Back in 2018, Dutch indie studio HomeBear — a two-person team consisting of partners Joshua van Kuilenburg and You Miichi — released NAIRI: Shirin Towera lovingly made point and click adventure game that we awarded 8/10 in our review.
It’s been quite a while but the duo is now gearing up to release the sequel, Nairi: High tide. Last talked to the team back in the mists of time (March 2018), we recently caught up Joshua van Kuilenburg again via email to find out why it took so long to return to Nairi’s world and what’s changed since those distant days when the Switch was just a year old…
Nintendo Life: It’s been a minute since Nairi: Tower of Shirin launched on Switch, so for players unfamiliar with the first game, a little background on Nairi as What is a character and where does she find herself after the events in the first game?
Joshua van Kuilenburg: In the Tower of Shirin, Nairi finds herself estranged from her family and home, the wealthy and comfortable, but politically-opinionated, District of Shirin. Born into a family of considerable stature, Nairi lived a sheltered experience under parental supervision all her life.
The events of the first game mainly focus on Nairi’s coming of age as she is forced to explore the Poor District of Shirin to find her way back home – with a surprising bit of mystery. Nairi finds herself more confident at the end of Tower of Shirin while also facing bigger, more unexpected problems.
Will work on Rising Tide begin immediately after Shirin Tower is completed?
Yes, although we encountered some difficulties both professionally and personally that caused the delay. Rising Tide’s development began in earnest after You, the artist, returned from Japan after providing hospice care for her mother, a job to which she devoted herself for several months . There were also some publishing and porting/localization issues that delayed the release quite a bit. It was a bit of a chaotic time.
Thankfully, this time we weren’t reliant on crowdfunding and were able to take our time to develop a more confident, more polished game despite these obstacles.
How did the reaction and feedback from Tower of Shirin influence the sequel? Will returning players be surprised by any differences, from a mechanical perspective?
We’ve certainly taken the criticisms of Tower of Shirin to heart and hope that players will notice faster loading speeds (especially on Nintendo Switch), new maps for easier navigation, and a Improved hints and other features. The characters and animations also look much better! The ending of Tower of Shirin is something players have in common; We specifically worked to improve Rising Tide’s pacing and create a less abrupt, more satisfying ending.
The first game’s art style was one of its great strengths. Has your approach to presenting the world and its characters changed at all with the new game? Or is it more of a continuation?
Rising Tide represents a simple upgrade of what came before – same art style, world and characters, except everything looks a lot better. The proportions look much better, the characters are more expressive; Animations look more natural. When comparing both games side by side, the visual differences are quite obvious.
Of course, Rising Tide also takes place in another district of Shirin, which has a very different style and atmosphere than the slums featured in Tower of Shirin. Players can look forward to more diverse and lush environments in Rising Tide!
We believe Rising Tide was originally announced in 2021. As with so many games, we suspect the pandemic was a significant factor in its prolonged development, but you could talk about What has the developer timeline been like?
we more or less created ‘double the game’ compared to Tower of Shirin. It was quite a job for a team of two.
In reality, the pandemic did not affect us much; My wife and I – game artist – live and work in the same apartment. And luckily we didn’t get sick. In addition to the problems I mentioned earlier, Rising Tide took this long only because we barely made any concessions. Unlike Tower of Shirin, no content was cut; In fact, we added more than originally intended to improve the game’s pacing. We want to raise the quality of NAIRI to a standard we are satisfied with, both for the next chapter and the one after.
For those wondering what that actually means, allow me to offer a few specifics. Almost all game systems have been cleaned up or completely reprogrammed. The sequel has about 25% more hand-drawn backgrounds, all of which are more detailed than the first game (Shirin Tower has quite a few ‘modular’ backgrounds designed to save us time). Rising Tide has 100% (!) more dialogue – much of it optional – due to the larger number of optional scenes, characters, and lore. The puzzle dungeons are easily twice as complex and twice as large as those in Tower of Shirin.
In short, we have more or less created a “double story” compared to Tower of Shirin. It was quite a job for a team of two. Now that we’ve finally built a solid foundation that we’re happy with, we’re hoping future chapters will launch at an earlier time. Hope.
Tower of Shirin is only a few dollars/pounds/euros on the eShop and is well worth buying, but for those players who missed it and might be interested in Rising Tide, how much do you think they’ll ‘miss out’ on in terms of callbacks with the characters and world-building?
Thank you for your kind words. We’ve included an illustrated summary in Rising Tide summarizing Tower of Shirin and are confident that new players will enjoy the sequel’s story, exploration, and puzzles. However, Rising Tide does have a lot of returning characters and references. Those familiar with Tower of Shirin will be able to better appreciate certain surprises and character arcs – as well as all the visual and gameplay improvements.
Of course, we’re biased, but for the best experience, we recommend you first familiarize yourself with the world, lore, and characters of Tower of Shirin before starting Rising Tide.
Since 2018, the Switch eShop has been filled with all kinds of storybook-style games that are cute, cozy, and fun. many excellent point-and-click titles – it’s getting harder and harder to stand out in the crowd. Is this something that worries you and what do you think makes Rising Tide different?
Of course, we were worried about whether our game would be successful in a crowded market, which is why we focused on polishing Rising Tide. Our primary concern is making the best game we can make, because that’s what we have the most control over.
On the upside, we feel our art style remains eye-catching and our specific approach to the game—a mix of visual novels, point-and-click games, and dungeons Zelda-style darkness — quite unique. By all accounts, Tower of Shirin did quite well; We hope Rising Tide will attract even more players’ attention!
Do you have any plans to add more chapters in Nairi’s story? What’s next for HomeBear?
Currently, we are 100% committed to bringing NAIRI the most satisfying ending possible. We know where we want things to go; What does the ending look like? All chapters are roughly equal in length, we expected a total of four chapters. However, we could have chosen a larger third chapter; We’re not entirely sure at this point, but we’ll do whatever serves the story best. What me Maybe it’s safe to say we’re writing the third chapter.
Lovely! Finally, what games have you been playing and enjoying lately – on Switch or on Switch?
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, we actually enjoy playing survival horror games together – my wife points out important loot that I’m sure to miss while dealing with the monsters. We are currently playing through Evil resides 4 redo. On Switch, I really like it The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (dungeon!) as well Ultra Light Drifter.
We thank Joshua. Nairi: Rising Tide launches on Switch on November 14 and is available to pre-order now at 25% off, which is $11.99 / £9.75 / €10.79.
