Name: Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion
Developer: Climax Studios
Publisher: Outright Games
Released: 20.07.2018
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch
Reviewed on: PlayStation 4
Acquired:A copy of this game was provided from publisher for review purpose
Adventure Time is one of those series I have never fully understood, being one of Cartoon Network’s most showed tv shows. I naturally thought it was kid’s show, but it’s fan base comes in all ages. But who have they aimed for when making Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion? Mixing the humor from the tv show with a simple turn based RPG Let’s find out.
Story
Finn and Jake wakes up to their house being flooded, they head on a adventure to find out who is responsible. The duo set out to discover what’s going on, only to find that the string of events unraveling will lead them on a crazy adventure, touching on many moments from the TV show and collecting as many of the well-loved cast as possible.
It helps that the voicework is superb, only occasionally stutter from missteps in comic timing that come from loading in different lines. At times, a joke will fall flat because the punchline takes too long to load, or the visual gag loses impact for similar reasons. Away from these rare occurrences, The Pirates of The Enchiridion feels as close as we’ll ever get to an interactive version of the show. The humour is on point, often referencing past plot lines. The characters have retained their personality and charisma and the writing is consistently solid. Its humor is a mix of random dumb fun, that I really loved, maybe made me consider starting to watch the series (which I haven’t yet). But story wise fans of the series will definitely find the most fun of it all.
7/10
Graphics
Adventure Time’s art style is faithfully recreated in 3D, with lots of colors and detail in the environments. The art style reflects the cartoon nicely, and everything including locations like the Candy and Ice Kingdoms is faithfully recreated. So for those that have wished to roam freely in the world of Adventure Time shouldn’t be disappointed. The graphics and some of the gameplay might remind you of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, but the best part of this type of cel-shaded graphics is that it ages well (maybe). There were occasionally drop in frames, but it wasn’t nearly enough to ruin the experience. And some parts of the game might be missing some details to make the environments feel fuller and the battleground more interesting.
8/10
Gameplay
Turn Based RPG’s can sometimes be a bit complex with a lot of gimmicks and stuff to keep a hold on. But Pirates of the Enchiridion are making it easy learn, and you know early what to do and when to do it. This makes the game really approachable for younger fans, but also for people that haven’t played much of these type of games. Unfortunately this has made a sacrifice on the difficulty for those playing for a challenge. The game only becomes easier as you progress, with new weapons and items to use that you unlocked. Each character has their own abilities that you put together to make your team, like the tank, support and so on. But at a point you can be so overpowered that the random encounters just feel bland and a waste of time.
There is exploration to do to find treasures and solve puzzles, but it can feel a bit unnecessary at times traveling all that distance just for a small quest with a set path and not much exploration. Jake can also transform himself during the free roam into a scooter or become huge to replace ladders. But it doesn’t add anything to the game since you aren’t going any faster than you would without him. But one thing that was a small portion of the fun in the interrogation mode, where you will be interrogating different characters to get important information in oldfashioned “good cop/bad cop” style. When interacting you will be using a “wheel of fortune” with four choices, Jake good/bad and Finn good/bad. You will have balance this and of course press the wheel at the right time to get as much information as possible. And it’s just hilariously to watch them put on their interrogation hats and switch between good and bad.
5/10
Controls
Pirates of the Enchiridion controls pretty easy, with standard layout and not much complexity. When exploring it works well, no input lag is detected and using the boat is no problem. When battling you use right stick to choose action by pushing in that direction, so sometimes when I was a bit fast pushing I often ended up choosing a completely different action than what I aimed for. It was a small annoyance at times, so maybe a bit more traditional system would have been preferred.
7/10
Replay Value
So after beating the story what more is there to do? You can explore a bit more to find more items and level up your characters. And also explore around the world, but there is limited how much of fun that is. And with the game being so easy you will be finishing pretty fast, so all in all it can feel a bit shallow after completion and nothing much to motivate you to play through again.
5/10
You can check out our review policy right here, if you wonder how we set our scores.
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Story 7
7/10
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Graphics 8
8/10
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Gameplay 5
5/10
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Controls 7
7/10
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Replay Value 5
5/10
Verdict
Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion may be one of the more diverse experience fans of the series can get in a game. Or easy and approachable for those that never play turn-based RPG’s. But for those looking for a challenge and a huge world to explore and uncover huge things, it will probably disappoint. It would rather seem like this is more of a game targeted for kids with its simplicity. But it’s writing and characters definitely will please fans of the series.
Overall
6.4/10
User Review
( votes)Pros
- Great visuals
- Superb voice-acting
- Interrogation mode
Cons
- Too easy
- Not as interesting battles
- Shallow world
