An entertaining but sometimes tedious adventure.
Before the story begins, you have to choose a character: the moody but suave occult paper writer Keats or the young, orphaned Alice. Alice suddenly gets a letter from her supposedly deceased mother, which points her to the mysterious town of Doolin. Keats gets a mysterious call from a woman who claims she is being attacked by faeries. He is also pointed to the little town of Doolin. At arrival, the two cross paths and discover an unanimate body on a cliff. It soon falls off the cliff and after checking it out, it appears to be Alice's mother. The story is genuinely interesting in the beginning, and manages to keep you interested for some time, but two faults make the story in the end uninspiring: You pretty much have to go through the game twice with only minor tweaks to story and gameplay, and the ending in the game is by far one of the most confusing ends in gaming. The character's are interesting though and the environments are beautiful and atmospheric. Too bad that the shortcomings are so obvious, though.
The game is an action game, and as such the battles are in real-time. The core gameplay mechanic is using other monsters id's, which are their abilities. You issue them to one of the four basic buttons and are varied in power and length. Some are basic slashing id's, and others require imaginative thinking to use. A lot of them, however, become obsolete when others arrive on the scene. The ingenious part is how you achieve the ids. After damaging the enemies a certain amount, their id pops out, which you then "suck" out. For this, you use the Sixaxis controls in all kinds of ways, which actually play very well and are easy to use. You can then level up the ids by defeating (damaging the enemy until it disappears) certain enemies or collecting a certain amount of ids. Controlling the character can sometimes feel a bit clunky and the jumping can be improved. The enemies are, however, incredibly diverse and fun to fight, and the ids are entertaining and accessible.
Then it's the different characters. The difference is regrettably small. The only real difference is the occasional new id, but otherwise, everything is the same, which makes playing the game twice monotonous and repetitious. There are few games that can pull this off, and Folklore isn't one of them, sadly.
The game looks beautiful, with a bunch of beautiful locations. The enemies look good, the characters as well and the cutscenes, put into a comic book form, are exciting and innovative. The environment is colorful and surreal, but occasionally feel like a reused format. Otherwise, this factor is a plus in the game.
The music is airy and nice, and fits the atmosphere perfectly. However, the music is not that memorable but it's cool while it lasts. Not much else to say.
Just as a side note: The game is pretty easy once you get used to the enemy patterns and movements and some ids are pretty overpowered, but it doesn't really retract from the fun of the game.
If you're looking for a PS3 exclusive that's worth playing, you don't have to look further than Folklore. However, be warned that the game isn't for anyone. So, overall, an engrossing but slightly flawed tale.
-Calvinsora