{"id":22704,"date":"2018-06-01T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/06\/hands_on_getting_our_just_deserts_with_nairi_tower_of_shirin"},"modified":"2018-06-01T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T17:00:00","slug":"hands-on-getting-our-just-deserts-with-nairi-tower-of-shirin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/06\/01\/hands-on-getting-our-just-deserts-with-nairi-tower-of-shirin\/","title":{"rendered":"Hands On: Getting Our Just Deserts With NAIRI: Tower Of Shirin"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/06\/hands_on_getting_our_just_deserts_with_nairi_tower_of_shirin\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/06\/hands_on_getting_our_just_deserts_with_nairi_tower_of_shirin\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<aside class=\"picture embed centered picture-900x img-900x\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a title=\"nairi main.jpg\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/05\/hands_on_getting_our_just_deserts_with_nairi_tower_of_shirin\/attachment\/0\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/05\/hands_on_getting_our_just_deserts_with_nairi_tower_of_shirin\/attachment\/0\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"nairi main.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Whether you\u2019re a slightly more seasoned gamer with memories of the <strong>Broken Sword<\/strong> series, or a relative newcomer who\u2019s found their love for the genre through the likes of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/night_in_the_woods\">Night in the Woods<\/a><\/strong>, there\u2019s nothing quite like the casual yet immersive storytelling of a visual novel\/adventure. So that\u2019s why we jumped at the chance to play an exclusive demo of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/nairi_tower_of_shirin\"><strong>NAIRI: Tower of Shirin<\/strong><\/a>, a charming cartoonish tale that\u2019s bound for Nintendo Switch later this year.<\/p>\n<p>Made by Dutch indie developer HomeBearStudio, NAIRI tells the tale of its titular heroine, a young girl who finds her cozy life living among society\u2019s upper class torn from under her while a criminal known as White Mask terrorises the poor district. She eventually teams up with thug-turned-scholar Rex as she attempts to make her way back home and uncover the mystery surrounding the Tower of Shirin itself.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/05\/hands_on_getting_our_just_deserts_with_nairi_tower_of_shirin\/attachment\/1\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/05\/hands_on_getting_our_just_deserts_with_nairi_tower_of_shirin\/attachment\/1\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"nairi1.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The first thing that strikes you is its intriguing art style. Falling somewhere between a children\u2019s story book and Bryan Lee O&#8217;Malley\u2019s Scott Pilgrim comic series, there\u2019s a wonderfully charming feel to its simple shifting animations. From the glittering sands of the deserts to the gloomy interior of a bandit hideout, you can\u2019t help but appreciate the hand-drawn aesthetic that\u2019s brought this whole world to life.<\/p>\n<p>This being a visual novel, a good chunk of your time is spent in dialogue with other characters. Much of the inhabitants Nairi encounters are the anthropomorphised citizens of the city, ranging from vicious cats to oddball ducks. There\u2019s even a kindly, father-like bear who attempts to help you escape the city when the game itself begins. There\u2019s no voice-over, but with those aforementioned character designs and a good helping of dry humour, these extended chats rarely feel like a slog.<\/p>\n<p>Navigation and interaction are more of a point and click affair, with plenty of items and tools to collect and add to your inventory. It\u2019s a tried and tested setup for games such as these, and facilitates the puzzle-focused aspect of your adventure. Our hands-on with the demo &#8211; which saw us hiding away in a crate, only for it to be stolen and locked in the keep of a bunch of feline bandits &#8211; tasked us with escaping a barred cell and slipping through the grasp of our would-be kidnappers (or would that be, catnappers?).<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/05\/hands_on_getting_our_just_deserts_with_nairi_tower_of_shirin\/attachment\/2\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/05\/hands_on_getting_our_just_deserts_with_nairi_tower_of_shirin\/attachment\/2\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"nairi2.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Picking up a ceremonial knife on a wall enables us to cut away a tapestry revealing a direct way out, but its blocked by planks of wood too stiff to pry loose. There is, however, a hidden rope that might just open the door to the cell, but doing so will lock it permanently behind us. We know we\u2019ll need to get back in here later since we\u2019re so close to freedom, but that\u2019s another puzzle we&#8217;ll eventually have to solve as well.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a clever use of environmental clues and items to help guide you to secret passages and further rooms in your location. For instance, a map on a table in the middle of the hideout shows its general layout, but you can\u2019t take it with you so you\u2019ll have to memorise locations or pop back to check. There\u2019s also a note beside a door requiring you to find a set of buttons and press them in a certain order to reveal a new room. These puzzles aren\u2019t particularly taxing, making it an attractive prospect for younger players looking to try their hand at a visual novel\/point and click mashup for the first time, but there&#8217;s still plenty of scope for this head-scratchers to gradually increase in complexity as you push further into the story.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/05\/hands_on_getting_our_just_deserts_with_nairi_tower_of_shirin\/attachment\/3\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/05\/hands_on_getting_our_just_deserts_with_nairi_tower_of_shirin\/attachment\/3\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"nairi3.png\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Overall, we quite enjoyed our brief time with NAIRI: Tower of Shirin. Its middle-eastern-style setting makes for an evocative backdrop, and while its point and click gameplay might not be the most revolutionary, the broad mixture of puzzles and the strength of its characters and dialogue comfortably sells its visual novel roots. We didn\u2019t get a chance to test out Joy-Con support, but the developer promises both controller and touchscreen controls when it eventually arrives on Nintendo&#8217;s hybrid machine.<\/p>\n<p><em>NAIRI: Tower of Shirin will be making its own adventure onto Nintendo Switch soon. Did you enjoy this little glimpse into this new Switch-bound indie? Share your thoughts with us below&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether you\u2019re a slightly more seasoned gamer with memories of the Broken Sword series, or a relative newcomer who\u2019s found their love for the genre through the likes of Night in the Woods, there\u2019s nothing quite like the casual yet immersive storytelling of a visual novel\/adventure. So that\u2019s why we jumped at the chance to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}