Folklore

Folklore, known in Japan as FolksSoul -Ushinawareta Denshō- (FolksSoul -失われた伝承-, FōkusuSōru -Ushinawareta Denshō-?, literally "FolksSoul: Lost Legend") is a video game released exclusively for the PlayStation 3.

The game is a real-time action-adventure game with role-playing elements. The game centers around a young blonde woman named Ellen, and a journalist named Keats, both playable characters. Together they unravel the mystery that the quaint village of Doolin hides, the mystery that can only be solved by seeking the memories of the dead in the dangerous, Folk-ridden Netherworld.

Plot

The game takes place in the present day. A young university student by the name of Ellen is lured to the sea-side village of Doolin, in Ireland, led by a letter from her supposedly dead mother, telling her to meet her at the Cliff of Sidhe, Doolin. Meanwhile Keats, a journalist from an occult magazine called Unknown Realms, receives a telephone call from a woman in distress telling him to come to Doolin, and crying about Faerys who would kill her. Though he suspects it is a prank call, he pays a visit to Doolin Village. When Ellen arrives at the Cliff of Sidhe, she sees a cloaked figure resting at the edge. Thinking it is her mother, she calls out to the figure, but it does not reply. Keats arrives on the scene then, and asks Ellen if she was the one who called him. When she, surprised, says no, he wonders aloud if the figure at the cliff was the one who called him. A strong gust of wind suddenly blows across the cliff, and when it dies down, the figure has disappeared. Ellen, distraught, runs down to the beach to find the body and bumps into a girl from the village named Suzette. She questions Ellen, but she is so distressed that she faints. Keats arrives and, after questioning Suzette about Ellen, decides that the best thing would be to bring Ellen back into the village. Suzette brings Ellen to a small hut and Keats to a base on the edge of the village. That night, they are both visited by strange voices who invite them to the village pub, where they meet creatures they had never before thought existed, and are taken to a place that surpasses all imagination: the Netherworld, realm of the dead. Soon Keats and Ellen find themselves in a 17-year-old murder mystery, where the answers seem to only be found in the Netherworld, the land that can only be accessed from one place in the world, Doolin. To solve the crime and reveal Ellen's forgotten past, they will need to venture to the Netherworld as travelers, where Faerys and Folks alike await them.

Along the way they meet many different characters, like Scarecrow and Belgae, who help out both of them in their quest. Throughout the game, players learn about the chaos the Netherworld was put into by a previous Netherworld traveller. The eventual goal is to reach the core of the Netherworld and "fix" it. The game takes two different perpectives in the story that shows the different views and opinions of many different characters. While traveling in the Netherworld, many mysterious murders start to occur in the village of Doolin after the appearance of "The Hag." The people murdered are the only ones who knew the truth (or part of the truth) of Ellen's past.

Gameplay

There are seven unique realms, each farther from the Earth than the one before. Ellen and Keats journey each realm separately. Each realm represents a certain aspect of human thoughts of death and desires for an afterlife. The Fairy Realm, for example, is the human personification of "Heaven," created from the desire of a pleasurable afterlife, while Hellrealm is the opposite, for Hell, where souls are judged and those who have sinned are punished. Warcadia represents the fear of death that rages in mortal hearts, while the Undersea City is a once-beautiful, flourishing water realm that was believed to be where the gods resided. The Endless Corridor was created from the belief that there is nothingness after death, and the Netherworld Core lies at the heart of the Netherworld and is home to two trees which provide a link to the living world.

Each realm has their own Folks to battle against and absorb. In total, there are over a hundred beasts, characters, and monsters to interact with. Using the SIXAXIS wireless controller or the Dualshock 3 wireless controller, the player must battle monsters and literally "shake" them into submission and "yank" their souls (Known in the game as ids) from their bodies. The absorbed powers can then be used to capture or defeat the monsters that lie ahead. Players can choose between playing as Keats or as Ellen; the gameplay differs depending on who is chosen. Decisions made in one story-line will directly impact the path of the other, though this only appears later in the story. A main difference is that Ellen fully materializes the Folks she uses, meaning that they can be used as a defense. Keats, however, only materializes either a bodypart or a transparent body of it. another gameplay element is that Ellen's magic bar (which allows to her to use her Folk) Regenerates slowly, while Keats' instantly fills after not using his abilities for a while. Ellen also has the ability to wear different Cloaks that protect her from status Ailments, while Keats has a 'release' ability that makes all of his attacks stronger for a limited time.

Development

Folklore was announced at E3 2006 which was said to be "The next generation of dark fantasy." It was to be developed by Game Republic, under Yoshiki Okamoto, a video game designer who worked on popular games, including Resident Evil.

The game was originally titled "Unknown Realms" before being renamed to "Folklore". The original name still has a presence in the game, as it is the magazine that Keats writes for.

A playable demo was first released on the Japanese PlayStation Network (PSN) on May 30th, 2007. The demo features the two playable characters Keats and Ellen, with the ability to chose from either of them. The demo includes a series of short comic-style cutscenes, exploration of a sea-side village and a trek through a series of playable areas where a player is introduced to the gameplay basics (i.e. fighting, how to acquire new Ids, etc.). This demo was all in Japanese aside from the lines in English that both protagonists would occasionally exclaim during combat.

An English speech demonstration was released on the European PSN on August 22nd, 2007; as a limited time offering, it was removed from the PlayStation Store on August 31st. This demo was released to the North American PSN on August 23, 2007. An English/Traditional Chinese speech version demo was released on the Asian PSN on September 4th, 2007. Recently, the original Japanese demo was released in English version on North American PSN.