Game: Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter
Platform: Nintendo DS
Year: 2009
Developer: 5th Cell
Genre: 2D Platformer
SPOILER WARNING - These games are best experienced blind
The Next Chapter picks up an unspecified amount of time after the events of the original game ended, and in the game's opening introduction, the focus is weirdly shifted to Heather, the strange girl from the first game whose face is half-covered in darkness, but has since learned to talk. The game opens with a dream sequence where Heather watches Mari turn evil, and Jowee turns into Wilfre, who then proceeds to steal the color from the world around them. She wakes up terrified and wanders off in the middle of the night and makes her way to the beach, where she finds a treasure chest with a strange scepter inside.
The focus then shifts to Mari and Jowee who wake up to find that Heather is gone and proceed to go find her, and then the two get interrupted by nearly every villager going to Mari for help. Being overwhelmed with everything going on, the two go to the Creation Hall to get the Creator to bring the hero back to help them. But before the Creator can finish drawing the hero, the mannequin suddenly loses all of its color, preventing the hero from coming back. They then run outside as the entire Creation Hall proceeds to lose color. The rest of the villagers get scared and run off, and then a huge white portal opens revealing that Wilfre is back. Only this time around he is out to steal all the world's color instead of covering it in darkness. The creator then speaks to Wilfre and tells him to stop, but Wilfre denies the Creator, claiming he is the world's savior. He then pulls out the same scepter that Heather found and tears open more white portals to suck up all nearly all of the villagers before disappearing into one himself, also revealing that he kidnapped Heather, who drops a pendant as she disappears with Wilfre into the portal.
Now only seven Raposa are left in the village- Mari, Jowee, Isaac the shopkeeper and his daughter, Crazy Barks, Pirate Beard, and Mike the human. They all struggle to form a plan as the color rapidly starts vanishing from the village until Pirate Beard directs everyone to his ship so they can escape. They arrive at the docks to find that his ship is gone, so Mari asks to Creator for help, and he responds by sending a giant turtle with a village on its back to save them, where they send off. They then learn that the pendant has magical properties that lets it guide them to where Heather is.
AS FOR THE ACTUAL GAME on the turtle village there is another Creation Hall with another mannequin in it that the Creator uses to summon a new hero. it plays 99% like the original with 2D platforming levels and and a top-down overworld, only this time around, you sail across the world visiting other villages that Wilfre has stolen color from, and using the Creator's help you restore color to those villages and help solve the problems that Wilfre has caused, as well as trying to find the villagers that Wilfre abducted. The levels are much more simplified in the fact that there are no pages that you need to collect, and finding villagers is completely optional. your only objective is to complete the levels and gather color drops to use to restore color. Also new in the sequel, you can draw a sword, gun, and a new slinger type weapon right from the start and swap between the three at any time. The hero also gains the power to transform into a blob form and a spider form to move through levels as, and there are some unique level designs that utilize these new mechanics in really interesting ways.
In the first village you visit, a few new characters come into play. Salem is introduced as an evil Raposa who has cursed the mayor. Sock is also introduced as a Raposa from another village who got sucked into one of Wilfre's portals and ended up where you are now. Mari and Jowee and agree the let Sock join them in hopes of finding his village. Eventually they confront Salem, who is revealed to be Wilfre in disguise, and break the curse on the mayor. As they are planning to sail off again, Jowee and Sock notice that Mari is missing and eventually are forced to leave without her. for the rest of the story you occasionally run into Mari in the other villages you visit and eventually learn that she is now working with Wilfre. After working your way through three villages, restoring color and solving problems, Jowee tries using the pendant to guide them further, but it doesnt work. Sock then takes the pendant and throws it into the ocean, then reveals that he himself was also Wilfre in disguise, only acting like he was lost to keep an eye on the villagers. He then opens a portal and disappears. At this point the villagers are left helpless. They are too far off the map to continue onward and without the pendant they have no way to track Wilfre or Heather. They decide the only thing they can do is give up, and return to their colorless village.
Eventually Jowee does find a way to get to Wilfre, and they sail onward to find Wilfre's wasteland and confront him and Mari. Mari tries to convince Jowee to listen to Wilfre and ends up kidnapping him to show him what Wilfre showed her. The tone during this part of the game is very dark and ominous. The rest of the Raposa (and Mike) cant do anything. Mari, Jowee, and Sock are now gone. for the first time the Hero is left entirely alone and stuck in Wilfre's wasteland with no idea where to head next... until out of nowhere the Mayor from the first game appears and guides the Hero to get into Wilfre's castle, and disappears afterwards. You meet up with Mari, Wilfre, and Jowee who has just been shown... something. Mari and Jowee debate what the right thing to do is, and eventually Jowee convinces Mari to stop trusting Wilfre. The hero goes into the castle and fights Wilfre, killing him yet again, and freeing Heather, whose face now appears normal.
All the world's color has been restored and Wilfre has been defeated once again, but Mari and Jowee both let on that this whole adventure isnt over yet. The seven of them return to the original village and Mari asks the creator to... do something. The game then shifts focus to Mike, the human, as the game ends. Everything begins to fade away, including the villagers. Mike is left alone in a white void.
As the credits roll, the game flashes back to Mike, leaving a carnival with his mom, dad, and his sister Heather. As the four of them were driving home, they got into a car accident that ended up killing both of Mike's parents, and putting Mike into a coma. At the hospital, Heather is seen now with half of her face covered in bandages, hoping that Mike will wake up, and eventually he does. You then see two toys, presumably won at the carnival, heavily resembling Mari and Jowee. The entirety of both of these games was just Mike's coma dream, and Wilfre was able to figure this out. He covered the world in darkness to keep real world Mike in his coma forever. Mari and Jowee realized though that even if it meant their world would cease to exist, they had to do the right thing and wake Mike up.
While the first game had an even mix of platforming and story, this game goes all out with the story and only uses platforming when necessary. The levels are still fun to play through but at times just felt like an awkward pit stop. The lack of collectibles in each level also made them lose that feel of needing to explore everything. But one thing that was made better was the actual level design. The camera can now zoom in or out depending on the situation, which can really open up some areas in ways the previous game couldnt. The graphics are mostly the same with character models and assets being directly taken from the first game, but honestly i could care less about that. Being so similar in design only makes transitioning from one to the other feel more natural, like you are playing one long continuous game instead of two. I have just as much love for the sequel as I do the first game.
The Next Chapter is a sequel done right. Mechanics are mixed up just enough to keep the game fresh, and the same lovable characters and story from the first game are all present. - 10 / 10
