Back in 2018, the Switch’s touchscreen functionality made point-and-click games, once best played on PC, much more accessible for console players. In fact, many games on our list of Best Point And Click Adventure Games launched in the hybrid console’s second year – NAIRI: Tower Of Shirin among them. Six years later, Dutch developer HomeBear Studio continues the story with Nairi: Rising Tide. So does it rise to the occasion? Almost.
We’ll elaborate in a moment, but first a quick warning that mild spoilers for Tower Of Shirin lie ahead. The first installment isn’t a prerequisite; if you haven’t played it or need a recap, Rising Tide has an optional narrative section in which Nairi tells the story of her previous adventure. That said, Tower Of Shirin players will come equipped with advantageous knowledge of the lore.
Both games take place in Shirin, a city divided into Rich, Middle, and Poor Districts. In the first game, Rich District resident Nairi’s parents were unlawfully arrested and she was forced into hiding – where she now remains. When Rising Tide begins, we see Tower Of Shirin’s story from the perspective of Shiro, whose father is on the Shirin Council with Nairi’s father. We later switch back to Nairi’s point of view and the two kids try to sneak back into the Rich District, encountering corrupt governments, uprisings, kidnappings and mysterious magical forces along the way.
That’s a truncated version of the full story, which we feel is a bit tricky to follow. The sequel introduces a lot of characters and subplots, yet there’s not much time to comprehend them all. As the narrative tides turned, we found the best way to not drown in B stories was to hold on to Nairi and Shiro’s quests while the other parts washed over us.
The characters’ long conversations give Rising Tides a visual novel feel. The dialogue is cute and contains many childlike (bordering on cheesy) jokes, though it has more serious undertones with the corruption and class conflict themes. When you traverse Shirin, the puzzles are light: you might do a trading sequence, fill in the blanks, fix things with your tools, or deliver a lost item. You’ll need a sharp eye to spot the various coins and objects on the ground while you explore, as a lot of the time the interactable elements blend with the backdrop.
The dungeons are where the puzzles really get to shine, and with just one or two characters present the dialogue becomes sparse. The puzzles are brain-cranking and usually satisfying to solve. They aren’t hugely frustrating, though they can be murky in a way that seems at odds with the kid-friendly humor. There are only three dungeons but these multi-roomed, multi-leveled fortresses take up about half the game, with puzzles that see you run in and out of rooms and levels to pull a lever connecting to another floor or piece together several parts (sometimes literally). They often challenge you to think hard and use every tool, tap every wall and every piece of furniture, even if it doesn’t look interactable. In one puzzle you spin a dial to color in different icons, in another you memorize the sequence of a story, in another you direct a laser beam to hit an orb.
Early on you’ll get access to the Hint Chick, who charges one coin for a puzzle hint in the form of a little drawing. It’s not cheating, we promise; the hints can be pretty cryptic in themselves. The Hint Chick also allows you skip dungeons altogether if you get too stuck and just want to continue the story. We’d love to boast that we completed our playthrough without needing hints but, alas, many puzzles use a logic that takes some getting used to, or tap into a minute part of the lore. Oftentimes we’d get our hint and mumble ‘Oh, I never would’ve gotten that.’ It’s clear HomeBear paid attention to feedback (such as our Tower Of Shirin review, which noted the tendency towards obtuse puzzles, which you might argue are a staple of the genre) with these hints – and we’re grateful they did.
Since Rising Tide is point-and-click, handheld mode is your friend here. The screen is responsive and although a few items look miniscule, the tappable area is wide. In docked mode, menus can be fiddly with the controller, but those partial to the big screen won’t find the experience dampened. It also offers the option of motion controls where you can point and click your Joy-Cons at the TV, as long as you’re okay with a lack of precision.
The game’s performance is a bit laggy and froze early on when we paused a cutscene. We also experienced slow load screens when moving between areas. Hopefully these bugbears get patched at a later date though, as they shouldn’t deter keen players.
Cleaner graphics and turned-up colors will be a distinguishable difference for existing fans, while newcomers will simply enjoy the hand-drawn watercolor aesthetic that paints the cute characters and classical setting. That, plus the relatively minimal animation, reminded us of picture books.
The music fits so well that you might not notice it. We mean that in a good way, as it’s never distracting when you’re trying to absorb waves of text or concentrate on a mystifying puzzle. Cheerful marimbas in the town, slow minor guitar plucks in the dungeons, and satisfying chimes for solving puzzles – it all makes for an aurally pleasant experience.
In conclusion, Nairi: Rising Tide is a solid, if slightly inferior, sequel that expands the world established in Tower Of Shirin. Some slow load screens and hard-to-discern items shouldn’t hamper your overall enjoyment too much, especially if you loved the first entry. The tricky puzzles are great, though you may need to shell out for hints. And while you might feel like you’re wading through the story at times, there’s enough narrative thread to pull you through to a tense ending. No spoilers but the final moments left us already keen to know what Nairi, Shiro, and their friends get up to next.
