A product of Bandai Namco Studios Malaysia and Bandai Namco Studios Singapore, Hirogami is an action-adventure 3D platformer where you solve puzzles and fight enemies in order to protect your paper world. In case you didn’t catch it, Hirogami is combination of the main character’s name, Hiro whom you’ll be playing as, and the word “origami” which features as the general aesthetic of the game.
The World and Story
In Hirogami, you, as Hiro who hails from Shishiki village, are tasked with the defending the paper people of Papyrunia from the glitchers and …. The Blight (cue thunder and lightning). To do so, Hiro is tasked with finding shrines and purifying them, saving people and battling invading forces. Throughout the game, you’ll get to know more about Hiro and the various NPCs littered throughout the world.
Speaking of the world, if the cover art of the game wasn’t obvious enough, the world is paper. Aesthetically, Hirogami’s world of Papyrunia is almost completely made of paper, from the terrain to the flora and even the fauna that inhabits it. And that’s the best part! Yes, it looks really pretty, but also absurd and surreal in the best way when you see how tanky paper can be in Hirogami.
But seriously, when you take the time to just stop and observe how the paper folds in the world to create a paper imitation of plant or animal life, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Every crease and fold of paper in the world really lets you know they put a lot of effort into understanding origami. On top of that, you also return to a notebook which serves as your base before gearing up and preparing for your next venture.
That being said, while the game does boast an impressive quantity of characters and stories, many do feel rather short and leave you wanting. That doesn’t mean that whatever is available is dull – the stories, though short, are decently entertaining and sweet. They just feel like they could be explored and fleshed out more rather than ending so abruptly.
Gameplay
Story aside, the gameplay features good ol’ platforming, puzzles, and combat, which can be said to be the primary focus of the game, as there seems to be more attention in desigining the levels than the story itself. However, that begs the question of what makes Hirogami unique, given that in the past decades there have been numerous similar games?
As one would expect, the answer is in origami. While exploring and eventually levelling up, Hiro will gain new abilities, particularly transforming into the origami creatures he encounters. Each creature has its own unique abilities that fits the bill of each specific puzzle or platform that Hiro goes up against. That being said, transforming is the easy part. The difficulty lies in learning how each animal’s individual movement and abilities work, which can be a bit of a struggle when trying a new form for the first time.
For example, using the origami toad to hop on lilypads or to high places, the origami ape for scaling cliffs or swinging on vines or its strength, or the origami armadillo to play pinball (not really, it’s actually for breaking stuff). The animal forms not only provide puzzle-solving abilities, but combat abilities as well, where you can try to synergise between forms to take down enemies quicker.
Not All That Shines is Gold
With everything I’ve said above, Hirogami appears to have the scheme of a classic adventure-platformer. Its beautifully crafted paper world, full of colours and details that really reflects actual origami; the little interactions with the NPCs; and cool origami-themed gimmicks are certainly eye-catchers that are worth the praise. However, some areas could use a little improvement, aside from the stories which was already mentioned above.
For starters, as the core mechanics to overcoming puzzles and combat encounters revolves around your transformations, you’ll soon realize the repititiveness of it all rather early. While it is slightly mitigated for the puzzles, as they also add in some skill checks, this issue is more noticeable in the combat due to how similar the encounters are, and the sheer amount of fights you face.
An additional issue (and this may be more personal) is the fixed camera. Having played games which allows you more control of where you’re looking from, and what angle or direction you’re facing, going back to fixed cameras for a 3D game was certainly rough. It contributed to some, I would say reasonable, frustrations on my part, and I’d prefer to have it as an option only for those who want a more challenging, old-school experience.
Will This Paper Plane Soar?
In the end, I was intrigued by Hirogami when I first of its theme. Once I gave it a try, safe to say, it did check most of the boxes for my expectations; namely its aesthetic, and its gimmick. However, it could use some more polish and attention in certain areas, such as the side stories or the variety of encounters and/or transformations.
With all that being said, Hirogami is a decently made game that will definitely provide entertainment for fans of platformers – or maybe even origami enthusiasts who want to try getting into video games.
This article was contributed by TJ.
