From the Box Review: Chulip
July 3rd, 2010Last time I hoped for a more obscure game out of the box, and boy did I get one. First, a little back story.
I had a class on interface design for games. One of our in-class assignments was to look at a manual for a Japanese game and figure out what sort of game it was just going by the images in the manual. Our group received an odd game called Chulip, and figured it might be some sort of urban Animal Crossing with elements of letter delivery and something involving nature.
This is not what the game is.
Chulip is not a game about delivering letters to townsfolk and bringing nature back into a bleak city.
Chulip is a game about kissing everyone.
We were showed a video of the game in action, and we were even more confused than when we were trying to figure the game out from the Japanese manual. The game was so strange, that I figured it would never get localized to America. So when I saw an English version at a Gamestop for 10 bucks, I had to buy it.
You play as a poor boy who has just moved to the city and is trying to win the heart of the girl of his dreams. But she says that he is not her type. The boy needs a better reputation. This reputation is improved by smacking lips with everyone in town. And also everyone in nearby towns. And people living underground. Kiss enough people, and the Lovers Tree will reward you by strengthening your heart.
But you can’t just walk up to people and kiss them. They need to like you first. Or be generally in a good mood. The people you can kiss in this game can be divided into two groups. People who live in the towns and people who live underground. People who live underground come out of their holes at a certain time of day. They might be angry, in which case if you go near them without sneaking, they’ll hit you, or happy, in which case you’re safe to kiss them, or in some cases neutral, in which case you need to do something to make them happy. Many of these involve waiting for them to come out of the ground, sneaking up to them when they’re angry, and then waiting ’till their happy to kiss them. Some require a bit more involvement and might want something, or want you to do something. You can figure out what they want by looking in the hole into their underground room. When they’re underground, you’ll find out their “phrase of the day” which will give you a clue as to what they want. (although “clue” is in the broadest terms, as many of these phrases don’t offer much help). People above ground are more difficult, and you have to do a series of actions to get them to kiss you.
The game has a very unique aesthetic. The game is filled with bizarre characters (such as the telephone pole with a face and legs, or the guy who looks like a flesh-tone Q*Bert). The story is very whimsical, but at the same time it has fairly dark elements. Beneath the strangeness of the game, it has a heart and the characters have problems that reflect the real world. A guitarist who wants to get a job, but finds that he isn’t suited to life at a factory. The primary love interest character herself has run away from home because her parents are always fighting. Her father is an artist who is also lazy and a drunk, and her mother is left to do all the work and support the family. I’ve talked before about how I like that style of videogame dialogue where the NPCs say a lot with a little. Single pieces of dialogue that make the character seem like a full person with their own life and their own problems. This game is pretty much built around that.
The game also has quite a fun soundtrack, which goes along with the aesthetic quite nicely. Most of the music is made up of various vocal sounds. Not exactly singing, but more going “do” and “da” to a melody. It really fits with the game as a whole and is quite memorable. It has a good chance of getting stuck in your head if you play enough of the game.
The main problem of the game is the classic Adventure Game syndrome of convoluted series of puzzles that only make sense to the designer. This is at the same time alleviated to some extent by the open-ended nature of the game, and made worse by the nonsensical and confusing nature of the game. The fact that the game is open ended helps because if you can’t figure out one thing, there’s usually something else to do as well. However, there will be many points in the game where you’re not quite sure what to do, and you end up wandering around the city until finally you go home and your father becomes disappointed that you didn’t get a kiss that day. Just like real life. Also the underground people only come out at certain times of day, and not all of them will tell you what time of day that is, which makes things even more difficult. A FAQ guide for the game is an invaluable tool, as some of the puzzles are just absurd. Looking through the FAQ, I really don’t know how someone is supposed to figure some of these out.
Chulip is a game with a lot of charm. It’s funny at some points, touching at some point, and strange at pretty much every point. It does some interesting things with the Adventure game genre, but ultimately falls victim to the problems of the genre. Many of the puzzles are confusing and convoluted, and after you’ve got the easy ones out of the way, it’s easy to find yourself not knowing what to do. I really liked this game, but I felt it could have been so much better if it had given better clues for the puzzles. Ultimately, I thought it was worth picking up, especially at that price. It was bizarre and memorable, and there were definitely quite a few fun moments.
Stumble it!
December 10th, 2011 at 7:14 am
This design is steller! You most certainly know how to keep a reader entertained. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Fantastic job. I really enjoyed what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it. Too cool!