The Night of the Rabbit Review

Now and again an adventure arrives that is so lovely that you can’t help but get swept up in the tale. Usually it’s from Machinarium developer Amanita, but this time it’s The Whispered World developer Daedalic that are responsible for the charm. A tale of a kid transported to another world full of talking animals before being swept up in an adventure is a well-worn classic, and Daedalic have a cool spin on it. Let’s take a tumble down the rabbit hole.

There’s a whole mess of children’s stories all mushed into one with Night of the Rabbit. The central character is young Jeremiah “Jerry” Hazelnut, who is on his last two days of vacation and searching for adventure. He finds it in the form of the Maquis de Hoto, a white rabbit who wants to make Jerry a magician’s apprentice. They travel to the town of Mousewood, where the forest creatures live, party, and have fun, but are under the constant threat of attack by crows. Jerry must learn spells and become a Treewalker (a magician who can travel between worlds using Portal Trees), but there’s a deeper and darker mystery to solve on the way.

Prepare for an adventure!

Night of the Rabbit is one of the loveliest and most captivating adventures I’ve ever played. I make no excuses about the fact that I haven’t been a fan of Daedalic’s previous work, there’s always been several flaws in them that have stopped me from enjoying myself – like puzzles not having a point, characters being annoying, voice acting being terrible, solutions being needlessly obscure, that sort of thing – but here everything comes together almost perfectly. There’s still the odd flaw, but it’s definitely an adventure I’m happy to recommend right here in the third paragraph. So now that Daedalic’s PR department have stopped holding their breath let me tell you why.



The story keeps things simple (Jerry’s off to learn magic, visits a magical world, then goes to find some spells) for the most part but always maintains plenty of mysteries that point to a deeper plot. Who are the strange lizards that pop up now and again? What beginnings and endings does the Woodsprite talk of? Why do you keep seeing a ghostly bearded man with a pug? Where is the Great Zaroff whose box of tricks you’ve borrowed? Will Plato the mailfrog ever ask out Anja the mouse? There are plenty more, and all get answered satisfactorily by the end of the game. If the story has one problem it’s that a lot of the late-game story twists are spoiled by the game’s promotional materials – the website alone lets you know that there’s more to the Maquis and Zaroff’s side of the plots.

More important for me however are the characters and dialogue, something that Daedalic have never quite nailed in my opinion but have knocked it out of the park this time. Every single person (human or animal) in the game is interesting and likeable, and even the miserable old Hare who keeps you out of his garden warms up once you bring him a cake. Major characters like the excitable post-frog Plato and magical fox Kitsune are sweet and fun, and even minor characters like the dancing mouse or the town guards all have distinct personalities. Jerry’s a bit nondescript, the young child thirsting for magic and adventure, but he does go through a character arc over the course of the game. Rabbit magician the Maquis de Hoto does too, and there’s always something not entirely right about him that I was eager to find out (and Jerry, being the innocent kid swept up in a fairytale, never thinks to question him until it’s too late). Personally my favourite character is the young hyperactive Ursula Owl, who despite never talking instantly endears herself. You can even pick her up at one point, and while carrying her in your inventory her eyes follow your mouse pointer around. Cute.

This all would still mean nothing if the writing wasn’t up to scratch, or the voice acting, and as the game’s original language is German there’s often a quality drop-off after the English translators come in. Fortunately the dialogue in Night of the Rabbit remains fairly sharp, frequently funny, and even moving on occasion. The voice acting isn’t the best in the business but it’s definitely more than good enough – all the actors seem right for their parts and make the characters come to life, and that’s all you can ask for. Only Jerry seems a bit off, as the “kid voice” falters a little in more dramatic scenes, but otherwise I have no problems here.

It helps that the game is gorgeous to look at too, with Curse of Monkey Island and its cartoon characters on lovely hand-painted backdrops being the main comparison. Daedalic have always tried to emulate the third outing of Guybrush Threepwood but they’ve never before been as successful as they are here. Mousewood is a work of art, with plenty of detail and wonderful character designs. Music’s excellent too, especially the haunting main theme that plays over the main menu.

The whole of Mousewood. Ignore the shifty character on the side

So the puzzles are the weak point then? Actually, no. They’re tough but mostly fair, often make sense, and even when they have a comedic answer the game successfully nudges you into the right mindset to come to the right conclusion, no matter how daft. That last point is often the hardest for fantasy adventures to get right – the LucasArts adventures were supremely good at this, giving the player permission to try even the maddest things that occasionally work out, and Night of the Rabbit gets this just right. There is the odd puzzle that’s just a little bit too obscure or hasn’t had enough explanation, such as a vending machine puzzle that had me stuck for two freaking days (which is why this review wasn’t up on Wednesday!), but otherwise a solution can often be found with just a bit of experimentation or exploration – and Mousewood is such a lovely place to look around that this is never a problem. Deponia was a miserable wreck that I didn’t want to look at too closely, but Mousewood is a bundle of joy you’ll want to snuggle up in.

Once Jerry starts learning spells though that’s when Night of the Rabbit goes from “really good” to “superb”, bringing Jerry abilities such as conjuring illusions, talking to statues, making things grow and, somewhat obscurely, “creating glimmers of hope”. He can use these spells like inventory items and their uses can be really clever. That said I don’t think Daedalic went quite far enough, as some spells often only have one or two truly useful applications – the Rocktalker spell for example can be used many times but only actually helps solve a puzzle once I believe.

However if I have one big problem with Night of the Rabbit it’s the hint system. Daedalic’s adventures have always stubbornly stuck to their old-school No Hints, No Object Highlighter approach, forgetting that the internet exists and that a full walkthrough is just an Alt-Tab away. I was hopeful that Night of the Rabbit would change this, and there is indeed an Interactive Object Highlighter which is cleverly weaved into the plot in the form of Jerry’s Magic Coin, which is very helpful. The first spell Jerry gets near the beginning happily is called the Advice Giver, but sadly it is utterly pathetic. All it does is recycle a bit of the Marquis’ talk about your general goal and never offers anything specific – you can’t even use it to talk to him, which at least would be remotely helpful. At least Jerry’s journal (a tiny icon in the inventory) gives some nudges regarding the way to think for individual puzzles, but a real Hint System of some kind is sorely needed. I don’t want to go online and be told the answer if I get stuck, I want the developers to point me in the right direction so I can still solve the puzzle myself. All the puzzles in the game I’d say have outcomes that make sense within the confines of the game, but just a few could do with a bit more direction for the player.

While I’m complaining I have to mention the ending. I’m not going to spoil anything, and truth be told the ending as a whole left me very happy, but I do not like the way that the largest chunk of it is spent explaining Zaroff’s motivations. He’s a character who’s barely even mentioned until the final section of the game, so his entire back-story is told after you finish via cutscene. It would’ve been much better if he’d been introduced early on and we’d seen parts of his story throughout the game instead of a big info-dump in the finale, which just serves to take time away from Jerry and the citizens of Mousewood who we actually care about. It could also be argued that the game’s environmental message is a little heavy-handed too. Still, I definitely finished the game with a smile on my face, especially being able to talk to all the characters again while the end credits played on the side.

It’s not often you see a giant bearded man with a tiny tea-set

The only other complaint I will give are a few bugs or unpolished bits in the game, including missing lines and pieces of dialogue repeating at the wrong time – for example many interactive objects only have one descriptive line from Jerry, and these can include comments from other characters, which is a problem when they’ve long since left the area (or even haven’t arrived). Nevertheless all the problems I can think of regarding Night of the Rabbit are all minor, so forgive me if I finish with a moan about the title. It’s nonsense. Jerry can change night to day instantly with a spell so it’s not just one night, the Maquis (“the rabbit”) isn’t in command or the instigator, and the title is so blatantly meant to be The Rabbit’s Apprentice (which was indeed the original name) that it’s even the prominently-spoken last line before the end credits. Sigh.

The Night of the Rabbit, regardless of what it’s called and the few other minor complaints I had, is a triumph. It’s Daedalic once and for all proving that they are indeed capable of producing an adventure that can stand tall with the classics of the genre. It’s charming, lovable, challenging but rarely unfair, and expertly nudges you in the right direction most of the time while still making sure you’re the one who solves all the puzzles. It’s funny, moving, sweet, and surprising. It’s Night of the Rabbit, and if you’re into old-school adventures (and we’re talking Monkey Island or Beneath A Steel Sky level of quality here) and want to walk around a charming world with a smile permanently on your face I wholeheartedly recommend it. Roll on the heavily-hinted-at sequel Daedalic, I want to see more of Mousewood.