It wasn't long after purchasing Poppy Playtime that I began to get recommendations on my Playstation for the Garten of Banban series. This series, like that other one, falls into the mascot horror genre. I wasn't even aware that sub-genre of horror games had been given a title, but mascot horror works well. So far, there appears to be eight games in the series, all of which have dirt cheap prices, but unsure of the quality, I decided to only pick up the very first of the games. I expected this would be much like Poppy Playtime but with everything being lower quality, and that was exactly what this was. My story synopsis is based on what I inferred, as the game doesn't explicitly explain things at this early stage.
The game takes place within Banban's Kindergarten; a kindergarten that was closed down sometime in the past due to all the children who had been attending the place vanishing one dark day. You presumably play as a parent of one of the missing children, who, presumably not happy with the official investigation, has taken it upon themselves to break into the building and do their own search for answers.
It took me around 40 minutes to get through Garten of Banban, which for the price being asked was perfectly acceptable (I believe it is free to download on PC). It is basically a much rougher version of Poppy Playtime, with your character in a first person perspective solving basic puzzles, while of course being hunted by a mascot. The game takes place on the ground floor of the kindergarten, starting with the reception area, before going down a long corridor with classrooms and play areas off to the side. The game world looks quite basic, the mascots are introduced via simple drawings on the walls, the graphics in general were all functional but felt less realistic. The game as a whole felt more like a...well, like a game. There are hidden switches and key cards to find, platforming sections, bottomless pits, and immersion breaking invisible walls that block your progress during key moments. The key innovation here is having the protagonist armed with a helpful drone they can send to press switches. The controls for this drone are extremely simple, and it follows such a simple flight path that it can miss the switches you are trying to get it to press, but was perfectly ok.
The big bad for this first entry is Opila Bird; a human sized pink emu like bird, with it only appearing twice, both times heavily scripted. This was one area where Garten of Banban inadvertently succeeded, the creature is very basic in design which actually made it more disturbing to see. It may only appear in a horror context twice, but both of these times were the highlight of my time with the game.
I'm always a sucker for lore, and here there is some, but only slight. I felt the opening didn't do a good enough job of setting up the story, or setting the motivation for the protagonist. There was assumptions on my part for what was going on, and spending any time with this - it is blatantly heavily inspired by games like Poppy Playtime, the story feels like it is going to be very similar. For me, that is fine, I wanted something to scratch the itch in-between playing that other better series.
There is no getting around the obvious fact that Garten of Banban is a clone of a different and better game series. It also is obvious at a glance that this is much lower in quality. There isn't really anything this one does any better, the antagonist is accidentally creepy, but not iconic looking at all, and the basic looking level design makes this feel more like a video game than an immersive horror. The less said about the placeholder feeling sound effects the better, some of the sounds here legitimately hurt my ears. Still, this game was exactly what I figured it would be; it scratched an itch, and while I'm not chomping at the bit to try the sequels, I will certainly pick them up if I ever see them go on sale.
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