REVIEW

htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary Review

by Rob Pritchard, May 10th, 2015

If you believe the sheer amount of doomsday fiction that has been produced, the world will fall into an apocalyptic state in one way or another. Nippon Ichi Software have decided to offer their take on this prediction with htol#NiQ: The Firefly Diary, a puzzle platformer that shares similar traits from other successful titles in the genre such as Fez, Super Paper Mario and the Trine series while also offering a unique perspective into the world beyond our conceivable lifetimes.

At the literal end of the world, a young girl with no memory named Mion awakens to find herself trapped at the bottom of a devastated industrial building. With the assistance of a firefly named Hotaru, and a purple entity that exists only in the World of Shadow, a parallel world in which only the shadows of objects exist, Mion hopes to find her lost memories, and see the outside world with her own eyes. Along the way, you must aid the unlikely trio in clearing the rubble that surrounds Mion, as well as defeating the creatures that hide in the parallel world.

What I found interesting was that you do not directly control Mion’s actions, instead you must rely on both forms of Hotaru to guide the young girl through the labyrinthine underground. In the real world, Hotaru appears as a green ball of light, similar to the appearance of Navi in Ocarina in Time, albeit with a different colour scheme. Unlike the attention seeking fairy, Hotaru remains entirely silent and when you move him across the screen, Mion will follow in whichever way she deems appropriate. This could be as a simple action such as walking across a platform, or a more advanced technique such as pushing a crate or pulling a lever. This does work well for the most part, but sometimes Mion’s artificial intelligence causes her to move objects instead of climbing them, leading to some frustrating deaths that could have been avoided.

When you move to the World of Shadow, time temporarily stands still, allowing you to move Hotaru’s doppelganger across any place where shadow has fallen and activate context sensitive areas, as long as it is connected to the area where you are currently situated. I found the Shadow areas to be quite entertaining, especially when you need to backtrack to a seemingly irrelevant area before you can proceed further in the level. Using the shadows forms of the enemy is also possible, and some puzzles can only be solved when Mion has been placed in imminent danger by one of their attacks.

Instead of being given her memories by the use of a cut scene, The Firefly Diary takes you into a mini game set in an isometric world whenever you discover one of the fragments. These brightly coloured sequences represent her past, and usually consist of acquiring an item for another character to make them happy. The three types of gameplay work well together, which is a shame that the game only lasts for just over an hour. You can return to previous levels to collect missed items, but if you are expecting a grand reward for your labours, you will be slightly disappointed.

The games art style is perfectly suited to an apocalyptic landscape, with the combination of brown, black and green offering a vast contrast to Mion’s blond appearance, showing that she is the only ray of hope in a desolate environment. When inside the shadows, all you see are the silhouettes of the people and objects around you, which makes navigation a much easier task. Certain elements of the environment are made more distinct such as collectables, which is beneficial as the only text in the game is a brief description of the controls when you start to play. Despite its cute looks, there are some gruesome scenes and use of blood whenever Mion is crushed, which might cause a moment of emotional distress.

The soundtrack of The Firefly Diary has an echoing ambience which is well suited to the subterranean areas, and a slightly more jovial sound for when you are in the isometric world. With limited sound effects and no speech at any time in the game, you will need to look closely at the clues to unlock each lost memory. This is a refreshing touch considering the mainstream developers trend to add solution providing voice hints to every puzzle, or a overly visual alternative.

Overall, htol#NiQ: The Firefly Diary is a puzzle platformer that offers a refreshing perspective on the end of the world, with a set of puzzles that will challenge even the most lateral thinking gamers. The parallel world mechanics in combination with intuitive isometric mini games and an intriguing narrative offers a unique fulfilling experience, despite its short length, limited replay ability and occasional issues with the artificial intelligence.