Drawn to Life: Two Realms
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| Drawn to Life: Two Realms | |
|---|---|
 North American Nintendo Switch cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Digital Continue |
| Publisher(s) | 505 Games |
| Programmer(s) | Char George Chris McGinnis |
| Artist(s) | Justine Raymond Chow Chern Fai Akio Segawa |
| Composer(s) | David J. Franco |
| Series | Drawn to Life |
| Platform(s) | iOS, Android, Switch, Windows |
| Release | December 7, 2020 |
| Genre(s) | Platform, puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Drawn to Life: Two Realms is a puzzle-platform game developed by Digital Continue and published by 505 Games. The game is a sequel to 2009's Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter and was released on December 7, 2020.
Gameplay
[edit]Drawn to Life: Two Realms is a 2D puzzle-platform game where the player draws their own hero to play as, similar to previous incarnations. Unlike previous games in the series, Two Realms uses isometric graphics for the villages outside of levels, and allows the player to explore the never-before-seen Human world.
New to the game is the addition of "toys" which can be placed directly into the level to help The Hero progress. This is analogous to the Action Drawing mechanic seen in Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter for Nintendo DS and Wii.
Village Mode
[edit]Unlike previous Drawn to Life games, Two Realms adopts a pixel-inspired isometric view of the village areas outside of levels. The village areas in both the Human and Raposa realms act as a general hub where the player can interact with the characters and progress the game.
Draw Mode
[edit]A new Creation Tool introduced in Drawn to Life: Two Realms expands the creative possibility with millions of colors, unique stickers, templates, and new hero animations. The player can unlock additional Stickers to further customize and save different looks for their Hero via the new "Outfit System".
In Two Realms, Draw Mode takes a major overhaul. Like previous installments, stamps, templates, and basic drawing tools are available (such as the fill bucket, eraser, and varying brush sizes), but new tools exist such as transparency locking (Alpha Lock) and a digital color-picker.[1]
A basic color palette exists which allows the player to choose basic colors for their creations.[2] The colors available on this basic palette are nearly identical to those available on the standard palette of Drawn to Life's Draw Mode, with the exclusion of one color.
Plot
[edit]The game begins with Mari praying to the Creator and reminiscing on the events of the past two games; the Raposa realm is shown to still exist despite seemly disappearing at the end of the previous game. A hooded Raposa (later revealed to be a reformed Wilfre, who was revived) appears behind her. He gives her the Book of Imagination and tells her how different the human realm is from the Raposa realm. Mari thanks him for his help and goes to Creation Hall.
Inside Creation Hall, Mari prays to the Creator again and asks for a new Hero. After sending her a Hero, she asks how the Hero will fit in in the human realm. The Creator tells Mari that humans will see the Hero as one of them. The Hero is given the power to use the Book of Imagination to enter a person's mind and rid it of corruption through Imagination Battles, and travel between the two realms. Mari sends the Hero to find Mike in the town of Belleview. It is revealed that following the death of Mike and Heather's parents, the townsfolks blamed each other for their deaths while Mike and Heather are sent to live with their uncle, and that Mike has blamed the whole thing on a police officer named Deputy Snyder, who was also involved in the accident that killed his parents, though it was really an accident. As the Hero enters people's minds to rid them of Shadows that are corrupting them, it learns that the Shadow's leader is Aldark, who is implied to have corrupted Wilfre in the first place; however, only Mike and the Hero can see them. Mike eventually travels to the Raposa realm and meets Mari and Jowee.
When rifts begin to form between Mike and his friends, Aldark reveals that Mike's memories of the Raposa is what allows the Hero and Mike to travel between the realms (which also might explain why the Raposa realm still exists). After having Imagination Battles with Mike, his girlfriend Aly, and Snyder to rid them of the Shadows influencing them, Aldark summons Shadows, who are now visible to the townsfolks, to attack Belleville, the Hero fights and defeats Aldark, though it is hinted that he will return. The Hero returns to the Raposa realm where Wilfre thanks them for dealing with the Shadows.
The credits reveal what happened to the characters that the Hero interacted with. Afterwards, Jowee proposes to Mari and Mike forgives Snyder before telling Aly about the Hero.
Development
[edit]Following THQ's bankruptcy in 2013, the rights to the Drawn to Life series were given to 505 Games. A mobile port of the original game for iOS was developed by WayForward and released a year later, in May 2014. This version was poorly received and was eventually delisted. The series remained dormant for six years until October 2020, when Two Realms was leaked on a Taiwanese rating site. One month later, 505 Games' French YouTube channel accidentally leaked the reveal trailer, which was quickly taken down. The game was released on December 7 the same year.
Two Realms was the third concept for a Drawn to Life continuation Digital Continue had pitched to 505 Games following other pitches in 2015 and 2017.[3] Many of the original creators of the first two DS games made a return in Drawn to Life: Two Realms, including artists Chern Fai and Edison Yan, executive producer Joseph Tringali, and composer David J. Franco.[citation needed]
Reception
[edit]| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | 50/100[4] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Nintendo Life | 4/10[5] |
The game received "mixed or average reviews" according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.[4] Nintendo Life called it "a sequel that fails to replicate what made the Drawn To Life games so compelling", criticizing the gameplay mechanics and plot.[5]
Future
[edit]In a 2020 interview, Digital Continue founder Joseph Tringali stated that remakes of the previous games as well as a "larger and expansive sequel" would be considered depending on the sales and reception of the game.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ https://drawntolife.wiki/en/File:Colorpicker.png#mw-jump-to-license Confirmed by a DigitalContinue developer on the Drawn to Life: For All Discord Server.
- ^ https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1378070/ss_14a4e9ab135a1c1e27ec56c666e77aaa582e3ad4.jpg [bare URL image file]
- ^ https://x.com/DtLnetwork/status/1385352719456784386
- ^ a b "Drawn to Life: Two Realms Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
- ^ a b Ryder, Michael (November 24, 2009). "Drawn to Life: Two Realms Review". NintendoLife. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
- ^ "[Interview] Drawn to Life: Two Realms dev on how the game came to be, series' future, more". 6 December 2020.
