‘Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter’ draws another hit

by Mike Askey

Fun factor: Fun

Worth to: Rent

The ‘Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter’ offers all of the innovation from the first game, a bigger world and more of the charm that made its predecessor so great.

5TH Cell really has turned out to be one of the more ambitious and innovative developers in recent history. From the first Drawn to Life, which offered the player the opportunity to draw and edit their own world, to offering a new perspective on the strategy genre with Lock’s Quest, to using words to solve 200+ levels of puzzles in Scribblenauts.

This time, 5TH Cell returns to Raposa world with Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter. Instead of rehashing the same system from the first game, the 5TH Cell guys really upped their game for this one, and here’s why.

Welcome to bizaro world

I’m going to start with the story, since I’m a big plot guy. You, the player, return as the Creator -- the God-like entity that controls the Raposa universe. The game starts with this very dark scene, where an unknown entity asks the Creator (You) three questions about a fateful night in which a tragedy occurs, and asks you to draw a picture of the night in question. Then we’re off to the races. Wilfre returns as the main villain (as he possesses Heather, the little Rapo with half her face covered in darkness), he drains the world of color, most of the residents disappear through a vortex, and completely destroys the Creator’s original mannequin!



All looks lost for the remaining Raposa, until the Creator sends a giant turtle with a carbon copy of the Village on his back to save them. They find another Creation Hall, with another mannequin, which becomes your avatar in this series once more. Next, we investigate four new worlds to stop Wilfre from completing his evil plan which involves... saving the Raposa world?

When you play the game, it makes sense in the end. I promise.

The creation aspect has been much improved from the first game. The easel has been moved to the opposite side for better ease of use, and offered an arrow function, which allows for an easier way to close the easel so you can better draw. There are more colors to use this time around. There is an expand function, in case you want to give your avatar longer or shorter limbs, or even multiple limbs. These new features literally have opened the opportunities for creation even more than the previous game.

(For the record, my characters were Luxord from Kingdom Hearts 2, and Nicholas D. Wolfwood from Trigun.)

Bigger and tougher

The worlds have increased in size this time around as well. In the first game, you were limited to Rapo Village, and the four doors which allowed to you to travel to your destination. This time around, you actually travel to the worlds, and interact with a group of new characters. There are four new worlds (Watersong, Lavastream, Galactic Jungle, and Wilfre’s Wasteland) each with 7 sub-levels and one boss battle.




The difficulty for these worlds has been amped up since the first Drawn to Life. However, you are offered two other forms to help you progress through the levels: a spider form (which allows your avatar to do all the things a giant spider can!) and a blob form (which lets your avatar squeeze through hard to navigate areas). These forms really change up gameplay, and are fun to use. The bosses are much more challenging than the first game, including the Lavastream boss, which offers no less than SIX forms. Have fun with that.

Drawn to Life always offered good background music (BGM) as well, and this game is no different. The BGM is once again outstanding, and offers two amazing vocal songs -- “Light of My Life” (an insert song for Watersong) and “Real Life” (the ending song) both sung by Hayley Chipman, who did a great job for both pieces. The thing that I like best though is that both of these songs can be purchased from the shop to listen to like all of the other BGM in the game, which I thought was a good addition.

Short… and what’s with the ending?

This game has negatives, however. The first thing is that the number of characters you can create has gone down from three to two. I know this was to incorporate the new forms, but I still found it disappointing that I would have to delete a hero if I ever wanted to add another design.

The second thing is that the game is still too short. An experienced gamer can blow it in about 6-7 hours. I beat it in 8, and found all the hidden coins and Villagers by hour 11. Even with more worlds and increased difficulty, it is still too short. (By comparison, I’ve put over 70 hours into Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, and still haven’t completed everything. So, I was just a little disappointed when I couldn’t get 10 hours out of an initial run of this game.)



The third negative is the actual ending of the game. I won’t say how it ends, but I will say that it limits the possibility of another Drawn to Life title, and doesn’t really fit with what we learned in the first game. The song and the actual artwork are well done, and the story presented in the ending is tragic to heartwarming, but it just doesn’t fit with the whole Drawn to Life puzzle. I was very disappointed, in this regard.

Summary

As a whole, though, the Next Chapter is a solid improvement on the Drawn to Life series, and if this is indeed the final game in the series, it is a strong period for the franchise. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for something different on the DS, wants an outlet for their creativity, and/or has 10 to 20 hours to spare on a great adventure.