
Gnomes vs. Fairies is a PS1/N64 style Hack 'n' slash-Action RPG platformer. Upgrade your gnome's abilities with dozens of items and master the 5 elements of sword magic, it's a totally unique retro fantasy platformer blending all the best elements of classic 3D titles such as Mario 64, Zelda OoT, Spyro the Dragon, and more.
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Languages: English*, Japanese**languages with full audio support
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Themes across 45 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
Since the only other negative review has no information at all I thought I'd write one. As others have said it is a platformer comparable to Mario 64 and other n64 games. The game has potential but it's still very clunky and buggy, even though it is no longer in early access. Sometimes your character won't respond, sometimes irrelevant messages will pop up for no reason, and earlier my gnome was surfing upside down before he decided to take a swim on the land. Apart from that, the combat is just not very interesting. You can swing your sword and sometimes you'll spin around but other then that not much happens. You can also throw stones but they are very short range, about the length of a gnome. Other people are really excited about the music, for me it was hit and miss. Some good songs, some bad ones. The story seems pretty boring but I guess that's no big deal since people don't play platformers for the story. Things I did like: Some creative ways to make the levels interesting. Difficulty should be good for most people. Not too hard, not too easy. I don't recommend the game but as I said the game has potential. I wouldn't buy the game now but you can always check back in a few months and see if the bugs are fixed. 13-12-16 update: Most of the bugs I mentioned earlier have been fixed by now but there are still some other ones, including one where I had to redo a level because I couldn't get a key. There are new attacks and weapons that can make the combat more fun but you don't really need to use them. I was still able to kill everything by spamming regular attacks and even the bosses died rather quickly. For this reason I still can't recommend it. Note that I haven't tried the VR or the multiplayer so this review doesn't apply that.
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Hours played at review time, across 45 reviews with recorded playtime.
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So, despite my limited time with this game, I should have left this review months ago. The developer of this game is a hero. I was nervous someday, decided to play this game, something wouldn't work, I complained (in a less than diplomatic way) here on Steam and he ended up patching the thing in a matter of hours. He really deserves every cent he gets. The game is fun. With keyboard it works really well, with controller it works better. I play this game on Linux Mint 18 KDE, with nvidia-375 proprietary driver. The GPU is 750M and it works well enough, so don't be afraid to buy this game so you can play on the go. 750M really is not the strongest kind of card. I also use a desktop with open-source RadeonSI driver, R9 285 card and 2560*1080 21:9 monitor. I think I've only launched this game once on that desktop, but as far as I can remember, the game supports ultrawide resolutions natively, even on linux (for those of you interested). I have to re-check this though. The game is, well, relaxing and fun. Look at some gameplay video on YouTube and if you like the gameplay, you will definetely like the game and the developer behind it. EDIT: I have re-checked performance on my desktop. 21:9 resolutions definetely work out of the box, but there seems to be some performance issues with RadeonSI drivers (Mesa 11.2 stack). I will update the drivers and try again. The card R9 285 is, with RAdeonSI drivers in its' current state not capable of running resolutions aka 2560*1080.
WHAT A GREAT GAME! I saw this had come out of early access, and im usually hesitant about e.a. but this was cheap and reminded me of SuperMario64 or Zelda64. It plays well, works on my desktop and chromebook (which is amazing) and is great on Linux. I do expect more levels and some more polish in the graphics/texture area however. Still, it works on a chromebook Intel Celeron 2955U Dual-core 1.40 GHz Perfectly. Intel CPU Specs: Graphics Base Frequency 200 MHz Graphics Max Dynamic Frequency 1 GHz *EDIT: I also appreciate that the Dev is responding to customers here and on reddit. Keep it up!
Great game! Very fun to play together with others to The info speaks the truth, playing this game makes u remind of how it used to be playing on old consoles, the music have the classic melody style, and the older 3D graphics are very nice with this modern touch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wRRIvER8OI
This game is really cool. You should give it a try if you like old school 3D platformers like Mario64, Banjo, Crash Bandicoot or even games like Medievil. Or if you're a fan of gnomes and Faeries. It really feel like this game has a soul, its not derivative or trashware. And it got treasure chest with cool new toys in most levels. I really enjoyed my playthrough and plan to play again to save all the gnomes and catch all the Faeries. I give it a 7/10
I've been having an absolute blast playing Gnomes vs. Fairies. It's a fully fledged 3D platformer in the tradition of Mario 64, but it's got lots of RPG elements and hack 'n' slash combat. My experience has been very smooth and I haven't encountered a single obvious bug yet, I can't say for sure because I haven't finished the game, but at this point it seems like all the bugs others mentioned are fixed. The platforming feels solid, combat is simple but it doesn't get boring because there are so many items like grappling hooks and bombs you can use on your enemies. The environments and the Gnomes are cute but there's an overall eerie atmosphere and music. The coolest thing though is every level there are new items to play with, like triple jump boots, shield, fairy wings you can fly with, etc. I haven't found them yet but the trailer even shows airships! The music creator level is worth the price of the game all by itself, to be honest! Really fun!!! It's fairly well optimized and runs with no hitches on my desktop and even runs pretty well on my surface pro 3. It also supported my xbox one controller out of the box!!! The bloom and shader effects might be a bit much, but you can turn them off in the menu if you don't like them. I absolutely recommend this game, and at $9.99 it's a total bargain. It's got a big hub world that connects to multiple subworlds, and it seems like there will be a lot of levels. Some of the reviewers here have more than 20 hours of gameplay so there's a lot of content! Pros: *Nostalgic *Funny *Fast gameplay *Good music *Great level design *Not too hard, not too easy *Many items = many play modes *Developer is all over the community forums answering questions and fixing bugs Cons *No multiplayer yet - has it now *No online play yet - has it now *Lighting is a little harsh on some levels - seems fixed
[h1]Gnomes Vs Fairies is a throwback to Zelda and Mario games of the past.[/h1] This is an old school platformer at its heart with a hack-n-slash style combat system that kind of takes a back seat to the platformer aspect of the game. The story could be interesting to someone, but the way it's told leaves me uninterested. However, the dialogue system looks fairly polished, even in VR, and the controls are pretty responsive. Overall, this is a great game if you like games like Spyro and Mario 64, but word of caution, the combat leaves a lot to be desired. You collect the fairies rather than fight them, which is a little different than what the title suggests. The combat mechanics are a little too simple at times, not requiring much thought or timing. Just take out a sword or net and mash the attack button and jump around a little so the enemies can't hit you. It would be nice if the game's combat got some kind of sword-clashing mechanic and more reason for you to use the shield and fireball. Anyway, for the sale price of $4.49, this game is a steal. Get it ASAP! Play it with or without a coop buddy and enjoy either a VR or non-VR camera mode. It's a great collect-a-thon platformer that brings me back to why I loved the PlayStation/N64 generation. Good times. [h1]VR specific features?[/h1] Well, it gives you some comfort features, like segmented camera rotations and a seated position reset button, but the GUI does not seem to work properly in VR - not that you need it most of the time - and the camera doesn't follow the player character as quickly as I'd like. It has some issues with text readability in VR which could be solved with larger or closer text, and the camera goes into walls and objects very frequently. It is definitely an enjoyable experience, but it has these flaws and the occasional unexplained crash or freeze.
I really like the game so far and the dev is awesome.
A really great classic-style platformer, but with WAY more content and features than most. I especially love the new VR functionality! It really makes the beautiful environments come alive. I know the VR implementation is still a little bit of a work in progress, with a little more to be done for things like cutscenes and UI, but it's already really great, and definitely worth enabling and playing the game in this mode. There aren't enough VR platformers out there yet, if you ask me (Luckey's Tale being one of the only ones), and this is a great addition.
For a one man project, this is definitely impressive. Sure, it's a bit flawed and ridden with bugs, but it's still a fun and interesting piece. The game is very enjoyable, engaging and cute, even though it's buggy and unpolished. I had a lot of fun as I left a sense of childlike wonderment guide me through this journey of evil fairies and suffering gnomes. I still have a long journey ahead of me, but I felt like writing this review right away. I may want to change some things as I progress through the game, but I'm pretty sure my positive recommendation will stand. The game's story, as the title would imply, revolves around a war between fairies and gnomes, the latter of which have been imprisoned by the former. As the sole uncaged gnome, you must set out on a quest to save the other gnomes and retrieve their resources from the evil forces of the fairy queen. I quite like the fairies' character designs, they're appropriately cute in just the right way for a treacherous set of female villains: cute, but never nice. I like the intro scene, with the rock band rocking out while telling the player of the adventure he's about to experience. Overall, the story is obviously no Lord of the Rings, but it does its job well in motivating the hero's journey, and it's rather endearing in its silly fantasy manner. One thing I noticed right away is that the camera is, so to say, hyperactive. It seems to move with any little thing that happens, constantly trying to follow the character around. It made me a bit dizzy when I started playing the game. Still, I eventually got used to it and stopped having problems. I do think a more modern and comfortable camera layout would do wonders for this game. The gnomes look like garden gnomes, which is kinda cool in my opinion. The female gnomes could be cuter, they're a bit creepy for some reason. I like that you're given the option to choose your character's gender, I wish more games would do that to help the player identify with the hero. The sceneries look like tiny fairytale landscapes, and the songs are pleasant fairytale-like jams. I really enjoy the setting and the environment of this game, even though it's not too polished nor graphically advanced, as it has a lot of charm and personality. Gameplay-wise, this is a mix between an action RPG and an N64-esque 3D platformer. You jump around, fight enemies, collect tokens and avoid traps just like you would in a 3D platformer, but you also get to obtain items, upgrade your gear and level up like you would in an RPG. I really like this mix, and I'd love to see more games following this formula. In every level, you're given three main tasks: retrieve a crystal shard, capture six evil fairies, and release six imprisoned gnomes. The imprisoned gnomes may sometimes be helpful, for instance, when they hand you a cool piece of gear. The fairies may sometimes put up a fight, and their beams can do more damage than most enemies. Anyways, whenever you save gnomes, a few more free gnomes will show up in the hub world. It is so satisfying to "populate" the world like that, but it's a bit of a bummer that not all gnomes will show up in the hub, and some levels will not even get any of its gnomes to show up outside. Anyways, the levels contain the typical stuff you'd expect find in a hybrid between an RPG and a 3D platformer: platforming sections, enemy groups, tiny simple puzzles, and, of course, tokens. The most abundant tokens you find, which are tiny coins with a spiral pattern, are used as currency to buy new gear and items. Then, of course, there are also the tokens you must get in order to clear a level's missions, like keys to release the caged gnomes, and evil fairies you must catch with a bug catching net. The keys and fairies are occasionally cleverly hidden, but never overwhelmingly hard to find. Overall, the levels are fun and well designed, even though they are a bit too easy. The level structures are semi-linear, including a main path and a few branching ones. The smaller branching paths usually lead to extra tokens or objects that you need to use in order to progress through the main path. The levels are in general fun to traverse and well designed, and even though they're mostly linear, they'll occasionally contain small secrets to reward exploration and curiosity. Also, there's a main "hub world" that connects all individual levels, and exploring it may sometimes reward you with 1ups, heart upgrades, spiral coins and a handful of very useful items if you know where to look. I also like how you can ride the cute mice by feeding them cheese, and the freaking airship that you can loan from one of the shops. The monster groups are usually not too much of a threat if you know what you're doing. In fact, most monster encounters are a bit on the easy side. In spite of that, I'd be lying if I said it isn't satisfying to slash the crap out of evil fiends with swift, smooth sword swings. Not only that, but mastering the balance between melee and ranged attacks may lead to better, more efficient ways to defeat enemies, which in turn may make a level's traversal faster or less dangerous. I really enjoy this battle system, even though it's so simple. One thing I find really interesting about this game is the element system. You may sometimes encounter crystals that allow you to change elements. That not only changes the element of your attack, but also allows you to interact with different objects and scenery features. For instance, if you're currently with the fire element, you can't jump on blue mushrooms, but you can climb red clouds, and so on. This mechanic lends itself to some nice backtracking sequences that I enjoy a lot. I also like the key-and-keyhole mechanics of the game: you get to explore new things once you obtain a new power. That comes not only in the form of the element system, but also with certain tools you may pick up along the way. For instance, you can open up certain walls by exploding them with bombs, in Zelda fashion. The game has its fair share of bugs, and I think I need to cite them here. Hopefully, the developer will get around to fixing those: - I once triggered the "interact" button while on the options menu when my character was close to a gnome, and a dialog box opened up where the first letter of the gnome's dialog showed up, and for some reason that locked me up and impeded me from closing the menu and returning to the game, which forced me to quit and restart. - I saw a cage clip through the floor in more than one occasion in the first ice level, I don't know why. - After I reach the bottom of the slide in that icy hub world, I continue sliding on the non-icy floor, and I have to jump in order to reset back to running mode. - Fairies somehow make you lose two lives whenever they kill you. - This is not a bug, but a tiny incorrect information: the default button for accessing the inventory is TAB, not F, like the in-game options menu said. - You can buy bombs before you can actually use them, as you can only use them after finding a chest that contains them in a level. - In the music island, you may sometimes get stuck in the dialog box when talking to your groupies. Overall, I'd say this game is more than worth its price. It is a tad unpolished and easy, but still very endearing, fun and worthwhile. When you keep in mind that this was made independently by a single developer, the game gets even cooler. Also, when I learned that the developer had kids, I kept imagining how awesome it must be to play a game created by your dad. I wish my dad made games for me when I was a kid, but alas, he hates videogames :( I definitely recommend this game, but only for people whose inner child is still alive. Go play the hero of the gnomes in his journey against fairies in this adorable fairytale setting. Allow me to fire shots here: this lone dad made a game that I enjoyed a lot more than Playtonic's Yooka-Laylee. Let that sink in.
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