Effie | Nintendo Switch Review
Updated: Nov 19, 2021
Effie, developed by Inverge Studios and published by Klabater, is a 3D platform adventure game and is currently available on Windows PC, PlayStation, XBox, and Nintendo Switch. For the purpose of my review I was playing the Nintendo Switch version in handheld mode.
In Effie you take on the role of Galand who is asked for help by a young woman. When he refuses to help her she curses him resulting him to age drastically and to lift this curse he must defeat the witch and prove that he has a pure heart. To complete this quest Galand must rid the land of Oblena from a dark curse that has taken over and free the various cities from that curse.
Effie is a very charming game graphically and alongside the cute graphics the story is told to us in such a way like a grandparent telling a bedtime story to a young child, which really helped to maintain the sort of whimsical feel that the game was aiming for. The graphics were fairly decent and once you leave the temple in the first level you're then taken out into a luscious and vibrant field where you can explore and make your way to the next areas. The majority of the time I feel like the graphics and art style really held up well but there were a few moments where the graphics struggled and dropped some frames on the small Nintendo Switch screen. However I feel like this is to be expected and it never really took away from my enjoyment of the game.
There is a fine balance of platforming, puzzles, and combat to be found in Effie and most of the time these aspects were all well handled, although I feel like the puzzles were exceptionally easy and required very little of the brain which in my opinion. If the puzzles were slightly more challenging it would have lifted this game much higher in my opinion. The combat felt slightly lacking as well because it was just basic button bashing with little skill required so it very quickly started to feel quite stale and repetitive. The platforming, however, was probably my favourite aspect of this game. My bread and butter as a child and growing up was platform games, so Effie felt quite nostalgic because the developers nailed the platform aspects to perfection.
I don’t think the simplicity in the gameplay in Effie is necessarily negative, in fact I just feel like perhaps I’m not the target audience for Effie and that's absolutely fine. I’d happily recommend this game to kids to give them a modern taste of platforming and puzzling and I feel like most kids could get along quite nicely with the game and enjoy its whimsical adventure.
Overall, Effie was a fun adventure. In places I really wished for a bit more of a challenge however I could still appreciate it for what it was and it didn’t feel like a total waste of time. It was a nice relaxing way to spend a few hours.
Lj’s Rating: 3 runestones out of 5.
For more information on Effie please use the following links...
Inverge Studios - Developer | Facebook | Twitter | Website
Klabater - Publisher | Facebook | Twitter | Website
Many thanks to Mark Allen PR and PressEngine for the Review Key.
Effie | Steam Store | PlayStation Store | XBox Live | Nintendo eShop