Once upon a time there was a big bad wolf, but he was killed, and his body will be “scaled” to reach higher levels. A long, long time ago there was also a magic bean, but infested with harmful and dangerous insects. Different fairy tales from how you remember them from your childhood days? This is exactly what I intend to do Trinity Teamdeveloper studio already known in our videogame scene for having given rise to the successful indie title “Bud Spencer & Terence Hill: Slaps and Beans”, The second chapter of which was presented at the last edition of gamescom. While waiting to get their hands (or rather, fists) on this new title, the team returns together with the publisher 101XP with a new IP on Steam since 13 October. Let’s talk about The Darkest Talesthe new action-adventure 2D con elementi di platforming, whose prologue was unveiled about a year ago in a free version, with the title The Darkest Tales Into the Nightmare. We tell you in our review what we thought about this new all-Italian titleand which we were quite pleasantly impressed with.
The Darkest Tales, classic fairy tales with an original dark touch
In this game we take command of Teddyclassic name attached to a teddy bear, which comes to life alongside Lighty (or Lucetta if you prefer), a chattering fairy. They throw themselves together on a dangerous adventure crossing the classic fairytale world known by all. Here I am painted in a violent, bloody and decidedly darker key of their original version. We know that not all fairy tales actually have the usual happy ending, especially those that have been revisited afterwards by Disney. The reinterpretation of Trinity Team, however, places us in front of many other types of dark shades.
In the first of these, we’re dealing with a rather splatter and not even remotely afraid version of Little Red Riding Hood. In this version, she possesses two daggers and is revealed to be thirsty for revengeas well as eager to unleash the wrath of werewolves against us. These enemies will be dangerous and harmful to our health bar, not too long at first, if we don’t attack them in time. They will be just as much as the other inhabitants of the dark forest that we have to cross, between a mirror and another as a checkpoint. In this first level therefore we are called to survive mechanical wolves and angry bats, coming to the end. Not such an easy feat to accomplish.
The panorama does not change much in subsequent revisitations, where we become part of the fable of Magic Bean. Here it becomes an immense plant that reaches the sky, but infested with dangerous insects, or more
But why does all this happen? The distorted versions of the fairy tales that we live in each level are nothing more than the fruit of equally “broken” memory of Alicia’s childhood. As expected, our mission is to clean up their traces, to bring the correct version of each of them back into the child’s mind.
A convincing approach, but not entirely original
While the various levels are not too long-lived, we took a close look at some game modes that convinced us. Among these, the possibility of gradually increase the skills of our plush hero, and to try them one after the other incrementally and with a good pace of growth. Furthermore, the weapons we have available vary from the entry level one, a pair of fearsome scissors. We will then level these too, to move on to a bow and an ax. There will also be alternative versions of these weapons, of which, however, we do not want to give you advances. However, we can reveal to you that these variants allow us to customize your fighting stylean option of no small importance.
A comparison is also immediate with Hollow Knight, regarding the use of magic. Teddy has a life bar, mentioned above, and a mana container. This fills up every time we defeat enemies and hitting bosses and can be used to restore a section of the life bar. Alternatively, to charge our weapons with energy that will damage enemies more. We finally also have a system of runes and slots: 24 upgrades are hidden between the levels. Be careful though, you will have to choose which ones to equip. The spaces available are only 6 and are unlocked as the story progresses.
Also this progressione in skill tree it is taken from another indie title, like Ori and The Blind Forest, and it was useful for us to improve the skills of the teddy bear. By eliminating enemies and gaining enough experience, Teddy enhances his offensive skills and the ability to transform accumulated mana into life energy (a mechanic also seen in Hollow Knight). On these spells and on the variety of enemies will rest a fundamental element for the success of the experience.
A fairytale game (or almost)
Finally, let’s take a look at the artistic and technical sector, where the fairy-tale atmosphere of Trinity Team was created by combining the graphics of the illustrations of children’s books and the addition of details that make the material consistency of the details. Even the shades of colors are pastel and combined with watercolors, which make the atmosphere even more dreamlike and detached from reality. All this accompanies a management of the movement made fluid by the responsive game engine, which allows us to perform at best the classic 2D platform movement skills. Between jumps and sprints, in addition to a grapple with timer we have generally observed good responses to commands, except for a few scattered episodes. Among these, poor reactivity and suspension in the air for a few tenths of a second more than necessary. These are therefore quite minor bugs.
Circa the design of the level structures instead, we observed one certain repetitiveness and little variation in settings and design of enemies. Some of the latter also struggle to be killed, as well as the boss fights have presented some hindrances in post game over loading or in damage not caused to the enemy. We are looking forward to an upcoming patch in a short time, to be able to put an end to these bugs and have an even better overall experience that is truly enjoyable and pleasant.
The Darkest Tales review in a nutshell
Overall, The Darkest Tales is a fairytale game, net of some technical flaws that we have highlighted earlier. The overall concept design is really nice and successful, were it not for some cast in the gameplay and in some game techniques taken from other successful indie titles. The latter in turn make the result of The Darkest Tales satisfying, which could have enjoyed a little more longevity and some tasty additional original element. In any case, the new title of Trinity Team manages to make its way into the mare magnum of independent videogame productioneven more so by looking at the Italian panorama alone.