Crookhaven +4

I admit to being a fan of Firemaple games going all the way back to their first game, Lost City. Firemaple games always strike the perfect balance of peaceful exploration, compelling stories, and not-too-hard puzzle solving.
Crookhaven has the player exploring a seaside town to solve an ancient mystery and find a lost Pirate treasure.
If you like The Goonies, then you’ll find lots to love in this charming adventure game. The artwork and animation are beautiful and every scene is crafted with care and attention.
It’s one of those games you’ll play over and over again to experience the locations, puzzles and colorful characters.

I’ve been a big fan of fire maple games for years, ever since I found Lost City. But I have to say I’m the most disappointed in this one of all of them. The AI art was very obvious and did not capture the feeling of the art style of the previous games. Using AI art combined with the fact that this is the most expensive game fire maple has released yet is a combination I was not happy about. In terms of gameplay, I found the “puzzles” in this one lacking, too many were just fetch quests for npcs. The map is very large and while that seems like it would be a good thing, many scenes had nothing interactive and existed only to lengthen the walk between other important scenes. I spent an annoying amount of time walking back and forth between the same two npcs ferrying messages. If the creator reads this, please take it as constructive criticism. I love fire maple games and want to play more in the future, but not if they are like this one. The AI art took away the charm of the other games and the map and story felt like they were packed with filler to make the game play longer. I hope the next game from fire maple doesn’t repeat these trends.

I’ve loved all the fire maple games that have come out. However, I noticed immediately that this game used Ai art. I know Ai can be easier and faster to use and get new games out, but it doesn’t look as good and the charm is lost. As well, Ai art is theft. There are currently not regulations and Ai has been stealing from artists without their consent. So if this keeps up I cannot support any future games. I hope in the future the games go back to their charming style and fun gameplay.
Which brings me to the gameplay: I felt as though the gameplay was not as good as the other games and there was more “fetch” quests than puzzles and some of the puzzles as well just felt slightly less intuitive.
Anyway I hope future games get back at what I loved about the old games while still give us a new an exciting game!