Keepsake has a fair share of issues, but its intuitive puzzles and enchanting story make it an adventure worth living.
The story features a young woman called Lydia as the protagonist. Lydia is on her way to the Dragonvale magic academy, where aside from learning her magical craft, she will reunite with her longtime friend Celeste, whom she hasn't seen in several years. Unfortunately when Lydia arrives at the academy, Celeste is nowhere to be found. In fact, the academy seems to be completely deserted. As Lydia wanders around the academy looking for someone, she stumbles upon a wolf named Zak (who was trapped in a closet), who actually claims to really be a dragon who was turned into a wolf by a group of students. Zak serves as the main sidekick for the rest of the adventure, and just like Lydia, he appears to be just as ignorant to the events occurring in the academy. Zak is a great character who has a great rapport with Lydia, and as the game progresses, you will be witness to the bond that grows between them. Early on, part of their quest will focus on trying to find a way to turn Zak back into his dragon form, but eventually Lydia will have to get deeper into the academy to find Celeste. Lydia will come across a few characters that will reveal some back story, but most of the important revelations take place during several visions that she has through the game. It's in those visions that she'll find out what Celeste has been going through in the academy (as well as the truth behind Zak's story), and though things appear somewhat confusing at first, it all comes together at the end. The story in Keepsake is more focused on issues such as friendship, family issues, and dealing with death. There's no grandiose quest to save the world here, and I for one found it to be a refreshing change of pace.
Like all adventure games, Keepsake features a healthy does of puzzles and for the most part they're awesome. Particularly the puzzles in the first half of the game are very intuitive and really fun to solve. A lot of them focus on getting machines to work, while others feature mini games as well as the occasional riddle. During this section of the game it's very clear what has to be done in the puzzles, but if you're having a hard time, Keepsake features one of the best implemented features in any adventure game, a "hint system" that will guide you through the process of solving the puzzle. You're first presented with a hint that explains the basics of the puzzle; if you need more info, two additional hints will pretty much layout exactly what you have to do. But if you're still struggling the game offers the option to solve the puzzle for you. What this means is that you'll hardly ever get frustrated while playing Keepsake, since the hint system ensures you'll never get stuck in a certain puzzle for too long.
What's better is that for the most part (at least during the first part of the game) you won't resort to such option, since the puzzles are clearly laid out and the initial hints are all the help you'll need. Unfortunately during the second half of the game a good portion of the puzzles turn out to be very contrived, with ridiculous solutions or excessive amount of backtracking necessary. You'll certainly be forced to exhaust the hints with these puzzles, since they're so unintuitive you'll hardly have any idea as to where to start. The fact that you can skip them altogether is neat, but I honestly wish the game would've been able to maintain the same level of complexity in the puzzles in the second half as it did in the first half. There are still quite a few good puzzles in the second half, but the overall quality does go down quite a bit.
Another area where the hint system helps a lot is in getting around the academy. Though the entire game takes place only in the lower and upper levels of the academy (as well as the magical section of it), and the nearby forest, navigating through the gameworld can be very confusing, because the academy is a huge building. It won't always be clear where you have to go next, which can lead to pointless wandering through the academy. The game does include a map which definitely comes in handy, but it only highlights the section you're in, not your exact location. Thankfully the hint system comes to the rescue by telling where you have to go next, should you ask of course. There are times when the game could be a bit less revealing though, because sometimes you'll be told where to go, but on different occasions you'll be told where and what you have to do next.
Unfortunately the game doesn't feature a fast traveling system which would've been really useful, because there's a lot of walking around you'll do to get between places and sometimes even puzzles themselves will require you to go across the academy from one end to the other, which can be very tedious.
The weakest aspect of Keepsake however is the voice acting. It's really poor overall. The only character whose voice work is solid through and through is Zak. Lydia on the other hand is more of a hit and miss. During regular conversations she does decent enough, but when it's time to deliver an emotional line, her voice actress can't quite nail the feel of the dialogue. She's not awful, but could use a lot of improvement. But there are some characters who are truly abysmally voiced. Mustavio, an Italian merchant (who ironically is the first character you'll hear in the game since he guides you through the tutorial) has a horrendously overdone accent that really makes him come off as a joke. Other characters such as Celeste (voice by the same actress who does Lydia) and her father Nathaniel, are also poorly voiced, something that hampers the emotional impact of the dialogue a bit. This issue rears its ugly head in the final cutscene of the game (which is very emotional), and you can't help but wonder how much better that scene would've been with solid voice acting.
Fortunately, Lydia and Zak are the two characters you'll constantly hear for the vast majority of the game, so at least you'll be spared of the truly awful voice work for the most of the game. It's also good that the dialogue itself is really well written. Every time something important is revealed or a major event occurs, you'll hear the characters react in the same way you'd expect yourself to react. The dialogue ends up making up for most of the voice acting's faults.
As far as the music goes, it's quite the contrary of the voice acting. The music in the game is lovely and fits the nature of the game perfectly. Personally, I loved the menu theme which was very soothing and relaxing, and really set in the mood to play the game for hours at a time. It's too bad that for large chunks of the game you'll go with no background music, but on the positive side this does help convey the feeling of loneliness Lydia and Zak are going through.
Regarding the sound there is one issue worth mentioning. The game seems to have a problem with certain audio drivers, something that may cause the game to crash on a few very specific occasions (and they're ugly crashes by the way, blue screen of death instant reboot type of crashes). To avoid any potential problems update both your video and sound drivers, and patch the game too. But if the crashes persist, reduce the hardware sound acceleration (execute dxdiag and go to the sound tab, you'll find the option there). Yes, I know that sounds ridiculous, but trust me, it solves the problem.
The visuals are also great. In fact their one of the strongest aspects of the game. The backgrounds are all 2d, but they're heavily detailed and varied. During cutscenes that play as you solve puzzles, you will see the game swiftly switch to prerendered animations that match the backgrounds, which is a pretty nice effect. The graphics are sophisticated enough from a technical standpoint, and the great art direction elevates them to superb status.
Despite it's obvious faults, I really loved Keepsake. It may not be destined to be a classic alongside "The Longest Journey" and "Syberia", but for any adventure fan, the charming story, lovable characters, and unique puzzles, will make it a worthwhile adventure.