Likely due to the lax nature of the game as a whole, players will find that the control system is a bit too floaty for its own good. It is also worth noting that Annika doesn’t even need to deplete all of Lily’s energy to win a fight, players only need to survive long enough for most battles to come to a conclusion. These rhythm sections are fairly simple to learn and players have the option of selecting between Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty before every challenge in case they aren’t familiar with playing a rhythm game but those who are will want to bump the difficulty up to hard as playing on Normal still ends up being far too easy as players can hop left and right and catch individual notes and press-and-hold notes to survive. The majority of the actual conflict in the game comes during the boss battles against Lily as she will launch magical orbs at Annika who, through rhythm based gameplay, can catch them and send them back at her. When not conquering dungeons players will find that the various residents of Spica Island can give Annika extra tasks that generally involve tracking down items or restoring parts of the island with the rewards being simple cosmetic items or the ability to help out during the more gameplay focused mine cart portions of the game. There are enemies that Annika will have to deal with that mostly appear in dungeons and while they can hurt her a bit, she can easily regenerate health either through eating food or standing near healing crystals that are generously scattered throughout every area. It quickly becomes evident that Giraffe and Annika was designed for a simpler experience in mind as players will find that this “action adventure” style game doesn’t really offer much action at all outside of boss battles while the adventure aspect is kept to a minimum near the start as Annika doesn’t even possess the ability to jump, run, or even swim properly until she unlocks the ability by clearing dungeons. This leads to a light, albeit inconsequential, adventure that encourages players to explore various parts of the world and examine everything they come across in an effort to learn more about Spica Island and its inhabitants, which given the game’s short length, is something many may want to do. Players will find that the story is charming at its core and features a great cast of characters that players will encounter and while there are some enemies, none of them feel very threatening and even the boss battles carry little weight behind them. Giraffe and Annika keeps things as simple as they come. In an effort to learn more about herself and help others, Annika continues her journey throughout the colorful Spica Island. With Annika managing to fend off the witch, she absorbs the fragment and witnesses unique visions. Hoping to learn more about herself, Annika undertakes this task and encounters the powerful Witch of the Forest named Lily who also is familiar with the young girl and seeks the star fragments herself.
One of these happens to be Giraffe, a boy that asks for Annika’s help as she is the last Felycan on the island and, as such, is the only one capable of unlocking the special ruins scattered throughout the island that hold special Star Fragments that he is seeking. After a bit of exploration, Annika finds out that while she has no memory of herself there are plenty of people who know her. Players take on the role of Annika, a young girl that has awoken on the flourishing Spica island with seemingly no knowledge about who or where she is. With plenty of charm and designed to be more child friendly, Giraffe and Annika may not be something many would expect but it does offer something a bit unique these days.
In recent years NIS America has been diversifying their releases a bit and while last year saw the simpler Destiny Connect release, this time around the company has returned with Giraffe and Annika.
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), Nintendo SwitchĪmong the numerous massive games released every year there are also a number of simpler titles released that still exude a certain level of charm while delivering smaller adventures.
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