htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary review

While Nippon Ichi has enjoyed sustained success with the Disgaea franchise, the Gifu-based publisher/developer has often struggled to cultivate another hit. Sure, Spike Chunsoft’s Danganronpa games has earned critical and commercial acclaim and NIS America gradually nurtured stateside appreciation for the Hyperdimension Neptunia series (at least until Idea Factory decided to self-publish), but titles such as The Witch and The Hundred Knight and Battle Princess of Arcadias failed to find substantial audiences on either side of the Pacific.

Unruffled, NIS president Sohei Niikawa pledged that the company would create new brands to serve as an outlet for creative energy. One of the first titles to result from this amitious initiative is htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary, a game conceived and spearheaded by Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness character artist Masayuki Furuya. Shirking the Prinny property’s impish irreverence and engrossing battle system, htoL#NiQ is a wide departure from Disgaea or any of N1’s previous efforts, delivering an atmospheric puzzler that’s equal parts solemn and sadistic.

Told with a minimal amount of text-based exposition, htoL#NiQ introduces players to Mion- a young girl who’s lost amidst a desolate, industrializing backdrop. With a vignetted aesthetic framing an already austere world, the sole source of cheerfulness stems from an emerald-hued firefly named Lumen, who casts a radiant aura. Another hovering insect known as Umbra also lingers nearby. But unlike Lumen who exists in Mion’s Light World, the pink-colored creature is confined to the shadows.

This dichotomy forms the fundamentals of htoL#NiQ’s play mechanics. Using the touchscreen, players maneuver Lumen around the screen, with Mion obediently following the character across both platforms and the periodic ladder. A finger swipe on the back of the PS Vita activates Umbra, who travels on an intricate network of darkened pathways to activate switches that are obscured in the darkness. Naturally, htoL#NiQ’s puzzles push players to shift between the Light and Shadow realms, as players evade increasingly perilous traps and enemies.

Although The Firefly Diary’s default input method utilizes the Vita’s touchscreen, implementation is less than ideal. The game uses a narrative-based justification to justify Mion’s perpetually lethargic movement. While that excuse might explain the character’s sluggish speed, it doesn’t make navigation any less irksome, especially when danger swiftly moves toward the player. Later, the game’s traps require near-pixel precision to elude, which proves to be near impossible with finger tips. Move into htoL#NiQ’s menu system and you’ll find a concealed option to change the control scheme, allowing Lumen and Umbra to be directed with the analog stick and Vita’s face buttons. The alterative input scheme doesn’t speed up Mion or make duties like box pushing and ladder climbing any less cumbersome, but it does give players a better chance at surviving The Firefly Diary’s demanding puzzles.

Make no mistake, I enjoy a lofty challenge just as much as any of my masochistic peers, but htoL#NiQ transcends mere adversity, frequently encroaching on infuriation. Some of the problem is found in the aforementioned movement speed of the protagonist; often Mion lacks the agility to elude peril. But, rooted in that issue is a problematic design decision, where the game repeatedly demands trial and error testing to advance. Too often, there’s little foreshadowing of danger, whether via trajectory of falling boxes or by a switch that releases a deluge of green liquid that instantly drowns Mion. As such, death is both frequent and arbitrary, which feels like a decision to pad The Firefly Diary’s concise playtime.

Evidence points to the game’s difficulty being a design decision. There’s a trophy for dying a hundred times, which for most players will likely be earned before the midpoint. Fortunately, save points are frequent, with the game automatically persevering a player’s progress at regular intervals, while reloads are near instantaneous. In an effort to obtain htoL#NiQ’s best ending, you’ll have to gather all of the game’s memory fragments. These concealed collectable’s offer glimpses into Mion’s backstory, propelling players into pixelated, three-dimension recollections that vary in tone from good natured to gruesome.

Overlooking htoL#NiQ’s dominating difficulty, the game has a number of positive qualities. Boss battles, (save for the final showdown, which is too dependent on luck) are routinely creative efforts, requiring players to exhibit a mastery of control and concept. Meanwhile, variety is lifted by a number of mechanic changes that emerge throughout the trek, adding elements like an umbrella that can slow Mion’s descent or a section where the controls are inverted. While the character can’t confront foes directly, encouraging reprisal against antagonists can be accomplished by tripping traps. Undoubtedly, The Firefly Diary’s biggest virtue is its presentation, which cultivates a well-crafted sense of melancholy through a minimalistic toolset. While, there’s the occasional shock, most of the game’s atmosphere is subtly hewn- a trait best demonstrated by htoL#NiQ’s moody, Moog-ish soundscape.

Although htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary lives up to its birthright, offering a significant departure from Nippon Ichi’s typical fare, it’s also a tough recommendation. Challenge needs to stem from a prudently foreshadowed sense of adversity rather than arbitrarily erupt from regular points. As such, potential purchasers should approach the title with patience, if they hope to unearth its virtues.

htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary was played on the PS Vita with review code provided by the publisher