I mostly know Jules Verne from what’s seeped into the public consciousness. Though, admittedly, it’s got some things wrong. Phileas Fogg never flew in a hot air balloon, for example, no matter what you might see printed on a packet of crisps. Still, Verne’s flair for scientific imagination is well ingrained now. Despite never having read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Seas, I know of both the Nautilus, the fictional ‘monstrous’ submarine, and its Captain, Nemo. And as for Around The World In Eighty Days? Well, I mostly know that via Michael Palin.
It’s ripe territory then for a video game adaptation. Fantastical imagination can be all the more captivating once we’re given the chance to poke and prod it. Verne: The Shape of Fantasy attempts to fill that particular niche. From the outset, it’s clear it’s a game made with passion. The respect for Jules Verne oozes from every pore. As such, it does an admirable job of creating a fantastic world but, to me, it just doesn’t push things far enough in the gameplay department.
Voyages Extraordinaires
Verne: The Shape of Fantasy takes some of its broad strokes from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. We’re aboard the Nautilus, for one. It’s suitably monstrous; its bow fashioned to look like a colossal octopus. Captain Nemo is here too, barking orders at all and sundry. This is where most of the similarities end, though. After all, our protagonist is actual, real-life Jules Verne. I’m at least eighty percent sure that Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea wasn’t self-insert fiction. The danger of putting the actual author in the work is that it risks feeling like poor fan-fiction, where everyone constantly flatters them.
After all, authors are usually the least interesting part of their work. Unless they’re Hunter S. Thompson, I guess. Fortunately, Verne: The Shape of Fantasy puts in the work to make Verne feel like an actual character. The strongest theme is imagination, which at times does tend to fawn over Verne a bit too much. Still, I like how this theme is broken down into good – which allows us to create and invent – and bad – which causes fear and paranoia. This is encapsulated in the ‘Imag’, a tool that allows Verne to harness the power of his imagination. We’ll get to that in a moment.
The biggest boon to making a game about Jules Verne is the visuals. Verne (the in-game one) is on a quest to find the Flame of Hephaestus – an unlimited energy source. From the bustling corridors of the Nautilus, we travel to tropical islands and even stomp across the bottom of the ocean. The pixel art is gorgeous, with the scenery and backgrounds being a delight. Verne: The Shape of Fantasy knows it too, as it often gives us moments to stop and take a look at it. There’s one scene late in the game where a moss-covered dinosaur spine rises above an island, framed by a red, cloudy sky. Wonderful stuff.
The iMag Touch
The writing underneath is okay. There’s some good character dialogue. I like how conversations are branching, so you can dig into people’s lives or keep it straight to the point. There’s a reasonably detailed world too, which is being overrun by ‘The Nation’, which Nemo and the Nautilus are helping to fight, while poking through the remains of the Atlanteans. It can feel a little wishy-washy at times, but the ending (no spoilers, promise) clears things up. I do think it rushes a little though. Captain Nemo’s descent into madness comes lightning quick for example, without any time to get to know the non-mad Nemo. There are also strange typos throughout, with a lot of double negatives that destroy the meaning of a sentence. They’re repeated in the voice acting too, weirdly.
But we’ve described the world, now how do we get around it? Well, Verne: The Shape of Fantasy is an adventure game in spirit, with a puzzle aspect. We spend time strolling around picking up inventory items and using them where needed, and a lot of time solving ancient puzzles. The issue is that neither are really used to great effect. Granted, I wasn’t expecting Monkey Island but the inventory parts are few and far between, with solutions being obvious. The puzzles don’t fare much better.
It falls into the trap of not trusting the player. There are good puzzles in here – one that requires us to tie a specific type of knot stands out to me. Most of the time though, the solution is given in a little note on the side of the screen. That is to puzzles what photocopying the answer sheet is to exams. The ‘Imag’ has similar issues. It’s a torch-like device that allows you to change the reality of an object. So if something is destroyed, the imag can change reality so it won’t be. Verne: The Shape of Fantasy talks big about the potential of the Imag, but in practice it’s only really used to repair damaged masonry. A bit over-the-top when you could just fetch a couple of planks.
Positively Vernian
Mixed in with that are a few brief stealth sections, too easy to dwell on. None of these elements are bad, on the contrary there are good ideas buried within. The rope example above could be a unique example of a puzzle, that could test both our knowledge of knots and how to tie them. Same with the Imag, there’s a lot of potential for branching paths there – something that seemed hinted at but never realised. The writing too, could benefit from stepping on the brake pedal and letting the characters breathe.
Still, I came away from Verne: The Shape of Fantasy with a positive feeling. I think the graphics and general world help to sell it, not to mention pulling from Verne’s greatest works. It was a joy just seeing what was coming next. At one point, I opened a window on the Nautilus to see a bizarre, betentacled fish floating past. It neatly encapsulated things for me. Verne: The Shape of Fantasy is a beautiful look into the fantastical world of Jules Verne. It has a whole lot of potential but, sadly, this isn’t realised as fully as it could be.
