Park Story

After a car crash leaves Parker dazed and confused, he finds himself in a strange park without memory of his name or his life. Around him, the animal inhabitants seem to be able to communicate with him, and ghosts of people who worked in the park still linger, with unfinished business to attend to.
Help the ghosts fulfill their tasks, rescue the children, and defeat Caim and his generals, in this action RPG with puzzle elements.
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🤔Overall Impressions🤔
Park Story is an odd game, from its talking animal inhabitants, to the weird enemies, unbelievably creepy soundtrack, and a graphical perspective that can feel disorientating, it all adds up to a unique experience. The story takes 20+ hours, and side quests adding another 15 hours.
🧩Puzzles🧩
The game is laden with puzzles, that you will need to solve to continue your journey. These puzzles usually stop you from progressing by blocking your way, with things such as gates, blockades, ivy, or gaps that Parker cannot cross…yet.
All these stoppages need a certain mechanic to solve, and it is highly likely that you will need to come back to this place later when you have that mechanic. Of course, you don’t know this yet, which can cause some confusion. There are no tutorials, or hints to as how to tackle any of these puzzles, so you are left completely in the dark. I think I would have appreciated some sort of very basic tutorial on each mechanic, just to give me a clue, as I spent an awful lot of time navigating the park wondering what I needed to do, and that was no fun.
This also applies to buildings that you enter. There is a key you need to find to access the lair of the general, but you will first need to navigate the maze of locked doors and puzzles to get there. The keys are difficult to obtain because they’re well hidden and sometimes it is difficult to ascertain where entrances and exits are due to the unusual graphical perspective. I quite like the look of the game but it can prove disorientating.
As you progress, you will get the ability to morph into a squirrel or a fox. A squirrel can run through small holes, or walk across pipes, and a fox can dig tunnels underneath the ground. Occasionally, pipes are blocked by debris which will need to be cleared by Parker, and the fox has to navigate tunnels with crumbling ledges and jumps. The fox travelling scenes are very annoying and on one try, took me about twenty minutes to get through the tunnels, due to the terrible jumping mechanics of the fox.
You can switch between Parker, the squirrel, and the fox, through the somewhat fiddly interface, and you can also use a frisbee and a nail gun for puzzle solving and combat.

Overall, I was impressed with the puzzles, but the number of dead ends and going around in circles trying to find the correct route can become tiresome, and just when you’re trying to think or searching, minions will spawn.

🥊Combat🥊
Enemies spawn quite frequently, and although they are generally quite easy to defeat, they sometimes come in waves or outnumber you in tight areas, and that can be tricky, considering you don’t have much health.
When searching the park, enemy spawns just become annoying, because spawning three low level enemies which are easy to defeat is pointless, and just becomes an unnecessary distraction. They rarely take any of your health, and even if they do, there are plenty of notice boards in the park to replenish your health.
In buildings, this is a different matter, because the tight areas and falls can be very troublesome. Falling into an abyss reduces a lot of your health, but enemies tend to stick to ledges where there are falls, and every lunge of your axe moves you forward, and sometimes sends you over the edge. The same goes for the roll, which is difficult to do precisely, and you will roll to your death.
There are no advanced combat moves. It is a hack and slash formula, and the only effective weapon I had was the axe. You can use your frisbee and nail gun as weapons, but even though you have endless throws, the frisbee does not home in on the enemy, and because the enemy dances around like a ballerina, and the frisbee is slow, you always miss, and once you fling it, you freeze and are vulnerable to attack. The nail gun is better as it is much quicker, but because you need nails to solve certain puzzles, I found a supply of these was essential to keep. Twenty nails are nowhere near enough ammunition to use as a weapon, and although you can buy them from a ghost trader, or pick them up in a fight, they’re quite expensive and credits are not always easy to come by.
The boss fights felt quite epic, with long battles lasting a few waves, and health heavily weighed in the enemy’s favor. Once you work out their patterns though, it’s just a case of repeating the steps over and over and hope you don’t run out of energy. You have a traditional health bar and one bucket of popcorn, which replenishes about half of your health. There are six bosses and the ultimate fight with Caim.
🚶‍♂️Exploration🚶‍♂️
The park is enormous, and Parker is not the fastest character. He isn’t painfully slow, but perhaps a dash button would have been useful, or better still, some fast-tracking options. It is essential to listen to the animals’ directions when providing the story plot, or else you will find yourself endlessly wandering the park. It is so easy to get lost. There is no map on screen, only on your phone, which you have to pause the game to access, and this becomes annoying when you are stuck and looking for that one place you haven’t accessed yet. Be prepared to do a lot of searching around looking for progress.
There are secret bins which can contain map parts, credits, or popcorn, but you won’t know which, and because you are only allowed 100 credits, if you search a bin and it contains credits, they spill out and are wasted, if you already have the maximum. These bins can be locked behind difficult puzzles so it becomes quite frustrating, as once they are opened, they never refill. I’m not sure why there is a limit on credits, or popcorn, and because of this you can be left later in the game struggling for credits because there are no more bins to open.
The environments look very nice and I quite enjoyed walking around the park and entering the buildings. There are loads of side quests to perform, and most of them are very lengthy, as the items you are tasked to find are scattered all over the map, with some places not unlocking until later in the game. I think this would be a real challenge for achievement hunters.

📕Story📕
The story is incredibly bizarre but thick with atmosphere, with its menacing soundtrack and unusual characters. The story is fed in drips, with characters providing back story and lore. Most of the inhabitants have been harmed by Caim in some way, and even had their children animalnapped which you can choose to locate or not. They see you as a saviour, who will turn the fortunes of the park around.

Then there is your amnesia. Who are you? Who are these people who are messaging you on the phone? You obviously have a social and work life which you are starting to gradually recover.
The story is quite intriguing. I would have preferred more frequent story drips, and the text messages had such a confusing interface, that I just ignored them.

🍳Conclusion🍳
Park Story is enjoyable, especially if you like puzzles, but be prepared that currently you may well spend a lot of time aimlessly walking around due to no hints, or tutorials, and because there is no fast tracking, this can become tiresome.
There are a few minor issues to sort out, but nothing that can’t be rectified, and mainly this is a quirky and original adventure.

I thought this game has really been well put together, considering its only one person, the overall movement speed is a little slow (maybe is the overall if my character could move a little faster than in the dungeons it'd be kinda cool.
Other than the movement so far Im loving the game and I streamed my first five hours of it not too long ago twitch.tv/rookrules

Wow - what a cracking little game Park Story is!
I'll be honest, the thought of a 10-15 hour Zelda-like almost put me off, as they're absolutely not my type of game, but this is so much more than that.
To begin with, the gameplay is tight, considered and incredibly streamlined. There is absolutely no faff, everything the game has to offer has a purpose and, most importantly, a worthwhile reward! For this very reason, I found exploring the park, finding collectables, smashing through it's many side quests and combat gauntlets to be extremely worthwhile (which is rarely the case in these types of games). I'd seriously recommend you take the same approach, it's well, well worth it!
As for the main quest and storyline, there's lots to admire here - I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers, but what I will say is there's an ominous nature that persists throughout, allowing you to ultimately come to your OWN conclusion. The characters in general are great, every side character has a distinct personality and there are a number of laugh-out-loud moments! The writing in general is very tongue-in-cheek and direct to the point, which really helps to mirror the gameplay in trimming off a lot of the fat.
There were a couple of moments (and when I say a couple, I genuinely can only think of two occasions) where I got frustrated and felt stuck, but that lightbulb moment was never too far away - and the lack of handholding in getting to that point really adds to the satisfaction when you inevitably do. As for the puzzles in the dungeons, they are for the most part quite straightforward - and so there's often a nice, clear route forward.
In conclusion, Park Story is ABSOLUTELY worth your time. The gameplay is succint and to the point and the writing is top-notch. The art style and atmospheric design is unique and memorable. There may be a lack of handholding initially, and one/two challenging moments, but once you accept that and push forward you'll be rewarded with a genuinely fantastic experience that sticks in the mind.
8/10
PROS:
- Considered, tight gameplay
- Rewarding side quests
- Wonderful art style
- Genuinely funny writing
CONS:
- One/two moments where I felt lost... (but, in a game about being lost in a park - is that really a CON?!)
NB: I spent around 15-20 hours playing this on XBOX, hence my low play count.