"There's magic all around us; We just have to look for it."
Beasts of Maravilla Island is a 3D adventure game by indie developer Banana Bird Studios and published by Whitethorn Digital. In it, you take on the role of a young wildlife photographer who traverses Maravilla Island's magical ecosystems to discover extraordinary creatures, learn their behaviors, and, most importantly, photograph their majesty.
The game released June 12, 2021 for the Nintendo Switch and PC.
Beasts of Maravilla Island contains examples of...
- Affectionate Nickname: The key animals have them.
- Binkey for the Rainbow Crested Quetzal Monkey
- Otterdile for the Maravillan Scaled Otter
- Draguar for the Golden Crowned Griffin
- Androcles' Lion: After helping an animal in one of the zones, they’ll help you progress to the next area.
- Bioluminescence Is Cool: The Glimmering River is filled with glowing animals. It’s also a key behavior of the Scaled Otter
- Book Ends: The game begins and ends with narration from Vasco.
- Bullfight Boss: The first part of the Griffin encounter has the player leading it into broken pillars.
- Cave Behind the Falls: How you get from the Glimmering River to the Painted Plateau
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Each of the zones has a specific color scheme.
- The Singing Jungle: Green
- The Glimmering River: Blue
- The Painted Plateau: Purple
- Save files for each of the zones have UI colors that match the zone.
- Defictionalization: Real versions of Vasco’s journal were given away as Kickstarter Rewards for the game.
- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: All of the animals are based on animals in the real world. The key animals tend to be a combination of a couple different animals.
- Fantastic Flora: Plants on Maravilla can function as elevators or bridges depending on the situation.
- Fantastic Light Source: Marina can use lamp plants as a source of light for other plants.
- Final Boss: Getting to the temple top of the Painted Plateau has Marina come face to face with the Griffin.
- First-Person Snapshooter: The game switches to first person for the player to take pictures.
- Friend to All Living Things: Marina is very kind to all of the creatures of the island which even allows her to save the dying island.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: After the Journal is stolen in the Painted Plateau, you can no longer see it in the menu.
- Glowing Flora: The Glimmering River is full of glowing plants.
- Gold-Colored Superiority: The Griffin who seems to be in charge of the island is adorned with golden feathers.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: Each zone has 10 plants, 18 smaller creatures, and 1 main creature to take photos of for your photobook.
- Idle Animation: If you stand still for a while, Marina will begin to curiously look around.
- Interface Spoiler: Averted. The Island Spirit doesn’t have a page in the photobook until you first take a picture of it.
- Interspecies Friendship: Marina and any of the main creatures in the game.
- Lily-Pad Platform: Marina traverses through the Glimmering River by jumping on various lily-pads.
- Lost World: Maravilla Island is unknown to most of the world. Until she gets there, even Marina thinks it’s mostly a fairy tale.
- Minimalist Cast: Marina is the only human character seen in the game, though Vasco’s voice can be heard in the first cutscene.
- Notice This: Pickupable objects have little sparkles around them
- Precious Photo: Vasco kept a picture that Marina drew of them in the back of his journal.
- Scenery Gorn: The second half of the plateau is full of dead plants, has some animal skulls, and a black vein running through the ground.
- Scenery Porn: The game has 3 different zones filled with luscious vegetation and wildlife.
- Selfie Fiend: Players can fill their photobook with selfies.
- Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: The Island Spirit isn’t shown in any of the game’s trailers. It is, however, seen in the demo.
- Tragic Mistake: Vasco taking the Griffin’s gem led to the Plateau’s decayed state.
- Video Game Caring Potential: Marina spends time helping the various animals of the island.
- Voice Grunting: Marina does various hums and grunts during text boxes. In the English localization, she’ll occasionally say full sentences.
- World-Healing Wave: Returning the gem to the Griffin gives it enough magic to restore the Painted Plateau to its former glory.
