Dracamar kicks off with a generic, jolly tune that sets the mood for the entire game, bright, optimistic and happy.
The plot: Draclantis has emerged from the ocean, an evil empire ruled by King Crad (a crocodile-ish creature) who wishes to disrupt the peaceful lives of Dracamarians
The first thing you have to do is select your starting character from Caliu (female), Foc (male) or Espurna (female). I chose Foc just so I can say "for Foc's sake" at least once during this review.
The only place to start is with the level "The trouble begins in Girolia", which acts as a tutorial area. The controls are standard, with movement on the left stick and look direction on the right stick (unless you reach one of the 2½D sections where the camera is fixed). 'LB' recentres the camera if it gets into a weird position. 'A' is jump & double-jump, 'B' is crouch, 'A'+'B' is a stomp attack, 'X' is spin attack (also extends jumps) and 'Y' is dodge-roll (also useful for squeezing under low passages). The right trigger makes your character sprint.
Freeing a small, cute bunny-type thing called Iko from a suspended cage makes him an instant friend, and he knocks down a tree to make a bridge for you so you can progress to the next area. Iko also doesn't mind being bounced on–so maybe this'll come in handy later, let's hope so, for Foc's sake.
King Crad has absorbed the energy of a divine flower Coroki and converted it into negative energy, transforming the native Okis into aggressive Mokis, who have broken all the bridges linking the formerly peaceful islands of Dracamar. The only way to free the evil ones is by beating the snot out of them (quite literally in the case of one mini-boss called Nassot), and sometimes bouncing on them as well if they're armoured in any way. The game appears to be aimed at the younger end of the market, although a few of the platform sections provide a stiff challenge.
There are trails of stars to collect and you find that you can break various things to pick up more stars. Dracamar is a real collect-a-thon and most levels will need revisiting to find all the imprisoned Okis, tokens and seeds (although you can trade a few extra at the Moon shops for stars.)
The game consists mainly of exploring every nook & cranny, collecting stars, spin-attacking Mokis, collecting the Moki-balls they release, freeing imprisoned Okis and finding Oki seeds to plant on special farm levels around Dracamar. Some levels have a quick little bonus game, best described as "anti-Tetris with Okis" in which you can easily earn 200 extra stars.
You don't have lives in Dracamar, you just lose a few stars when you "die". You can also spend stars on new outfits & hats... (Oh for Foc's sake–why do games developers think we want different HATS?)
Visually Dracamar is nothing special, but it's smooth to play and it loads quickly. There's a bit of clipping, scenery disappearing and a rather odd dot-matrix way of de-resolving things (like trees) that get in the camera's way–but nothing harmed my enjoyment of the adventure.
The game suffers from inconsistent reactions to water, some is deep and none of the characters can swim, and you can wade in shallower water, but it's difficult to tell which is which until you've lost a life. Generally, paler blue water is safe, but it's not always the case, which is annoying. The only other really annoying things about the game are the frequent, difficult-to-see, pointless gaps in scenery that allow characters to fall through. All these do is make the game look a bit 'slapped together', and unfortunately are extremely common in 3D platform adventures.
In keeping with Dracamar's relatively gentle nature, the game's boss battles, one of my pet hates, are present but are never too hard or a chore to complete. It's always clear what you have to do to defeat them and they're all doable without the need for tooth grinding, rage quitting or controller hurling.
Dracamar is a fine game, if a little rough around the edges. Having said that, we enjoyed it just as much as the recently reviewed Ruffy & the Riverside, as well as other 3D platform adventures played in the not-to-distant past, such as Revenge of the Savage Planet, the piratey Trident's Tale or even the excellent Kena: Bridge of Spirits.
Many thanks to Petoons Studio and JF Games PR