NAIRI - Tower of Shirin (english review)

Nairi, furries and the secret of the tower

Nairi is a daughter of the council member who has to flee the town. Her teacher shows up quite suddenly telling that the guards captured her parents. After being smuggled out of the city, Nairi gets seized by desert bandits. NAIRI - Tower of Shirin is an adventure game which has anthropomorphic animals as well humans. Nairi works her way towards her family while exploring the dark secret of the Tower. In progress, she gets mixed up with the cult trying to cover up the secrets.

Game information

Name: NAIRI - Tower of Shirin Publisher/Developer: HomebearStudio
Platforms: PC (Steam) , Nintendo Switch Type: Visual Novel, Point&Click Adventure
Age ratings: PEGI 3, ESRB: Everyone
Reviewer: Rami
Pictures and links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiw3fJF6zcY

From the perspective of the gamer?

The game is a mouse (or Switch-) driven visual novel with hand-painted look. The gameplay is adventuring from still screens to another, solving puzzles and helping different things. NAIRI is an animal story in a way that the world is made of anthropomorphic animals and humans. There’s lots of dialogs but sentences are short, and banter is usually kind.

As a visual novel, NAIRI is lengthy enough, taking some five hours at the total. The problem solving isn’t too hard, and problems are reasonably logical (not like old Lucasarts games). Usually, someone wants item X so he can give item Y to Nairi which she needs to advance. After the start player gets the hint book which provides hints with with the pictures. The hint feature doesn’t spoil the story or even give complete instructions on how to solve a problem. Sometimes the goal is to find coins hidden to the boxes and pottery. However, the biggest disappointment is lack of UI. The player might have an idea what to do, but UI refuses to give hints where to put the items and which order?

NAIRI has lots of hands drawn graphics and simple animations. I did like the cartoonish style and use of furry animals. Although Furry subculture produces a lot of graphics not for children, the NAIRI keeps clear of the cliches of the culture. Of course, ducks are bandits, and the inclusion of the animal traits has always been the story hook of the furry fiction. However, someone might complain that NAIRI is a more human story and furry one and I have to agree. It is.

Perspective of the ratings?

The child hero is something that does have an effect on how the ratings. However, the animations are cute, and banter is friendly. The tension is light, and only a few scenes are mildly suspenseful. There's some innuendo, for example, penguins Gunther has gathered girls around him, and adults know the hints given here. However, the game is quite safe to play with kids, and for easier follow up even crucial words are clearly shown from a dialog.

The adventure is fantasy and not that scary. Few scary solve out quickly and well, so I couldn’t see it being any other than PEGI 3.

Parents and game education?

The game left me thinking that who is the target audience of the game? The story was enjoyable, and the humor was fun. Maybe those who like western visual novels and furries might find their place with this game. If one wants to hear my suggestion, is that English language skills should be fair for the game; otherwise, the player could miss part of the story.

Of course NAIRI as easy visual novel/adventure game could be a good choice for parents looking to educate themselves about all sorts of games.