I just unlocked the 5th exhibition room, and I have mixed feelings about this game.
As a game, it is a mediocre one. The mini games, save maybe for the shooting one (which works surprisingly well with the gyro sensor) are terrible, and the environments aren't big enough to make the normal cleaning fun as it was in previous Chibi Robo games. There's also a lack of variety in the tasks you have to do, it feels very repetitive.
Regarding the silhouette films and how taking pictures affects the game, it feels like a very superfluous thing, however, finding the right items definitely has a strange fun process to it, along with then trying to achieve 100% accuracy. The sad part is that despite the Photo Finder subtitle, the photography element is very minor and you spend most of your time doing other things to get new silhouette film to take pictures. Sometimes the silhouettes are a little too specific in their shape as well, which is a bit annoying.
Despite all that, and the reason I've kept playing, is that the game oozes charm
everywhere, from the wacky characters and their strange personalities (JOSHY BEAR😍
to the incredibly detailed textures of the items and environments, Chibi-robo's animations when popping out of real life objects or K&M's fake french accents, the game feels like a labor of love as far as art direction and writing goes, sadly all the gameplay aspects don't go with it.
Knowing that skip was behind this game, I can't help but feel that it was probably a bit rushed and that's why the gameplay is so lacking, perhaps to move on to a bigger project? Or maybe this was originally intended to be a bigger game that had to be cut down; I guess we'll never know.
I don't know how much of the game I have yet to play, but I doubt my impressions will change. For know, I feel like only fans of the previous Chibi Robo games will really appreciate and be able to bear the game in its current state.