30 Minutes With The K'hyurbhi Lands

In this series, I'll be examining the Heart of the OHR contest entries in brief 30 minute sessions. As soon as the timer in-game hits 30 minutes, I quite and write this review. 

Author: TheCube (Clint Emsley)

I'll admit it, I was a little worried about The K'hyurbhi Lands. Even without the apostrophes and silent H's, the title betrays the game's roots as a love letter to a certain Nintendo property. Many of the characters seem like mutant cousins to the great pink blob himself. Now that I've played the game, my fears that this would be the fan fiction equivalent of an RPG have all but dissipated. This is a very good game.

Way to accuse the king of regicide with no evidence, Nummer

The game starts out with three little fellows on a boat, two of which are recognizable as metaphorical descendants of Kirby, although a bit more beardy and with more horns. The other character is a strange little feathered...bird...hand puppet...thing. I was immediately taken away by guards and got pummeled by the king after accusing him of murdering his predecessor. Like you do.

After this, I (as the player) was given the reigns and was able to decide who was going to train up their special skill set. I chose to train Nummer, the Numnum (that's the green-feathered guy) in the art of foodfighting. I delved into a decaying library full of Pikachu-like things and biting books to retrieve two books filled with ancient cooking kung-fu. Unfortunately, as soon as I learned the skills, my time was up and I had to quit. 

I was thinking the same thing, but was too afraid to say it.

That's probably what surprised me the most about this session: I had no idea that 30 minutes had flown by. The game had me under its spell from the outset, despite my misgivings. This is the work of a skilled game creator, and one who has clearly thought about the setting and characters for a long time. The Numnum kingdom is rich with history and races, and the consistency is, so far, very nice. The characters are archetypical, sure, but quite well written and entertaining. The music is very fitting and none of it is ripped from any commercial sources, which adds to the feeling of being in a world as different as can be from my own.

This is a dangerous combo. Cute, though.

The graphics deserve their own paragraph, to be sure. The style is deliberately retro and looks like something straight out of an NES game, except with nicer colors. The character design, however, is decidedly modern and cartoony. It's hard not to think of Pokemon and other Nintendo graphic design, which is meant as the highest compliment. The sprites are cleanly outlined and drawn with bold colors. The backgrounds are lush but not distracting. The one niggle I have is with the one boss I (successfully) fought, who is human. Her sprite in battle is a little...muddled, or something. Still, not enough to make any real complaint of and hardly an issue in the grand scheme of things. 

The battles are, for the most part, quick and engaging. I've yet to master a lot of skills, so it mostly ended up being "mash space until you win" but this didn't end up being tedious. The battle animations are very energetic and kinetic, so it's a joy to watch the combat play out. I'm looking forward to getting some strange and useful skills to liven things up once the whole team is back together.

Nummer doesn't get out much.

The one thing I'm having a hard time getting over completely is the same problem I had with the game in the first place. There are a number of enemies and characters who are very obviously inspired by other sources. They're not exactly like their inspirations, but the path back to Nintendo is pretty clear. It's not anything that detracts from the game itself, but it's a bit distracting. I really think that FnrrfYgmSchnish, the creator behind the game, is a talented artist, and I'd love to see more of his extremely original work. I'm sure that I will, too, once I play more of the game.

And that's the real message I'm trying to get across. I will be playing this game more. The combination of entrancing graphics, clever and humorous writing, and compelling battles remind me of a less cynical era of gaming. I'm almost certain this will be the first game I come back to once I get all of the other 30 minute sessions written, and I'm glad for it. 

This was going to be the game over screen, but the game just quits when you die. So here's something about beer.