👁️ The Dark Eye: Memoria Nintendo Switch Review 7/10 “A gorgeous but at times frustrating experience” 👁️ @daedalic #GameDev #IndieGames

The Dark Eye is a German fantasy tabletop role-playing game created in 1984, it is so popular in Germany that it actually outsells Dungeons and Dragons. Unsurprisingly, in being so popular, The Dark Eye series has spawned numerous video games including two point-and-click adventure titles from Daedalic Entertainment, these are - The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav, and its direct sequel The Dark Eye: Memoria.

The story centres on two characters that are separated from each other by 450 years. Sadja, a woman looking to leave a great legacy behind by seeking out the fortress of Drakonia, where she hopes to join the battle against demon hordes of Nether Hells; and Geron - a bird catcher who is trying to transform his love interest - Nuri - from a raven back into a fairy.

The two tales intertwine as the story proceeds and whilst both are interesting, Sadja is the more interesting of the two. I will admit that I have never played Chains of Satinav, so some of the story was a bit lost on me. I did feel at times that this was probably explained in the previous game, but all in all, you can still follow and understand everything here easily enough.

The art and hand-drawn backgrounds are stunning, I would move into each section and just stare at the backgrounds for a while, so many vivid colours and so full of wonderful character, they really are the highlight of the game, and very striking.

Movement animations are a little janky and do stick out amongst the beautiful artwork, when the character's mouths move, it's a very ‘90s adventure game - and a bit off-putting at times. The game is fully voice-acted, which is always a plus, some of the voice-acting is good, but others should have gotten another take or two, it’s not the worst in the world, but you do notice some lines not hitting the mark. 

The game has a very traditional feel to it, like a really old-school graphic adventure title, and with that does come one of my least favourite aspects - some of the puzzles I had to look up in a guide and even after reading about them… I still really didn’t understand the logic behind them. This only happened a handful of times, but it did start to become frustrating.

The bit in a misty woods where you use berries to retrace your steps?

Maybe the least fun I’ve had, playing a game in quite a while.

Dark Eye: Memoria handles very well on the Switch, the buttons are well mapped out, and just like the last few adventure games I’ve played on the Switch - I’m really digging using the touch screen in handheld mode, I think this may be my favourite way to play this genre.