Once Upon a Jesterfeatures Jester and Sok, two best friends and full-time thieves who start an improv theatre show as part of their ultimate heist: steal the royal diamond. As you win audiences over with dramatic monologues and humorous storylines, you’ll increase your chances of being invited to the Royal Theatrical Spectacle hosted in the king’s royal palace. Fair warning — Bonte Avond’s catchy songs will probably get stuck in your head along the journey.
Related:Best Theatre Performances In Video Games
The game packs a lot of charm with hilarious, zany characters, cosy aesthetics, and lighthearted story beats. With that said, there is room for a few tweaks that could improve the player experience and make it worthy of a standing ovation.
8Increase The Number Of Plays
Early in the game, you’ll unlock three plays to choose from, each with a base concept to explore during the performance. For instance, the titular “Once Upon A Jester” show is a conversation between Jester and his past self. The other two shows are the Roaring Growl and Statue Sok, and the last show is locked until the finale of the story.
You’ll cycle through these three plays during your entire playthrough, and the shows easilygrow stale and repetitive. The Roaring Growl, in particular, is the first one you unlock and therefore, the first to overstay its welcome. Increasing the number of plays, by one or two more, would keep the gameplay feeling fresh all the way to the end.
7Expand The Genre Preferences Of The Audience
Branching choices emulate on-the-spot improvisation. However, if you want to impress the audience and get five out of five bouquets at the end of your performance, you’ll want to choose the options that are marked with the audience’s preferred genre: drama, romance, spooky, action, or music.
There is always one genre the audience loves and one genre they absolutely hate, which makes for straightforward gameplay as you only have to follow one genre branch. However, there’s room to make the mechanic more engaging, such as by balancing more than one genre, for example. If part of the audience enjoys action whilethe other half loves music, you could create a hybrid show leading to more dialogue options, mid-show minigames, and unique endings.
6Allow Travel Between Zones
Jester and Sok’s adventure starts in cosy Dorp Town, and after gathering 15 bouquets, they pack their bags and set off to travel across the grand kingdom. However, while there is a map that pinpoints your current location, you’re able to’t interact with the map to travel back to zones you’ve already visited.
Related:Best Fast Travel Systems In Video Games
This is understandable to an extent since the story follows a linear progression, but other than the narrative, there’s no reason to limit freedom of travel. Opening up the kingdom to back-and-forth travel could allow you to go back and perform in your favourite town, talk to characters you may have overlooked, or search for hidden stickers to add to your collection.
5Save The Posters
You usually end up with a colourful masterpiece, and while you may see your poster during your performance, it goes away afterwards. Instead of disappearing, it would be great if you could interact with a pile of posters placed somewhere in town and sift through your weird, wacky creations. Another option would be to showcase your posters in the ending credits like a montage of your fun journey.
4Include A Co-Op Mode
As you take on the role of Jester, Sok reacts to your improv choices during shows, sticking with the genre you choose. But imagine what it would be like if your friend could run the show with you. Would you try to sabotage each other? Maybe you’d take the shows in weirdly funny directions.
Seeing as Jester and Sok’s theatre act is a two-person show, the set-up is already there toadd a co-op mode to the game. Letting a partner jump in as Sok would enhance replayability as friends try out various branching choices, and it could put teamwork to the test. Plus, friendship is a main theme throughout the story, and a co-op mode could expand upon it.
3Reward Exploration
With how vibrant and colourful the locations are in Once Upon a Jester, you’d expect there to be more to uncover as you explore. In between shows, you’re able to talk to zany characters and search for clues to the audience’s genre of the day, and you repeat this gameplay loop in each town.
Related:Useless But Wholesome Button Commands In Games
Sometimes you’ll be able to interact with the environment to discover stickers, but those instances are rare. The towns have a lot of empty space, making exploration wasteful rather than rewarding. Adding more to discover — like objects, hidden NPCs, or puzzles — would make the experience much more worthwhile.
2Include More Minigames Outside Of Shows
Upon arriving in Stad City, Jester and Sok get invited to go on Jerry Jeremy’s radio show to play songs tailored to the moods of callers. As characters call in, you’ll see a bar moving along a colourful arc of genres and you’ll need to press down on the interact button when it lands on the genre that the caller requests.
It would be great if you could choose to guest on Jerry’s show again as an optional minigame. Small games help balance pacing and add more interactivity. Imaginedoing karaoke in Stad City, fishing in Zeehaven Harbour, and band practice in WoudWoods — these minigames are fitting additions to Once Upon a Jester.
1Let Players Continue Performing After The End
When you finally reach the Royal Theatrical Spectacle, you’ll perform a unique play, which will be your last one of the playthroughs. Once the credits roll, you won’t be able to pick up where you left off or revisit previous locations.
To provide a more seamless post-game experience, the team could let you continue playing after the credits. It would be fun to travel between towns or speak with characters you met along your journey. It would also make sense to perform and try new genres. The narrative of Once Upon a Jester may end, but your playthrough shouldn’t. In fact, Jester and Sok would probably say, “the show must go on!"
