Hirogami Review | Diving Into the Fold
When I was in Elementary school we had a woman come to our classroom to teach us origami every week. We learned how to make cranes and frogs and many more amazing folds and I was completely obsessed. I often went home after school and made crane after crane after crane, gifting them to my parents and siblings with excitement. Hirogami from Bandai Namco Studios Singapore and Malaysia have taken the beautiful art of origami and turned it into an exciting adventure game, but it’s one that’s got more than one crooked crease.
In Hirogami you play as Hiro, the reluctant protagonist of this story. In the game, Hiro’s home has been invaded by digital enemies that are working to destroy everything including the landscape, the animals and more. Hiro, being equipped with a magic paper fan and the ability to “fold” into different forms, is asked to help cleanse shrines around his home in order to stave back those disturbing their peace.
Gameplay for the game takes place over multiple levels. Your goal in each level is to cleanse a shrine in the area which, in turn, eradicates large bits of the digital infection allowing you to continue on. As you venture through each level you’ll be met with enemies of varying difficulties that you’ll need to destroy with your fan. Combat is pretty simple until you progress later in the game and come across more than just digital enemies, but digitally infected animals.
The first animal you’ll meet that you need to cleanse is an armadillo and once he’s cured, you’ll unlock your first origami fold move. There are three different folds that you’ll learn during the game: the armadillo, the frog and the gorilla wherein Hiro will unfold and refold himself into that creature. Each animal has their own unique set of moves that helps Hiro take down enemies, traverse the environment and cleanse the shrines with a bit more ease.
The armadillo is able to roll on the ground quickly allowing for quick movement across dangerous collapsing platforms and he can crumble wooden blockades (missed opportunity to make the armadillo a hedgehog. Fear of copyright perhaps?). The frog is able to hop onto tall obstacles as well as spit a slippery substance that can slow down moving platforms and take down enemy shields. And the gorilla is able to swing between ropes and has powerful punches that can destroy tough obstacles and strength that allows him to move heavy objects. As you progress through the game each of these folds will also gain additional abilities such as the armadillo being able to spin through fire without getting hurt or the frog’s ability to spit lava. Moving between each fold and then back to Hiro is nearly flawless with the exception of getting caught in the environment between folds once in a while and having to maneuver around to get unstuck.
Apart from the main goal of cleansing shrines, each level has an additional six mini-quests that you can complete for rewards. Some of these quests include challenges like: complete the level in less than six minutes or complete the level without taking any damage. It’s a fun way to add some extra challenge to the game and bring players back to levels later if they want to get all of the rewards. These rewards can be used to purchase additional upgrades for Hiro and some may be required for you to get in order to progress. For example, one level may cost 25 paper cranes in order for you to unlock it so you may have to go back and complete a few side quests to get your paper crane reward in order to progress.
In terms of story, Hirogami falls a bit flat, no pun intended. There’s clearly a story there, but it’s simply not something I found myself particularly invested in. There’s a few unexpected twists, but the story really isn’t your main focus as you play. You’ll likely want to dive into the next level not really taking note of the motivation behind why you’re doing these things. The main thing you’ll pick up on is, Hiro isn’t the most honest person and he’s incredibly reluctant and fearful to help out despite his powerful abilities. The more you play the more you’ll understand more about his characters and a bit more about the world, but again, it’s not really the main focus of this puzzle platformer.
Speaking of platforming, this is where the game really dragged on for me. In the beginning not much of the platforming is overly complicated, but as you progress, you're challenged to jump from moving platforms with spikes on some sides while folding and unfolding between your multiple forms as well as dodging platforms that are on fire and much more. It’s just plain clunky at times and the game’s forced camera angles certainly don’t help. Sometimes you’ll lose your character in a bad camera angle that makes it difficult to see not only what you’re doing but where you’re meant to be going. It’s a shame that such a major part of the gameplay ends up being so frustrating. I also, to be plain about it, really hated the paper airplane sections of the game where Hiro transforms into a plane and flies through a level. Movement isn’t smooth enough to achieve what they were going for with these mini-sections and I dreaded having to complete them.
And to be frank, the combat isn’t so smooth either. Moving between the different forms isn’t difficult or clunky, but the actual combat feels a bit weird at times. Sometimes the level will drop a dozen enemies at you at one time and, again, because of the weird camera angle choices, you won’t be able to see where they are, causing you to lose health from characters that aren’t even on screen. Hiro’s moves in particular feel a little slow and robotic rather than smooth like when you’re controlling the armadillo and spinning around. That being said, Hirogami does feature boss battles and I found these to be really fun. They force players to utilize all the lessons they’ve learned and they’re unique, something that the main levels aren’t really later on in the game.
Hirogami’s clear strength is in its general concept and visuals. Everything in the world is made up of different origami folds from the trees to the environment to the animals and it’s truly so much fun to explore and see all of the little details. Unfortunately, for a game that focuses on platforming, its platforming is just plain frustrating, especially when you hit the midway point of the game. Having a game where you can switch between different origami folds to gain new abilities is really intriguing and I loved the concept, but the execution is a bit shaky overall.
Breakdown
Game: Hirogami
Developer: Bandai Namco Studios Singapore & Bandai Namco Studios Malaysia
Publisher: Kakehashi Games
Availability: PC, PlayStation
Game Length: 8+ hours
Reviewed for PC via Steam Deck
Final Thoughts
Hirogami is a beautiful game with a wonderfully unique concept. Being able to change seamlessly between your different folds makes for a very fun experience at the beginning of the game. It’s the latter half of the game that drags on and features platforming and paper airplane challenges that are simply frustrating. The mini challenges keep the game a little more interesting, but the gameplay does suffer from some repetitiveness. Overall, it’s an interesting experience but one that isn’t without its struggles.