnected between them, and this means that a certain object can also be used much later (this is the case for example of a stone disc that can be unearthed in the early stages of the game but will only be useful at a more advanced point) and some require more fantasy than normal. A part of the diary will instead be dedicated to collectibles, objects that can be found scattered around the game world and that are atypical medals with which to fill the diary and keep the memories of the journey.
The book of winter
The particular graphic style and the generous requirements (starting with a 5 GB of RAM) make the game enjoyable on PC to a large audience of curious Scandinavian folklore. The stylized and clean graphic touch that allows for example the silhouetted of Tove's red hat in the snow of the forest gives back a very pleasant fairytale sense, together with the falling snow and the wise use of colors. The gaming experience was smooth with a modest, homely setting, although two areas in particular seem to require more effort from the hardware. That said there are no graphics options of note: it will be possible to choose only the resolution at each start.
Other seems almost out of place in a game like Röki, which certainly does not want to impose a new quality standard, but still makes a good impression with a distinctive and in its own way immersive artistic direction.
Much appreciated that the fairy tale Röki is available not only in English. Localization is crucial in a puzzle game: one word can change the meaning of a puzzle. In a quick comparison, apart from a few small errors (one of the puzzles in the tutorial sees Tove cooking yet another egg in a pan, the localization reports that the pan should be heated on the stove, but instead it is the kitchen hob) it seemed enough accurate and we enjoyed swapping the language all the time by going into settings.
More than just the choice of leaving the Scandinavian words in the original as tomte, nickname with which Tove calls his little brother (the tomte or nisser are elves with long red hats), together with the certainly cheaper one of not doubling the dialogues but leaving everything in the hands of grunts, sighs and laughter, except for key words like Tove, Lars, papa and tak / tack, “thank you” in some Northern European languages such as Swedish and Danish, which will be the only ones pronounced.
Suspended between puzzle and backtracking, Polygon Treehouse's 3D point and click goes from simple to imaginative, not to mention complex. The solution for some puzzles is rather far-fetched; these have not always succeeded in their intent and has generated situations where you use objects in bulk until you can proceed.
Too bad for a single save file, which has no real reason to be unique: if it is true that, as advertised, the freedom given by Röki allows the player to change the order of solving the puzzles and offer a slightly different experience, and it is a game for everyone , it's sad to be limited to only one game per game.
Röki is a repository of little-considered mythical figures in the modern video game, invisible creatures that inhabit forests, and an opportunity to discover more of Nordic lore through the original fairy tale of Tove and his little brother Lars, kidnapped by a monster. It is a story that must be played and discovered and on which we have deliberately shared a few details, supported by an exploratory point and click that evolves over the course of the title. Polygon Treehouse offers a certain freedom of maneuver and playing with it is like following the thousand threads of a spider's web, a matryoshka made up of puzzles at your disposal that makes Röki sometimes dispersive, but nothing that the dear old pen and paper cannot fix. . Röki has significant and moving moments, and it's nice to venture out with Tove and feel his heart beating wildly with fear mixed with a sense of discovery.
► Röki is a Platform-Puzzle-Adventure-indie game developed by Polygon Treehouse and published by CI Games for PC, Mac and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 23/07/2020
