You're A Magician, Jerry: A The Night of The Rabbit Review

By Manuel

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC

It's not very often that we get a chance to review an adventure game here at A-to-J, so I jumped at the opportunity when one popped up. Releasing way back in 2013 on Steam, The Night of The Rabbit is an adventure game in the style of LucasArts' Secret of Monkey Island. It has a children's fairy tale look and feel to it as well, but we'll get to that in just a bit. Even though it took nearly a decade to leave the PC, it recently found its way to the Nintendo Switch, and it's that version that we're going to be looking at today. There isn't much more to say about this one as far as intros go, so let's dive right in!

A great opening.

You're both, Jerry.

The Night of The Rabbit places you into the role of Jeremiah "Jerry" Hazelnut. Jerry is a young boy who is in whiling away the last days of summer vacation when a strange series of events brings about the arrival of the Marquis de Hotto. The Marquis is a talking rabbit, a magician, and a treewalker. The first two are self-explanatory, but the whole "treewalker" thing has to do with his ability to travel between different worlds. He offers to take Jerry on as his apprentice, and to teach him the ways of both magic and treewalking. The pair then cross over to Mousewood, a whimsical place inhabited by yet more anthropomorphic talking animals. Mousewood has been facing some problems recently due to an increase of crow attacks, as well as other misfortunes from an unknown origin. While helping people is definitely within Jerry's new duties, he must first prepare for his initiation and training. His seemingly simple tasks eventually spiral into much grander adventures, and the secrets behind what's going on in Mousewood, and with the Marquis de Hotto himself, eventually reveal themselves. I'll come back around to discussing the story later on in the review, but it's quite possibly the strongest aspect of The Night of The Rabbit. Everything has a children's storybook feel to it, and that's because the basis for this game came from actual storybooks its creator wrote. These are actually included within the game itself, but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself in discussing them. Though there will be some aspects of the game that I was less than enthused by, I never once thought that the story was anything but excellent. Well... for the most part at least. We'll get there. Before that though, let's talk a bit about gameplay.

A very useful spell.

There are some creepy moments...

Even though The Night of The Rabbit is an adventure game, it isn't a point and click one. That's not quite true, as I believe it was on the PC, just not on the Nintendo Switch. You directly control Jerry's movement with the analog stick, and you're able to interact with certain objects, items, and characters depending on how close they are to you with an action button. One button is for simple interactions, and the other is to use the currently selected item on it. I point this out early on as I want to get some of the gameplay oddities out of the way now. While it is helpful to have icons showing you what can be selected, it can be troublesome when certain icons will only show themselves when Jerry is in a very specific position. This means that getting all the very missable collectables can be a taxing chore, and even necessary actions can occasionally be missed. Outside of movement, all the other gameplay elements you'd expect to find are here. Dialogue trees exist for characters who have lots to say, and there is a robust inventory system to manage. The latter is very important, as it is how you'll solve most of the game's puzzles. You also have the ability to use some spells to help you do things like see hidden objects, or even give you a hint if you're stuck. Items in Jerry's inventory can be examined, combined, and even used on other interactable elements in the world. They can never be dropped though, and are only discarded when they are no longer necessary. That last bit is important as it means that there are no fail states to be found here. You don't have to worry about Jerry meeting an early King's Quest-style end, or simply not being able to progress because you threw away a plot-relevant item too early. Every current problem has a solution you'll be able to find if you put your mind to it.

While the style of game has fallen out of favor in recent years, I found it surprising that The Night of The Rabbit isn't broken up into chapters like a Telltale game. Not only does the story have some very clear breaks to it, but it even is about the overall length of a contemporary Telltale title. One has to be reminded that this is a game that came out in 2013, when those games were all the rage. It would've made total sense, but it isn't what we get here. Instead we have a big game that is essentially still broken up into 3-5 sections. I use "section" loosely, as it really is up to interpretation. Each of these segments often have their own setting, but even if you revisit a place, you'll find that it's changed greatly. There's also a day/night mechanic that one doesn't often see in the genre. One of the reasons why each part of the game feels like a chapter is that they all have their own sets of puzzles and tasks to complete, and they can often be completed in any order. Obviously some tasks must always come before others, but you do have a lot of leeway in how you choose to do things. This gives everything an almost open world feel, as you're pretty much given a big, overarching task that you then have to piece out into several smaller ones. It makes for a very relaxed gameplay loop, even if it does make the story progression feel a bit stilted at times. Being an adventure game, there is plenty of Sierra-type "moon logic" to be found. I'd name some examples here, but I don't want to get into spoiler territory. Thankfully you have to ability to just try everything until you find a solution, or you can just go find a walkthrough for your specific section. I guess there's some good things in this being a rather old game.

A simple task that has a lot of parts to it.

Good luck finding all these!

Before I continue on with the review, I want to note some of the negative points I found within the game. Right away I have to say that the controls are kind of all over the place, which is unfortunately often the case for adventure games released on consoles. Part of me wishes The Night of The Rabbit went with a PC point and click interface on the Switch, even though I totally understand why they didn't. There were many times when I thought some actions were impossible, but I was actually just not angled correctly or I had to cycle through the many clickable options to find what I was looking for. Even though I eventually got through even the worst sections, there were far too many times when I was forced to walk back and forth until an icon appeared. All of those issues would be totally eliminated if I was able to simply click on what I wanted to interact with on my own. The same control issues exist for the inventory too, though thankfully mistakes here usually just resulted in nonsense dialogue instead of extra frustration. I do wish that there was a way for players to organize the inventory, especially when a certain character shuffles it, but that's the least of what I have to say. The other big issue I had with The Night of The Rabbit has to do with the open-ness of the game that I mentioned earlier. Even though it is rather neat that you're able to complete some tasks in any order, and even relax and explore the world a bit, in reality it means that you'll be going long stretches where you aren't actually doing anything. The entire first part of the game felt like an hour of meeting several interesting characters, making a checklist of all their problems, and then solving them one by one once you've made that list. Most adventure games give you their puzzles in smaller chunks, where The Night of The Rabbit dumps most of them in your lap and walks away. Not only does this mean that you can easily miss things like achievements and collectables if you complete tasks in an order other than the optimized one, it also means that the story has to account for things happening at the player's pace. This hinders the storytelling quite a bit, but thankfully it doesn't hurt it all that much.

There's fast travel too.

Time to hit a crow!

Now I said I'd talk about story a bit more in the review, and that time has come. The Night of The Rabbit starts as a rather simple story, but gets surprisingly dark before too long. This is by no means a horror game of course, but I was surprised when the whimsical nature of the game left for a minute or two so the game could explore some darker themes. There even is a central villain of sorts that you have to contend with at the end of the game, but I'll leave that for players to discover for themselves. I can only assume that the episodic feel of the game came from it originally being derived from pre-existing stories, but it also means that the narrative sometimes feels like it starts and stops at random points. I don't want to get into it for even more obvious spoiler reasons, but that starting and stopping aspect of the story ultimately hurts the ending. The ending is not only somewhat unsatisfying, but feels like it mainly exists to wrap up the current things that are happening, and not the greater story as a whole. In short it wraps up its chapter, but not really the entire game. Admittedly, it's probably due to the fact that there is so much introduced up to that point that giving a full epilogue would've taken a considerable amount of time, but it's unfortunate that a game that can take about ten hours to clear can have an ending that doesn't at least attempt to do exactly that. It by no means ruins the experience, but I do think that the original game could've benefitted from a rewrite or two to address those issues. I guess we'll never know if that could've been the case though, seeing as this game has quite a few years since its original release.

The messy inventory.

Ugh, why did it have to be a leprechaun?

Earlier I suggested that the story might be the best part of The Night of The Rabbit, but I think I may have been a bit too hasty there. Even though it won't be pushing the hardware of modern PCs or anyone's Nintendo Switch, the graphics in the game are simply breathtaking. Everything has a hand-dawn look to it, and it truly feels like you're playing a cartoon. Then there's the character designs, which are all perfect. There isn't a single resident of Mousewood that doesn't stand out, and they will most definitely be a big reason as to why most players will stick with the game. The Marquis is mysterious yet regal, the mole DJ is funny in ways even he doesn't get, the wood dwarf is grouchy yet charming, the mouse guards have funny quips, that mouse child is annoying in ways that are memorable, the bicycle-riding frog mailman is as loyal a friend as one could ask for, and Anja is simply the best character in the entire universe. I know this was supposed to talk more about the designs rather than the characters themselves, but I simply couldn't help it, they're an amazing bunch. That's only a tiny sampling too, as the entire cast is one that will stick with you long after you're done with the game. Besides designs and illustrations, the in-game animations are all practically movie-quality. There are even some cutscenes that feel like they could be fleshed out to make a full TV show. It's actually rather amazing that this is a ten year old game, as it looks like it could've released today. Oh, and I guess I should point out that it runs flawlessly on the Switch. I literally have nothing bad to say about the game's graphics, so I guess I'll just move on.

Sound is probably the only part of The Night of The Rabbit that I found to be lacking, and that's mainly because it featured very little in the way of memorable music. I actually had to go back to the game before starting this review to make sure that it even had music, as I couldn't really recall a single tune from its soundtrack. There are some fuller music sections that play during cutscenes and dramatic moments, but much of the game goes by in relative silence. I mean that in two different ways too, as while there are indeed times when the only sounds you'll hear are atmospheric noises, the music that does play often exists so far in the background that you'll probably never notice it. Part of that is simply due to the fact that the music itself is extremely low in the overall sound mix, but another part of it is that the music isn't really all that noteworthy. I'm not sure if the game was going for a chill, calm, nature-centric vibe, but I think it leaned too far in that direction as the music just barely exists. There were times when music suddenly started and it would almost jump scare me, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. Thankfully music is only part of the sound experience, as both the sound effects and voice acting are perfect. Like I said before, much of the game features only background noise to accompany gameplay, and I can at least say that it sounds perfect in that regard. The entire game is voice acted too, and there weren't any roles that I felt were performed badly. While I'm not at all familiar with the cast that brought the game to life, I think that they all did an amazing job here. If only the music were better, this game would be getting glowing marks across the board.

Do I detect more Monkey Island references?

Is Anja flirting with me?

While I don't think there's over twenty hours of gameplay in The Night of The Rabbit (a claim made on its eShop description), it's still a fairly lengthy experience. Most players will probably be able to clear it in about 8-10 hours their first time through, though that is dependent on how many times they get stuck, and how much they care for side content. Besides there being a few minigames players can sink their time into, there are lots of collectables and extra content to check out. I mentioned the original stories you can listen to earlier, but there are several collectables scattered throughout the game in the form of cards, dewdrops, and stickers. It is nearly impossible to get a perfect game the first time through (Oh, and I didn't even mention the in-game achievements!), so completionists will have to either play with a guide handy, or simply go through a second, more optimized, run. I guess it's here where the game might achieve twenty hours of playtime, but that's a rather cheap way to calculate that if so. That's all extra stuff though, and you can of course simply play through completion the normal way. All that said, I do think that its current $19.99 price, even if you're only looking to play it through once. It's a fun game, full of wit, charm, and endearing characters, and it even has a lot of replayability built in. If you haven't played it before, it’s more than worth picking up a decade after its original release.

I chose to stop the screens here.

There's so much to do!

It probably goes without saying that I give The Night of The Rabbit the fullest of recommendations, and I suggest that you pick it up right now. I have only limited experience with the Steam release, but you can grab it there too if you don't have a Nintendo Switch lying around. It's one of the best modern adventure games out there, and I think everyone should give it a chance, no matter if you're a fan of the genre or not. The simplified adventure gameplay even means that it's easy for newcomers to pick up and play. Grab it now, and maybe we'll be getting a follow up of some sort one day. That's a long shot of course, but stranger things have happened. Anyhow, see you in the next one!

Check Out The Night of The Rabbit on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/the-night-of-the-rabbit-switch/

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Story: A
Gameplay: A-
Graphics: A+
Music/Sound: B
Value: A

Overall: A-

Pros:
+ A fun modern adventure game that is sure to be a treat to fans of the genre.
+ Has all the fun, charm, and wit of a classic LucasArts adventure game.
+ The story has a surprising amount of twists and turns, and it's all very well-written for the most part.
+ The graphics are amazing, as are the character designs and animations.
+ Even though missing things the first time around can be a bit annoying, there is a lot of replayability to be found here.
+ Feels like a storybook come to life, in all the best ways.
+ Anja is simply the best character ever created.

Cons:
- The controls are quite clunky and make it easy to miss the already very missable collectable items.
- The episodic feel of the game means that the plot often stops and starts at seemingly random times.
- There is very little in the way of memorable music, and you'll often be playing in near silence.
- This is an adventure game, so expect at least a bit of that good ol' "moon logic" to get you stuck from time to time!

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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Uhhhh.... what exactly are you saying there?