Drawn to Life: Two Realms - Review

It has been some time since the last Drawn to Life (over a decade ago now), but people involved with the series have returned to bring it back to life. It even follows on from the events of the previous game, good news for fans of the series wondering how to follow up the previous ending. After all this time can the magic be recaptured? Or has all the life been drawn out of this series?

You’re given a quick recap/intro, explaining the events of the previous game before beginning your adventure. Mari the Raposa, a being from another realm, needs help from the Creator to defeat the shadow and save the realms. The Creator provides you; the Hero! You take the form of a robot which you can redesign how you want. Which is what the Drawn to Life games are known for, being able to draw weapons and items as well as design your hero. While you can use the touch screen to help draw, don’t expect the detail you’d get from a stylus. You can use stickers and outfits to help cover your robotic skeleton if you don’t want to spend too long trying to wrangle the touch controls.

You’re quickly introduced to the other main character of the story, Mike, returning from the previous Drawn to Life game. Mike is a human unlike the Raposa bunnylike beings, and it turns out his realm is under threat too. As the Hero you interact with Mike in the ‘real world’ before being able to travel back and forth between the Raposa realm and the Human realm. As the Hero you’ll find yourself going back and forth between the realms and facing the shadows that come up to mess with the citizens as well as try to help people with their feelings. 

The overworld is from an isometric angle, with sprite art that is reminiscent of the 2DS days. Here you explore the two realms, talking to people and accepting missions from those who indicate they need some help. The areas manage to be a little too big for what you actually get to do within them. Thankfully there’s an indicator showing where to go if you’re looking for where to go next. When following the indicator it becomes a reminder that there isn’t that much to do in general.

When the main story progresses or you take on a side mission, you’re taken into the platforming portion of the game. The platforming sections take several different forms; getting to the end of the level within the time limit, defeat all enemies/toys, and place enemies//toys to solve the level to name a few. The majority is straightforward platforming, levels where you place enemies works as a simple level editor. The trick is working out where to place the enemies so you can make it to the exit, with extra coins as bonus if you place everything right. 

I didn’t expect the platforming sections to be so small, essentially room puzzles to be solved. While the platforming itself was fine, I really got tired of the levels where you had to place the toys to make a path. Depending if it is a main mission or just a side one determines whether your options for placement are locked in, or just a roll of the dice and you have to make do. 

The game takes place in an open world between the realms, with a day and night cycle. Moving around both realms is slow and instead of a run button, there’s items dotted around for a speed boost. The item's very existence draws even more attention to how slow you move around the world. None of it helped by the fact that nothing is really close together, really dragging out time between platforming.

Having seen the series over the years from the outside, I can’t say that I have a fondness for the game that players who do have those memories of the original games. Over that time I have been aware of what people enjoyed about the games and then there’s also from the approach as a newcomer. As someone who has a basic understanding of the series it still feels like I’m missing something by not playing the originals so it's harder to get into. At the same time the shorter repetitive platforming sections with a reduced focus on drawing is likely to disappoint long term fans. It’s not an expensive game, so if you’re curious the price of entry isn’t too high. It comes down to how much time you want to invest in a game that rarely changes. 

I hope this isn’t the end of the line for this series. It's been long enough now, even a reboot of sorts could go a long way to bringing in fans and welcoming new players. As for Drawn to Life: Two Realms, there’s an alright game here that is bogged down in issues that make the game feel much longer than it needs to be. Two Realms is at an affordable price even before sales, if you want to appreciate the lovely sprite art and music or even just to support the team that worked on the originals. 

The Score

5.5

Review code provided by 505 Games

The Pros

+Lovely sprite art and music

+An unexpected continuation of the series

The Cons

-The platforming is a let down

-Too much padding out the game time