NAIRI: Rising Tide by HomeBearStudio and Houndpicked Games is a point and click puzzle adventure game modeled after older point and click games that defined older generations of games. This is the second game following Nairi and is a direct follow up of NAIRI: Tower Of Shirin. The overall game itself focuses on puzzle solving with some additional gameplay elements to prevent the game from being stale. Aside from the gameplay, the art direction of the game feels quite similar to a storybook and this even extends to some parts of the story itself. This makes the game perfect for those who want to play games with their kids without the need to worry about some high-octane action that has dominated the market.
The puzzles in NAIRI: Rising Tide builds off of the puzzles displayed in the first game and expands upon them to showcase the creativity of the developers. This is in direct correlation to when players do solve them, they can feel a sense of accomplishment. Moreover, if the puzzles are quite challenging the player can spend coins for hints to make solving those puzzles a whole lot easier. Moreover, there are so many puzzles that can be utilized without them feeling too repetitive, so they introduced the toolbelt allowing player to combine or utilize various items to progress through the game itself. This allows for another layer in problem solving, making these puzzles more complex as opposed to keeping them from being too simple and making the game grow stale. By making the game this way allows for the developers to focus on making the design of the game look amazing befitting the audience they are going for.
The game borrows a lot of storybook elements for children, in the art style, music, and story direction. The art style is reminiscent of cartoon themed children’s books which makes a lot of sense as the game is meant for them and encourages their ability to think more critically. Moreover, this keeps this game in line with the previous one in terms of art style, so there are no harsh and sudden changes between the two for the most part. This is even felt in the music often using some soothing tones that can attributed as white noise with the added benefit of being uplifting and perfect for studying. The only other series of games that have a similar sort of design focusing on making music play a role in a game is from Ace Attorney from CAPCOM. By utilizing music as a source of empowerment for the player is an important part in the puzzle-based genre of games as it has to allow the player some time to think. Aside from the music, the story for the game has to follow through with the events after NAIRI: Tower of Shirin and continues with the storybook focused narrative to ensure that there are lessons sparse throughout the game.
HomeBearStudio and Houndpicked Games have made a good follow-up game and overall feels like it will be a great game for parents to play with their kids. This makes the game become more of a family bonding experience for families, due to how it was developed. With the cartoon styled point and click adventure children can play the game as the parents can possibly do voice overs of the characters to make the experience a lot more impactful.
NAIRI: Rising Tide is a solid 8/10 game for parents who want a game they can share with their kids.
You can find NAIRI: Rising Tide on the Nintendo eShop.
Related: Reviews by Kyle Manila
I would describe myself when interacting with games as a strategist with a pension for stealth and loud explosions.
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