Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood. A 2D quest with exciting puzzles

“Well,” he sighed, “I am, of course, an unimportant magician and sorcerer, but if you come to me tomorrow morning, I will fill your head with brains.”. True, I can’t teach you how to use them, then you’ll have to do it yourself.”.

Winter holidays have arrived. What could be more pleasant than immersing yourself in the atmosphere of a fairy tale, when the evening snow is constantly falling outside the window, and the decorated small Christmas tree in the room shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow?? That’s probably what I thought when I launched it Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood. Inside, clever puzzles awaited me. My brain nervously scratched inside my skull every time the developers proposed solving another confusing problem, but as soon as it got to the solution, a colorful fireworks display of a variety of emotions immediately exploded inside my head, which made me want to put the console on the shelf and do something grandiose. The moral is: don’t forget to eat brain food if you want to continue enjoying life like an innocent child. I’m glad that there are still developers who continue to see us as players who can solve complex problems on their own. These developers turned out to be the creators of the two-dimensional quest Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood, korean studio Devespresso Games.

OH MY GOD THIS IS A REFERENCE TO PRISON ESCAPE IN METAL GEAR SOLID?! That’s it, the game is 11 out of 10, you can finish the blog.

The developers did not betray themselves during the development of a game about a girl Scarlet: the image on the screen looks as if you are being shown an animated comic book, which, in fact, is not far from the truth. The graphics are hand-drawn, which the developers do not hide, and I like it! With all due respect to 3D artists, how nice it is to see images in the game that are reminiscent of the work of the masters of pencil and brush. I’m also a little tired of typical indies: it’s not every day that you enjoy pixel graphics!

The game really looks good: the artists have drawn every blade of grass in the game. On any forest path you can see a bunch of details like mushrooms, fallen leaves, bushes, pebbles, forgotten objects of civilization that gradually deteriorate without proper care, etc. d. There’s nothing to say about the living quarters; sometimes the tables are in such a mess that you wouldn’t find them after New Year’s celebrations. It’s quite unusual to see a detailed foreground: the camera is positioned slightly away from the girl, so don’t be surprised if Scarlet will hide behind a tree or be hidden by a large bush. Dialog boxes were not left without attention either. Yes, we are waiting for the usual conversations from short stories, and not even all the heroes got a personal portrait, but characters important to the story always change their facial expressions and poses in accordance with their emotional state, and their game models can also change. They also move a little, like real people listening to their interlocutor for a long time. This, of course, is not a revolution in 2D animation, but it is still better than the typical static portraits in many indie novels.

The opening and ending videos resemble pages https://pesobetcasino.co.uk/withdrawal/ of a manhwa come to life.

Sometimes I want to say the same thing about game graphics.

The game has a well-designed environment and background. Sometimes you just want to stop and look at the picture in all its details.

Sometimes this needs to be done. You can often find clues at locations.

I need to write a few words about the design of the main character Scarlet. When the first trailers appeared, I read negative comments about the appearance of the girl, who reminded viewers of a lady of easy virtue because of her short shorts and stockings with garters, so some people immediately dubbed the quest a hentai craft. What I want to say is: this NOT game for adults. You don’t have to look nude mod, it’s not there, I checked. Yes, the girl looks provocative, but how else should a young and cheeky lead singer of a music band, who gave up everything for the desire to become a stage star, dress?? She obliged attract the attention of others. And according to the plot, the girl will have to become a real witch, who is often portrayed in various fields of art as an incredible beauty, as well as an irresistible seductress who deceives men or makes them her lovers. Remember Solokha from "The Nights Before Christmas» N.IN. Gogol, to whom almost all the village men came, unaware of each other:

“And if Solokha would go to church on a holiday, putting on a bright coat with a Chinese spare tire, and on top of it a blue skirt, on which a golden mustache was sewn on the back, and stand right next to the right wing, then the clerk would surely cough and involuntarily squint his eyes in that direction; the head stroked his mustache, wrapped the Oseledets behind his ear and said to his neighbor standing next to him: “Eh, good woman! damn woman!""

Or remember Olesya from the story of the same name A.AND. Kuprina, with whom the city gentleman instantly fell in love:

“The original beauty of her face, once seen, could not be forgotten, but it was difficult, even after getting used to it, to describe it. His charm lay in those large, shiny, dark eyes, to which the thin eyebrows, broken in the middle, gave an elusive shade of slyness, power and naivety; in the dark-pink tone of the skin, in the willful curve of the lips, of which the lower, somewhat fuller, protruded forward with a decisive and capricious look. During these spring days, the image of Olesya did not leave my head. I liked, being left alone, to lie down, close my eyes in order to better concentrate, and constantly evoke in my imagination her face, now stern, now sly, now beaming with a gentle smile, her young body, which grew in the open air of the old forest as slender and as powerful as young fir trees grow, her fresh voice, with unexpected low velvety notes. I was also attracted to Olesya by a certain aura of mystery surrounding her, her superstitious reputation as a witch, life in the thicket of a forest among a swamp, and especially this proud confidence in her abilities, which was evident in the few words addressed to me.”.

I think that wives often called these heroines heartless homewreckers and accused them of all mortal sins. If the great Russian classics painted images of beautiful women with otherworldly power, then why not Devespresso Games don’t show modern attractive witch?

While searching for information about Korean culture, I learned about the existence of legends associated with gumiho, a nine-tailed fox who loves to transform into a beautiful girl and seduce men who will later be invited to dinner as the main course. And Scarlet the fox cub is her familiar, and she also knows how to hide from enemies, turning into a statue of a red-haired cheat. Coincidence? It is quite possible, I will not deny that this is CPGS. Unfortunately, I am not a folklorist, I do not re-read Korean mythology every day and cannot accurately confirm this hypothesis, and I am also not able to get into the heads of the developers and find out whether they turned to the legends of their people when discussing the design of the heroine. In any case, I have no problems with the girl’s appearance, she dresses in accordance with her profession and character. If you have any wrong associations when you see Scarlet, then you can safely discard them. Of course, the girl has an interesting appearance, but there is not even a hint of any vulgarity in the game. Call it flirting with the audience; it’s always easier to grab players’ attention when the cover features an unusual-looking, attractive female character.

Scarlet not the only witch in the area that attracts the attention of the opposite sex with her non-standard appearance.