Giraffe and Annika Review ( Nintendo Switch )

Review code used, with many thanks to NIS America

Giraffe and Annika is a new 3D adventure title by developer Atelier Mimina and published by NIS America.

Meeting Giraffe

After waking from a strange dream, Annika, a cute cat-eared girl, finds herself stranded on strange but beautiful Spica island and having no recollection of her past. But bizarrely, everyone on the island seems to know who Annika is. She ends up meeting a young man named Giraffe, who informs her of three elemental crystals that he needs her to find. After a little push back to the idea of helping Giraffe, Annika eventually decides to help him and the game and quests begins. Along the way, Annika will gradually recover her lost memories, and she will learn about the island itself, the Felycan Cat goddess and uncover the secrets hidden throughout.

Giraffe and Annika LadiesGamers — Meeting Giraffe.

The majority of the story is relayed to the player through manga-style cut scenes and I found that during those cut scenes this is when the personality of the cast really shines through, and the cut scenes are appropriately detailed with cute hand- drawn pictures.

Giraffe and Annika is a fairly linear game, you can explore of the beaten track, though there isn’t much to see or interact with off the path. A day and night cycle in the game provides some variety to the quests as there are some quests that can’t be completed during daylight hours.

Giraffe and Annika is a pacifist game, the only combat there is in the game takes place at the end of each dungeon when you take part in a rhythm battle with the dungeon boss. The only other encounters with enemies in the overworld are with ghosts. Again, you don’t fight these ghosts, instead you dodge their attack as they shoot projectiles at Annika as she runs past. These very easy to dodge, either by using a object that has been well placed to block Annika from the attack, or just run past them as I did.

At the start of the game and probably for a good hour or more of playing Giraffe and Annika, I didn’t like the scant combat feature of the game, however the more I played the game I came to realise that the pacifist side of the game fits in really well with the story. After all, Annika is a little girl, a young girl who really shouldn’t be faced with combat and fighting anyway.

There are several stories to be shared, but it’s the main one that will probably keep players enthralled and it opens up bit by bit as you progress through the world. It tells an emotional story through the eyes of a cat-eared girl. I won’t go into to much more detail about the story other than to say Giraffe and Annika offers relaxed gameplay with the plucky optimism of an innocent heroine.

Puzzles and Humanoid Animals

Giraffe and Annika has a few puzzle elements where players collect items and run errands for other characters similar to fetch quests. Most of these tasks are straight forward, but again it fits in with the narrative.

You’ll meet humanoid animal characters along the way. Such as Mrs O’Hare who is missing her six little bunny rabbits and of course Annika agrees to find them all for her, in return the game progresses some more. There are a few secrets in the landscape to search for, like finding collectibles. Meowster pieces are drawings of cats which you collect for the Ghost Barron in the Spook gallery in return for a prize.

The driving mechanics of the game are asking around and doing a small amount of exploring to figure out progression of the story line throughout the game.

Boss Rhythm Battles

There are five dungeons to play through, again they are set on a linear path, in through the door of the dungeon and follow the path until you reach the dungeon boss. I would have expected a less linear path in the dungeons to be able to explore more but that wasn’t possible. I was slightly disappointed that I couldn’t explore like I wanted to as you can’t get to far off the path.

You get to enter the first dungeon almost immediately after agreeing to help Giraffe. Annika doesn’t actually have a weapon or anything to defend herself with. She does receive a necklace from Giraffe that is said to protect her when it matters most. However, for most of the dungeon, she is defenseless. You’ll have to avoid the evil ghosts and obstacles by running around them and hoping they lose sight of you when they do detect you.

When you do reach the end of the dungeon this is where Annika meets the villain of the story, Witch Lily for the first time, she is the boss of the dungeon. You’ll take part in a rhythm based combat battle to defeat the boss. As Annika doesn’t have a weapon, I did wonder how the battle was going to proceed. But low and behold, the necklace that Giraffe has given Annika magically provides Annika with a staff to use.

Before each battle begins you will have the option of easy, normal and hard combat, and you are scored on how many great, good, and okay hits and misses you achieve during the fight.

You have to battle in time to beat-based music by tossing the projectiles that the boss fires in your direction back to the boss and by dodging their attacks. You move left or right to dodge the attacks and use the A button to hit your mark at the right moment. There are two types of attacks the boss can fling at you: a normal beat attack plus a long beat attack. You must hold the A button down during the long beat attacks. Missing any notes attacks results in Annika taking damage and losing health.

As the battle progresses and once Annika has hit the boss with enough projectiles, a cut scene starts to play and Annika delivers a deadly blow to the boss, there in ending the battle. Sadly a cut scene excludes you from talking part in the final blow as it happens automatically and all you can do is watch it occur.

The music during theses battle is upbeat and the boss battle are quite enjoyable, though the actual battle Itself is definitely not challenging. I breezed through them all in less than a few minutes on the hard setting.

After a boss is vanquished Annika receives a new power imparted on her by the crystals she obtains in each dungeon. New powers such as being able to swim in water for a little bit longer, and a dash jump for example. I found the powers that are bestowed on Annika after a boss battle a bit underwhelming as most games start a player with the very basics of running and jumping.

The last couple of dungeons in the game mixes things up a bit, in the previous dungeons you follow a predetermined path as I’ve said. And the same happens in the last few dungeons as well, however you’re accompanied by a cat. Together you must traverse a series of platforms, running and jumping, and timing your jumps properly to succeed.

Standing on various switches allows a walkway to appear so either Annika or the cat can proceed. At times these sequences where tedious as the cat would get struck on an obstacle or disappear from view completely leaving me wondering where the cat had gone. And since you can’t progress this particular section without the cat, there where a few times Annika had to die and restart at the last checkpoint so the cat would reappear.

The sweet storyline is really what holds the game together. The world of Giraffe and Annika is a fairly empty place aside from the characters you can interact with. It seems the developers had grand ideas of a sprawling open world, only to have overwhelmed themselves with their own ambition. It will show throughout your play-through as the world is empty of items to interact with. I also felt that the rhythm based battles where an idea that was tacked on at the last minute by the developers as they don’t really fit in with the rest of the gameplay Why go for a rhythm based battle when the rest of the game is billed as an adventure?

Visuals and Controls

Giraffe and Annika is controlled using the joy-cons. Everything works as it should and the controls are responsive.

As for the music in Giraffe and Annika, it is enjoyable and upbeat. On the main island the track will switch when it becomes day or night which is a nice touch. Each dungeon has its own track that is related to the theme of the dungeon itself. Story parts also have their own music attached to them, together with sound effects, as you scroll between the different comic parts in the cut scenes.

Graphically Giraffe and Annika is very pleasing to the eye. Full of vibrant colour throughout the landscapes with the sea surrounding the island full of fish and coral.

The manga art style used in the cut scenes are gorgeous and very well drawn. Even the Meowster art which are drawings of cats you collect throughout the game are brilliantly drawn.

Conclusion

Giraffe and Annika is heavily focused on the story. However, at the very start of the game it does feels like the story is all over the place. Annika helping Giraffe stays consistent, but as more details get added they don’t always make that much sense. There are a few silly things present and by the end of the game a lot of things are cleared up. The flashbacks that Annika experiences give hints about the ending but it’s only truly at the end that everything clicks in place.

The game is a little short by my standards, my playtime was under 8 hours and especially for the middle of the road price tag of £30, I do feel it is slightly overpriced.

Giraffe and Annika is packed full of charm, a little childlike innocence, and a few rhythmic battles that break up the questing. They make up the unique title that Giraffe and Annika is and though I enjoyed the game I didn’t find it much of a challenge.

Which bring me to the conclusion that Giraffe and Annika would be a fantastic game for a family with younger children to play-through together to discover the Islands of Spica. Alternatively, an adult can enjoy the game as well but don’t expect much of a challenge in any part of the game, just a chilled out experience.

Final Verdict: I Like It A Lot