Hirogami from Bandai Namco Studios Singapore and Kakehashi Games certainly looks like a colourful adventure. With a papercraft aesthetic and puzzle platforming at its core, is this game worth checking out?
Story and Setting
In Hirogami, players will take on the role of Hiro, an entertainer from Shishiki papercraft village. While out away from his village, Hiro encounters a terrible force known as the “Blight”. His more advanced papercraft abilities are seemingly stripped away, and he rushes back home to find out what’s happening. Here he encounters one of the village elders and a warrior known as Shiori, and he sets forth on a quest to defeat the blight and save his world from destruction.
Gameplay and Mechanics
So while all of that sounds good on, pun intended, paper, Hirogami’s execution falls a tiny bit flat, and I’ll get to why shortly. First and foremost, though, the gameplay in Hirogami is actually really good. The game revolves around puzzle platforming with combat interspersed between. Players will make use of their papercraft abilities to traverse levels, defeat blight enemies, and collect items.
Players can transform Hiro into various papercraft animals, and these are essential to progressing throughout the story. You can also transform into a paper plane or a flat piece of paper and make use of wind currents to get around. Hiro can use a paper fan to create mini gusts of wind, too, and this will come in handy a lot while platforming through levels.
Gameplay Frustrations and Camera Issues
The game’s major problems only start to creep in a bit later on, once you’ve progressed a few levels into it. The most noticeable one is the camera control. There are some segments in the game where the camera will shift into a position which will plain and straight out infuriate you because of the way it obscures or obstructs your movement and just makes things way more frustrating than they should be.
For example, there are some segments where you’ll have to get through a bunch of traps, and because the camera is fixed in a certain position, you’ll have to try to manoeuvre your way through with some precision movement, which can be quite a challenge. This occurs quite often, and the difficulty curve spikes intensely because of the camera quirks.
Collectables and Progression
The second major gripe I had is with the collectables, which are required to progress through the story but are tied to specific objectives in levels. This artificially inflates the game’s playtime by making you replay levels to complete specific objectives just so that you can progress by obtaining Craniches. Some of these objectives are also really problematic to do, so you’ll be stuck trying to complete them for quite a while.
Combat and Boss Fights
Combat in Hirogami felt satisfying, and the puzzle platforming can really be great in the game at times, but when the camera gets in the way, it really does sour the experience and prevents the game from reaching new heights. Boss fights in Hirogami are ok, but some will definitely cause you a lot of stress because of their mechanics and the need for you to dodge with precision. Seasoned veteran platform game players should be fine, though.
Graphics and Art Style
Graphically, Hirogami looks fantastic with a papercraft theme that is quite beautiful to look at. Hiro himself looks great as a papercraft warrior, and the game’s world, while minimalist in terms of visual splendour, still looks great with its vibrant papercraft environmental aspects. Hiro’s other papercraft forms also look amazing, and you’ll maybe be inspired to take up origami as a side hobby after playing the game and seeing what can be done with paper.
Hirogami reminded me of an old PS Vita title known as Tearaway, and the papercraft visuals also reminded me of Paper Mario, but just without the great execution of both of those titles.
Sound and Music
The soundtrack of Hirogami is great, with the sound effects being quite well done and appropriate for the type of game it is. Unfortunately, there isn’t any voice acting in the game, so you’ll be reading a lot of the in-game story and lore, but at least the soundtrack is great.
Final Verdict
Overall, Hirogami is a great title from a small video game studio that has put a lot of heart into their game. It’s just a shame that some poor game design decisions prevent it from truly excelling. However, given the game’s rather short length, it’s definitely worth checking out and will keep you entertained for a good 7 hours or so. Just be warned, there will be moments of sheer frustration inbound thanks to a combination of camera issues and gameplay decisions.
Read more awesome previews >>here<<.
Game code was provided to us for the express purpose of reviewing.
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