Game Review: Chicory - A Colorful Tale

 

If you consider yourself a creative individual, you have probably faced many challenges in pursuing your creative aspirations. Whether you are an artist, writer, videographer or photographer; we are all united in the joy and struggles following these creative outlets can bring.  I don't think I've ever seen a video game do such a well-crafted job in exploring those joys and sorrows in a very distinct manner until I came across Chicory: A Colorful Tale.

Developed by indie developer Greg Lobanov and published by indie publisher Fiji; Chicory: A Colorful tale is an adventure/puzzle video game which tasks players with exploring and coloring in the world around them with a magic paint brush.  It was released in early 2021 on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and then later on Nintendo Switch. 

The story of Chicory: A Colorful Tale follows the player character who is named after your favorite food (In my case they were called Pizza!) who enjoys his job as janitor for the magical Wielder called Chicory. In this world of anthropomorphic animals, the world was devoid of color until the discovery of the Magical Brush. Over the centuries, skilled individuals called Wielder's have taken up the responsibility of using the brush to fill the world with color. It's on an ordinary day like no other when your player character discovers Chicory has abandoned the Brush. In the wake of this, the color has drained from the world and dark infestations have bloomed across the region. It is now your responsibility to explore the world and bring back the color all the while cleansing the darkness that stems from Chicory's own personal struggles as the Wielder.

The story to me is actually the best element of this game.  As a writer I struggle all the time with the sense of self-worth.  The idea that your creative capacity is meaningless in the wake of your self-perceived ineptitudes. I sit here every day and want to write more but I end up becoming my own worst enemy in creating restrictions on my creative outlet.  Chicory nails that struggle in such a clever and open way that any audience can appreciate. The driving force of the narrative is to save the world, but the real crux of the story if the struggle Chicory and your own player character face in their relationship and their own mental health.  I never expected a cute little art game to nail these complex ideas so seamlessly but the heavy narrative never feels too dark or depressing and it adds necessary moments of levity when it is called for.  I love everything about the story of this game, it captures beautifully the joy and struggles that come from being a creative person in a very empathetic format.

While the narrative component of the title is flawless, I feel some flaws stem from the gameplay functionality of the title.  At the heart of the game, it’s all about coloring in your environment. There’s a very cathartic joy people of any age can find in coloring in things. It’s a very relaxing experience and I appreciate what the gameplay of Chicory: A Colorful Tale does in trying to emulate that joy.  Every environment you find yourself in can be colored in in a very expansive fashion with multiple colors, formats and brush styles to collect and utilize.  This creative freedom is truly appreciated but the format in which you do it is sadly quite restricted due to the nature of the console you are playing it on.  I played this game on the Nintendo Switch which does benefit from the touch screen controls but I feel if you want to be precise in how you color elements in, you’re limited in how you can do it. Dealing with analogue controls in trying to color things in just feels too finicky for me to ignore. It’s the nature of the console you’re playing on, I get it but it doesn’t mean it’s not an actual issue. 

Apart from the cumbersome control scheme behind the coloring though, the level and puzzle design behind this game are really clever. Like a Metroidvania, as you explore you lean new abilities which will aid you in coloring and exploring the terrain in a lot more ways. Each environment in this game is designed in a way to benefit exploration with additional collectibles and locations to discover.  The collectibles can be cosmetic costume pieces and additional brush styles to help give you further ways to tune your painting and coloring.  There’s a really nice touch in how the game remembers the color you fill the world in with and you get to see the map fill up with color as you progress through the game.

Besides gameplay and narrative, the other primary attraction of the game is its inherent charm and design. The artistic design of the world and its animal characters are unique and offer a very appealing aspect to the game’s unique presence.  From an audio perspective the game has such a cathartic aura about it. The composer Lena Raine has previous credits in Celeste and Minecraft and you can really feel her trademark style layered into every track of this wonderful experience.  It’s her music I feel that really complements the narrative cues of this game in those moments where it really needs to make an impression. She is becoming one of my favorite video game composers out there with the more I hear her work.

Chicory: A Colorful Tale has all the heart and ambition to be a 5-star game. I would love to give the entire game that distinction but to me what drags the game down somewhat are its cumbersome controls. I appreciate making any drawing/coloring game is not easy when most consoles have analogue controls, but the struggle with them was still a prevalent issue for me.  Despite the control issues though, everything else in this game stands out better than most indie games. Its narrative is the games ace in the hole though. What the story of the game does in capturing a struggle I and many others relate to is truly appreciated and it reminds me that the creative struggle may always exist, but so to does the joy that stems from it.