The Night of the Rabbit Review

It is the last day of summer, and 12 year old Jerry Hazelnut is nowhere ready to get back to school. In truth he would rather be a magician. Whilst doing chores for his mother Jerry finds a triangular letter in the mailbox explaining to him how to create Carrot Flame. When creating said item a suitcase appears, on the inside lies a wand, a magicians hat and an albino anthropomorphized rabbit in a red coat. The rabbit introduces himself as Marquis de Hoto, a Treewalker who can travel between parallel universes by magic. The Marquis promises to make Jerry his apprentice. First order of business is transcending to another universe, the land of Mousewood. Mousewood is a cozy place filled with anthropomorphized animals, almost out of a fairy tale. Here Jerry learns of the Portal Trees, and how he needs to travel to other worlds in order to learn four spells that in the end will make him a Treewalker.

In the meanwhile Jerry helps out the residents of Mousewood with their troubles and inquiries. Whilst doing these small quests Jerry occationally runs into a mysterious person. He later learns that the world is attacked by an evil magician named Zaroff, who uses his cursed nails to conquer other parallel universes, ruling them unjust. When Jerry has learned his fourth spell in his way to becoming a Treewalker he is returned to his own universe, only to find that many many years has passed, and so has his mother.

Jerry returns once again to Mousewood in order to stop Zaroff for good, but finds that he is too late. Zaroff has already enchanted Mousewood. After capturing four lizards in disguise, helpers of Zaroff, Jerry finds a way to the crossroads between worlds where he creates another Carrot Flame in order to summon a masked magician who shows him the way forward. In doing so Jerry finds the First Tree where Zaroff is holding court. We learn that Jerry’s father is gone from both the living world and from memory.

Confronting Zaroff, Jerry get’s trapped on his stage having to do a show. The show consists of different stage-versions of the portal worlds Jerry has visited, and he has to complete these ‘plays’ before he can stop Zaroff, culminating in a last spellcasting stand-off. When beaten, Jerry uses the cursed nails Zaroff has been using to conquer worlds in order to defeat Zaroff. After the ordeal we learn that Zaroff was the last apprentice of Marquis de Hoto and that both of them got corrupted and evil. In order to defeat Zaroff the First Tree had to enter Jerry’s world, and in doing so, it had to take something before it could give the information to Jerry. The First Tree had to remove  Jerry’s father by banishing him to the space inbetween worlds and remove all memories of him.

In the end the memory of the Marquis must stay behind at the First Tree, but both him and Jerry vow to each other that they will never forget. Returning to Mousewood for the last time, celebration is happening everywhere. A party is thrown to commemorate the fall of Zaroff. After the party Jerry returns home just before dinner is ready, as if time has never passed, being greeted by his mom and dad. The last scene playing shows the magician of Mousewood keeping the real Marquis de Hoto imprisoned within a glass bottle, telling him he won’t release him. The last words spoken er fra the Marquis – ‘Nothing is impossible’.

The Night of the Rabbit is, in essence, a very typical point-and-click adventure game. It does not break the genre, and inheriets most of the traits hereof (with the exclution of pixel-hunting, thank goodness). That being said, this is not something I can hold against it – the game itself is splendid. Firstly, the graphics of the game are very charming and well done. It can be bright and beautiful in the forest areas or dark and gloomy in the mysterious parts of the game. The art style is cartoony but with plenty of details to look at. The character design is nice and gives off the fairy-tale vibe.

In terms of gameplay there were moments where I was not entirely sure on what to do, although this was not the norm. As mentioned, it plays as a typical point-and-click adventure game, where you talk to a lot of characters and pick up / combine different items. The story of the game is interesting, maybe even inspired by Dr. Who (if he was a 12 year old magician travelling through trees). The musical score of the game is phenomenal, very enjoyable and fitting. It is mostly classical music, but always with a twist depending on where the player is currently at. In conclusion The Night of the Rabbit is a great game of it’s genre, and if you are into these types of games it is most definatly worth a playthrough.