The Curse of the Leviathan review — A tale of friendship

Within the earlier years of the video games business, video games marketed at children had been usually horrible. This was very true as soon as licensed merchandise, just like the notorious E.T recreation on Atari 2600, started to floor. The sheer quantity of shovelware on the time was nearly spectacular. Fortunately, in recent times we’ve seen these video games largely phased out by high quality merchandise led by gifted indie builders. And no recreation is extra proof of that than Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan.

Rainbow Billy is a puzzle platformer, seemingly impressed by Paper Mario. It shares rather a lot in widespread with Nintendo’s RPG spin-off. Each are 2.5D puzzle video games, each characteristic RPG components, and each use turn-based fight. The Curse of the Leviathan even makes use of its world’s lack of colour as the principle story level. Consequently, comparisons to Paper Mario: Coloration Splash are inevitable. However while that recreation did not ship on its guarantees, I believe Rainbow Billy rises properly previous expectations.

The Leviathan’s curse

The story follows Billy, a younger adventurer filled with spirit. Someday he and his associates are celebrating the Star Harbor Pageant and by accident get up the Leviathan. Channeling his anger, the Leviathan punishes Billy by trapping all the world’s colour in three orbs. This drains The World of Creativeness, turning all the things black and white.

The Leviathan arms these orbs to his three most trusted allies to guard. Till all three are collected, the world will stay shrouded in darkness for eternity. It’s as much as Billy to gather these orbs and save the day. Fortunately, he isn’t alone. His companions Rodrigo the punching rod and Pal-Ship the boat accompany him.

Land ahoy!

You’re challenged with touring by means of a number of completely different worlds, every with their very own number of islands, as a way to accumulate the three coloured orbs. Getting to those requires Pal-Ship to sail throughout the darkish oceans, consuming Rainbow Gas within the course of. This gasoline mechanic limits how far you possibly can journey with out refueling.

When an island is first reached there isn’t a option to refuel, as Pal-Ship makes use of colour to refill. Nonetheless, by clearing an island and saving its occupant from despair, it’s potential to deliver colour again to that phase of the map. As soon as cleared, Pal-Ship can refuel at that island and you may go on to achieve additional areas.

Among the bigger islands require a number of people to be helped to deliver colour again to them, whereas the smaller, optionally available islands supply helpful bonuses for exploring them. For instance, some could have Ideas on them, that are small creatures which you can commerce in for everlasting upgrades. These guys additionally produce some humorous bathe ideas like this: “If I punch myself within the face and it hurts does that make me sturdy or weak?”

Rainbow Billy does a wonderful job of encouraging exploration. The unlocks themselves are good, but it surely’s the smaller touches that I recognize most. Be it the humorous dialogue, partaking puzzles, or enjoyable platforming segments, The Curse of the Leviathan all the time gives one thing to stay up for. Not as soon as was I touring to an island as a result of I felt I needed to. I used to be doing it as a result of I wished to. Creating a grind that doesn’t really feel like a grind is a talent that only a few recreation builders possess.

Make associates, not struggle

For the sake of ease and understanding, I described Rainbow Billy as having turn-based fight, however that isn’t strictly true. You by no means instantly assault anybody, and there isn’t even a well being bar. As a substitute, the mission of every confrontation is to pay attention and discuss to distressed people and assist them overcome their issues.

This will appear odd, but it surely really works remarkably properly in apply. Every enemy requires a sure number of shapes to be helped, and these shapes are revealed all through the struggle by reassuring the opponent. It’s essential to pay attention to every character’s troubles after which resolve what the very best factor to say to them is.

Nonetheless, revealing the shapes is barely half the battle. So as to fill these shapes, characters need to be performed onto the sphere. At first of a battle, Billy attracts a hand randomly chosen from the characters he has beforehand saved. When performed, every of those characters fill as much as three completely different shapes relying on their social stage. Every buddy’s social stage will be raised by both giving them a present or feeding them meals they like.

Moreover, every character has an impact that must be thought-about when selecting who to play. For instance, Lavarilla stays in play for an additional flip when performed. So, if an opponent requires a number of of one of many three shapes he covers, it could be a good suggestion to play him first to save lots of an motion subsequent flip.

Typically you’ll get unfortunate and never have a personality that’s appropriate. On this state of affairs, it’s essential to redraw a brand new hand and hope for the very best. These RNG facets aren’t too troubling at decrease difficulties however can pose an actual problem as soon as scaled up. When performed on laborious issue, Rainbow Billy can turn into a surprisingly powerful recreation to beat.

This extremely versatile issue is nice because it doesn’t overly restrict the sport’s target market. Although Rainbow Billy is clearly marketed in direction of kids, it has sufficient there for adults to get pleasure from, too. I think about this is able to make a wonderful recreation for folks to play alongside their children. In any case, Rainbow Billy additionally teaches some priceless classes about complicated social subjects like poisonous masculinity, loneliness, and LGBT relationships. The sport handles these subjects in a method that isn’t overbearing and doesn’t take away from the gameplay.

A lot colour

It in all probability shouldn’t come as a shock {that a} 2.5D recreation with cartoon aesthetics runs properly on PC. With an RTX 2060 at 1440p, I used to be managing in extra of 250 frames per second with zero notable efficiency drops. PC players trying to obtain optimum body charges will need GTX 970 or higher, though a lot weaker playing cards like a GTX 650 will nonetheless run Rainbow Billy nice. That is an exceptionally well-optimized title.

As for its visuals, Rainbow Billy is a formidable recreation that makes probably the most of attractive hand-drawn 2D artwork. Given the sport’s colour theme, it solely appears becoming that it makes use of a full colour palette. There are vivid blues, greens, purples, reds, and nearly each different colour that you could possibly need. It may not be an aesthetic for everybody, however I like it. It jogs my memory of my favourite cartoons rising up like Journey Time, and who doesn’t love a superb slice of nostalgia?

A recreation for all audiences

When excited about what makes Disney movies so good I all the time come again to 1 conclusion. It’s that they are often loved by each children and adults alike. In some ways, Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan is the online game equal of that. It has the colours and healthful humor that youngsters will love however sufficient gameplay depth for adults to get sucked in too.

The fight, should you may even name it that, is attention-grabbing but doesn’t distinction with the sport’s overriding message. When individuals are down, it’s finest to achieve out and attempt to assist them. If Billy and his associates can do it, so are you able to. Even when Rainbow Billy is geared toward children, there are classes that every one of us can study from taking part in by means of it. Packaging such a robust message in a recreation as enjoyable as this leads to a product that appeals to a large viewers. The achievement of making such a recreation alone makes The Curse of the Leviathan a particular product that’s properly value taking part in.