Folklore // Two Fictitious Realms

Folklore, is a game that manages to achieve certain aesthetic degrees of poetic elegance. It's defined by its gothic and mystical elements and effectively presents itself in the form of a fantastical mystery graphic novel. Folklore presents two fictitious and contrasting realms: Doolin (a town in Ireland) being representation of the actual world we live in and the Netherworld-- the realms of the dead and enigmatic creatures.

Folklore introduces two different characters to play as. Ellen, a young girl with a bitter past, and Keats, a mysterious journalist for an occult magazine called Unknown Realms.

Keats holds the cover of Unknown Realms

• Two Protagonists 

Depending on your cup of tea you can play through the game as one of the main characters Keats or Ellen. They both come to the haunting town of Doolin with different and similar intents but ultimately have the same goal in mind and that is to discover the haunting mystery that plagues the town of Doolin.

Though they're different characters their stories are shockingly similar

• Two Realms

Doolin, an actual sea-side village in Ireland and is the main setting for Folklore because it's the only place in the world where the land of the dead can be assessed (The Netherworld). The player can interact with the townspeople establishing the presence of a fictitious town that the player is traversing through in search of clues.

The village of Doolin featured in Unknown Realms

The Netherworld, is thought of to be the home of the dead, spirits, and different creatures such as monsters and faeries. Folklore's game mechanics with the battle system can only happen in the nether-realm the "real world" Doolin is where clues and plot points are revealed. The player switches back and forth through these realms as the story progresses. 

Much like the world we live in the Nether-realm has various regions from the war torn land of Warcadia to the, rich in fauna, Faery realm. There are a total of six of them and all have specific purposes that the player can experience in the game. However, there are actually an infinite number of realms and they are all very different because the realms are actually a representation of people's feelings as they died. 

The hypnotic and mesmerizing beauty of the Faery Realm 

Warcadia - a world forged from the fear of death that haunts the human heart

Folklore uses poetic elements to convey a fictitious mystery novel while managing to still call itself a video game. The game is divided equally in story and game play through Doolin and the Nether-realm. Folklore sets the story for an enjoyable action adventure role-playing game. It provides narrative elements in different refreshing stylistic ways such as the common computer generated cut-scenes which many players are familiar with and the Folklore's most recognizable, and arguably the best, way to communicate its story via the comic book scenes which can be seen here.

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