It is so close to being a great game!
Ginger: Beyond the Crystal – Nintendo Switch (Available on XO, PS4, PC) – Released: 11/17/17– $19.99
Short Review (Review copy provided by Bad Land Games)
First thing is first I have a giveaway going on right now! Go down to the end credits if you are here just for that and learn more about the game from my review after you enter. Ginger: Beyond the Crystal is a good game but it has some issues that need to be addressed. It has some weird issues with framerate and they aren’t consistent. While watching some video footage from my friend over at Memory Cards, I saw that the game had some slow down. That’s fine and all but when I got to that exact same part there were no slow downs. I really needed to point that out since I am not sure if it is a docking issue or sheer luck that I didn’t run into any problems at that section. My issue was during cutscenes and any panning of the camera to a location. It wasn’t anything game breaking and personally didn’t bother me but could bother others. The game is a fun time but is on the short side. It is an average platformer with some collectathon aspects which I will always be a sucker for. It took me around 6 hours to beat so possible to beat in 3-4 sittings and I beat the entire game in two week’s worth of commute.
Hmmm they used the same images for the icon for the loading screen:
Story
A goddess’ altar takes care of the land and has a crystal that provides protection to all in the forest. Ginger was born from the goddess’ crystal one night as the three druids were watching over it. The druids took Ginger in as one of their own but the goddess fell silence and no longer spoke to the druids. Then one night a mysterious figure brought a crimson crystal to the goddess’ crystal and the land went dark. The crystals in each town started to dim until they broke into many pieces. The goddess’ altar called on Ginger and he knew what he must do to bring balance to the land and fix all the broken crystals. Ginger has to travel the forest to purge the essence of the crimson crystal, collect the shards of the goddess’ crystal and help repair the towns that were destroyed in the process.
Gameplay
It is your standard platformer but it has some unique aspects. The unique thing is the fetch quest in each area that requires you to fix homes. These are small quests or collectathon requirements to fix a house in the area. I really liked doing this and seeing the town completely fixed up after doing all the smaller quests. I just wish there was more to do for them like creating your own house or receiving exclusive items to take back to your own village to build your own.
Personal Experience
I really enjoyed playing the game minus the slow down which could be fixed in patches later. Running around area to area is fun and talking to the locals have some funny lines from time to time. The building aspect was pretty unique but not really fleshed out as much as I hoped it is just one big fetch quest the entire game. I would love to see a Ginger 2 that pushes a bit further with powers and ability to create your own place. My only other issue is load times they can be a bit long and they happen many times while playing. I know this isn’t something they can fix but worth mentioning to people who don’t want to see this screen all the time:
Buy or Wait Thoughts
I would say wait for a sale at $10-15 or wait for patches. I would love to recommend this game but at the current price point is a bit hard since results on the slow down varies from console to console it seems. The game is fun, I liked the areas, the characters and the gameplay but they don’t try to push the envelope when it comes to any of those things so you see is what you get and that isn’t a bad thing. If you are looking for something to hold you over for Yooka Laylee then this is a good game to pick up for the time being. I have no clue what Yooka Laylee will be out but this filled the void of wanting that game for the time being.
UPDATE: 5/30/18
I would give this game a 6 out of 10!
Trailer:
End Credits
Just going to leave the giveaway here since I really want more people to look into this! I do have more copies to give away so look out for those and as always tell me how you enjoyed the review, thoughts and comments, what games would you like me to cover in the future, and what games you are currently playing!
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