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Ikenfell

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Ikenfell
A depiction of the words Ikenfell overlaid atop the main player party members in the library of Ikenfell's titular setting
Nintendo Switch cover art for Ikenfell
Developer(s)Happy Ray Games
Publisher(s)Humble Games
Programmer(s)Chevy Ray Johnston
Artist(s)
  • Chevy Ray Johnston
  • Hunter Russell
Writer(s)
  • Chevy Ray Johnston
  • Joanna Blackhart
  • Jeriko Green
  • Aivi Tran
Composer(s)
Platform(s)
Release
  • WW: October 8, 2020
Genre(s)Role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

Ikenfell is an role-playing video game developed by Happy Ray Games and published by Humble Games. It was released for Windows, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 8, 2020.

The tactical combat system involves players battling on an isometric grid, but also includes timing-based elements akin to the Paper Mario series. In the story, the player initially controls Maritte Hildegaard, a non-magical teenage girl who journeys to the titular magical school Ikenfell, in an attempt to investigate the disappearance of her witch sister Safina. While trying to enter the school, she suddenly gains magical powers, concurring with mysterious changes in magic that some link to the mysterious Dark Fold.

Reviews from critics were mixed. Some reviewers largely praised the game's combat and story, while others described it as having potential, but let down by flaws in those systems.

Gameplay

A battle in the Garden levels of Ikenfell, with the player party attacking a group of enemies.
Ikenfell's battle system features player characters (here, Rook, Pertisia, and Petronella) on an isometric grid.

Ikenfell is a turn-based tactical role-playing video game.[1][2] It uses various 2.5D perspectives to display characters and the game world.[3] Like older Paper Mario games and Super Mario RPG, the outcome of both player and enemy moves depends on timed button presses. The playing field is composed of a grid, upon which both the player and enemies can move, with their position affecting what moves can be performed and how efficient they are. As the game advances, the attack patterns and timing become more complex, providing greater difficulty. For accessibility, there are options to both partially and completely disable combat timing.[4]

Characters are managed with a party system; although the player initially only controls Maritte, they later gain control of other characters, each with their own unique skillset.[5] Three characters in the player's battle can engage in battle at any time; these can be changed at save points (which are represented by cats).[6]

Like most traditional Japanese-style RPGs, gameplay also consists of parts outside battle which characters can navigate.[1] Much of Ikenfell's gameplay involves these, which include exploration, adventure, and puzzle-solving portions. There are no random encounters and as such fightable enemies are always visible in the world.[5] Battle only ensues if the party reaches one, allowing the player to evade combat.

Plot

Players initially control Maritte Hildegaard, a teenager who travels to the magical school of Ikenfell to find her sister Safina, who has gone missing since summer break. Although she is initially non-magical, she soon mysteriously develops pyromancy while trying to enter Ikenfell. She encounters non-binary alchemist Petronella, a close friend of Safina, who has had an emotional breakdown due to the latter's disappearance. Bizarre and unprecedented magical events begin occurring across the school grounds.

Once entering the school via a secret passage of Safina's, they discover her room blocked by a magic seal. After fighting lightning magician Gilda, who is attracted to Maritte, they join up with fellow student Rook. With Rook and Safina's rival Pertisia, they successfully enter it by disguising Maritte as her sister. Inside, they retrieve the Prism Heart, a creation of Safina that allows the user to see through deception; it allowed Safina to discover things she researched with older student Ima, but also some she didn't want headmistress Aeldra to know. Meeting with Ima and Gilda, they go to the Summerstone, a large orb which imprisons the Dark Fold, a destructive wave of magic seemingly precipitating the strange events. At the stone, they successfully fight experienced coven magician Bax and his partner Ibn, who are also looking for Safina. Using the Prism Heart, they reveal that the Summerstone is merely an illusion, and Safina destroyed the actual stone.

Believing her sister wanted to free the Dark Fold, Maritte has a panic attack and rids herself of her magic. She wishes to leave Ikenfell with the school's raven deity, whom Ima also asks to get help from the coven, but it refuses, instead sending the party to the ancient ruins of old Ikenfell. There, they discover Aeldra led a squad of friends to defend an important plant, the Sapling, from the Dark Fold, but she became the only survivor, and used the rest's magic powers to construct the Summerstone, imprisoning both the Dark Fold and the plant in it. The pain of the experience was so great, she refused to give the Dark Fold any chance of breaking free and causing more pain, believing the plant also must be preserved forever to prevent this: what she didn't know was the Dark Fold died upon being imprisoned, and preserving the plant will come at the cost of what the raven deity only remembers to be great catastrophe. Motivated by getting answers and her friends, Maritte regains her magic. In the library's archives, her party finds an old book that explains the cycle of the two magical seasons. Every thousand years, the Sapling dies, causing a new generation of magic to arise, while the old generation fades, as does all knowledge and memory of it, and only during the transition of the seasons can people know of it; this process is the cause of Ikenfell's unusual magical events. Aeldra's vain act to keep the Sapling preserved is destroying the school, in repetition of the fall of old Ikenfell a thousand years ago. This is causing her uncontrollable grief, which can only be abated by expelling her pain into a cauldron, and Safina, having found out the truth, tried to stop her.

Persuading several professors to oppose her, they decide to confront Aeldra, as the school is slowly collapsing. The party arrives at the Spelltower, where Aeldra is guarding the Sapling. Finding thorny barriers blocking the doors, Pertisia reveals she had created a secret passage like Safina's, but suffered injuries from it that traumatized her, and with everyone's support, she uses her powers to create a new passage to get around the thorns. As they try convincing Aeldra to stop protecting the Sapling, the school collapsing frees her grief from the cauldron, overwhelming her and making her lose contact with reality. Convinced she is defeating the Dark Fold, she kills Bax and attacks Maritte's party; the party defeats and awakens her from her trance. Distraught at the loss of his lover Bax, Ibn steals the Sapling. Revealing his immense power in the spiritual realm, his anger makes him lose his sense of self and become a monster. After defeating Ibn, the party uses Petronella's magic to revive Bax, who calms Ibn, causing him to return to normal, and they free the Sapling.

In the end, after Safina and Maritte are reunited, Petronella joins the coven as repayment for saving Ibn and Bax, as does Safina. Aeldra also retires, leaving the role of headmistress to Ima and dueling teacher Radegund, who begin making arrangements to start groundbreaking research of the magical seasons to lead the magic world into a new age of knowledge. In the epilogue, Rook and Gilda travel to distant lands to make new magical discoveries, and Maritte plans on soon following them to teach fire magic. Pertisia resumes her old music career and agrees to go with Maritte, as they begin a relationship.

Development

Before developing Ikenfell, Chevy Ray Johnston, the game's lead developer, had worked as a contract programmer for Bandai Namco, as well as on a variety of indie games.[7] He had developed a custom engine,[8] but failed to complete any of his game ideas. After reading Rainbow Rowell's young adult novel Carry On, he was inspired to make a video game about a magic school using his tools. Originally, the game's premise was based around a witch completing a final quest before dying of illness.[9] It was also an action RPG, but Johnston decided the space required for combat limited level design.[3]

Johnston's custom C# engine, based on top of SDL2 and OpenGL, allowed him to port it to a wide variety of platforms. The engine also included Lua scripting for control puzzles, events, and scenes; and a GUI frontend, including a custom map and scene editor, which were used to accelerate the development process.[2][8]

After a few years into development, the game was funded via Kickstarter in 2016.[2] Later, Johnston also brought on consultant Joanna Blackhart to ensure that the game's portrayal of LGBT characters was accurate and inoffensive, a process that led to an "rewriting" of parts of the story.[10] It was featured at the 2019 Electronic Entertainment Expo as part of its inclusion in the Xbox Game Pass,[11] before being released on October 8, 2020.[12]

Art and game design

Despite being an inexperienced pixel artist, Johnson drew the majority of the game's art, choosing the style as it was easy to iterate upon.[7][3] Much of the game was developed in a public library, influencing its artistic direction and plot; he borrowed vintage books from the collections to use as references. Its visual design was inspired by games such as Mother 3 and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Each character was designed to have a distinct look and silhouette. Buildings were "white-boxed", with their layout being designed first, akin to actual construction.[2]

The timing-based elements of the game's combat were inspired by Super Mario RPG and the Mario and Luigi games, among others. Johnston designed each party member's moves so they could be used in many different ways, while still being fundamental to the character, comparing this philosophy to Mario's basic skillset. As he disliked magic points, he decided to make magical spells free to use during combat.

Steven Universe composers Aivi & Surasshu worked on the soundtrack of the game alongside Sabrielle Augustin,[1] who helped finish the soundtrack after Aivi suffered an injury leaving them unable to complete some work.[13] As the game was inspired by the landscape of Canada, some tracks incorporate elements from Canadian folk music.[14] They also chose an ambient style atypical of video game music, a decision influenced by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the game's narrative elements, and their experience composing for TV shows.[15] Vocals were incorporated into some of the songs after seeing their successful usage in games like Transistor; initially, the composers wanted to do a vocal song for each character, but were unable to find a place for all of them in the story.

Reception

According to gaming review aggregator Metacritic, Ikenfell's reception was mixed. Both GameSpot and Siliconera described it as having potential, but being let down by flaws in the story and combat.[17][4] Other sites were more positive, like Hardcore Gamer, which said it was "a trip well worth taking", and GameRant, which described it as having the potential to be a "cultural touchstone".[18][1]

Although reviewers generally liked the game's combat system, they felt it could be frustrating at times.[17] Hardcore Gamer reviewer Kyle LeClair described it as "challenging and fun",[1] and Jason Rochlin of GameRant commended the game's tactical variety and complexity.[18] PJ O'Reilly of Nintendo Life pointed out the "impressive range of enemy types" among other elements as contributing to the game's strategical depth.[19] However, LeClair, Slant magazine, and GameSpot reviewer Hope Corrigan all criticised the excessive variability of the timing-based attack system, although multiple reviewers pointed out that the game provides an optional setting that allows players to enable easier combat.[4][19][20] Slant also complained about the combat design, stating that it involved "selecting an attack, and then cancelling that move to place them in a different space once you see that they’re not properly positioned".

The story also received both praise and criticism, with reviewers praising it for its in-depth examination of characters, but some also claimed it was too derivative of Harry Potter and unrealistic at times.[17] LeClair described it as an "engrossing piece of work",[1] but somewhat unoriginal. Corrigan was more negative, describing it as "unusual",[4] criticising implausible and on-the-nose elements in the plot, and the incongruous manner in which LGBT issues were included. Conversely, both Rochlin and Slant lauded these elements, with the former stating that the game wore "its progressiveness on its sleeve" and provided a much-needed focus on the importance of relationships.[18][20]

Reviewers largely praised the game's art and music, noting the quality of the chiptune tracks.[17] However, reactions to the vocal segments were more disparate, with LeClair stating that they "enhance the mood even further",[1] but Corrigan calling them poor quality, remarking that she was tempted to turn down the volume.[4] O'Reilly criticised the pixel artstyle, calling it overused.[19]

Awards

Ikenfell was nominated for several awards, including categories in the 32nd GLAAD Media Awards and the SXSW Gaming Awards 2021.[21][22]

Award Category Result Ref.
32nd GLAAD Media Awards Outstanding Video Game Nominated [21]
Gayming Awards 2021 Best LGBTQ Indie Game Nominated [23]
SXSW Gaming Awards 2021 Indie Game of the Year Nominated [22]
Canadian Game Awards Best Debut Indie Nominated [24]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h LeClair, Kyle (October 8, 2020). "Review: Ikenfell - Hardcore Gamer". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d Suther, Austin (September 21, 2020). "Ikenfell Takes Us to Magic School, Super Mario RPG Style". TechRaptor. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Johnston, Chevy Ray (July 6, 2017). "Chevy Johnston's Blog - The Art & Visual Language of Ikenfell". Gamasutra. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Corrigan, Hope (October 16, 2020). "Ikenfell Review - GameSpot". GameSpot. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  5. ^ a b Happy Ray Games (October 8, 2020). Ikenfell. Humble Games.
  6. ^ Walker, Ian (October 23, 2020). "Cosy RPG Ikenfell Uses Cats As Save Points". Kotaku. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  7. ^ a b Tokarev, Kiril (November 11, 2016). "Ikenfell: Bringing Magic to Pixel Art Games". 80.lv. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  8. ^ a b Johnston, Chevy Ray. "Development Details". Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  9. ^ Johnston, Chevy Ray (January 23, 2021). "Chevy Ray on Twitter: "from a document with a big list of game concepts... "Little Witch" would eventually become Ikenfell. you can see that uh... the premise and story got a lot less depressing than my original"". Twitter. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  10. ^ Mathys, Quinn (October 18, 2020). "Ikenfell Writer Speaks to Representation in Video Games". GameRant. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  11. ^ Mills, Andy (June 10, 2019). "Microsoft Highlights Over 20 ID@Xbox Titles During E3 Conference". TrueAchievements. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  12. ^ a b "Ikenfell for Switch Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  13. ^ Corbett, Noelle (October 25, 2020). "Ikenfell Composers Discuss Steven Universe and Their Inspirations". CBR. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  14. ^ Lada, Jenni (November 11, 2020). "Aivi Tran Talks About Making Ikenfell's Soundtrack". Siliconera. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  15. ^ LeClair, Kyle (October 30, 2020). "Ikenfell Composers aivi & surasshu Talk Influences, Marriage Fitting Game's Vibe". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  16. ^ "Ikenfell for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  17. ^ a b c d e Lada, Jenni (October 8, 2020). "Review: Ikenfell Could Cast a Spell on Players - Siliconera". Siliconera. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  18. ^ a b c Rochlin, Jason (October 10, 2020). "Ikenfell Review". GameRant. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  19. ^ a b c O'Reilly, PJ (October 14, 2020). "Ikenfell Review (Switch eShop)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  20. ^ a b Scaife, Steven (October 8, 2020). "Review: Ikenfell Has a Narrative that Considerably Out-Charms Its Combat". Slant. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  21. ^ a b Ramos, Dino-Ray (January 28, 2021). "GLAAD Unveils Nominees For 32nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards; Deadline's New Hollywood Podcast Honored With Special Recognition Award". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  22. ^ a b Ridgely, Charlie (February 16, 2021). "SXSW Gaming Awards 2021 Nominees Announced". Comicbook. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  23. ^ "Gayming Awards 2021 - Gayming Magazine". Gayming Magazine. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
  24. ^ "Here are all the Canadian Game Awards 2021 nominees". Canadian Game Awards. March 15, 2021. Retrieved March 22, 2021.
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