Okay, it was 19th-century novelist, Edward George Bulwer-Lytton who first spun that line, not Agatha Christie.
But Folklore is the kind of Agatha Christie-meets-Stephen-King mystery that could well start with that famous line. Er, before the story goes down a metaphorical rabbit's hole ??? la Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland.
In visuals, picture a remote Scottish village at first before you stumble into the dream kingdom of The Sandman graphic novels written by Neil Gaiman.
This convoluted analogy is just to say: playing Folklore will put you into a surreal, dream-like state. It's anything but a typical 'run around and bash monsters' game. Which it happens to be as well, and therein lies the tale.
You play two characters who embark on a magical tour between different worlds to solve a murder mystery. The first is Ellen, a young lass who is a liaison between this world and other realms. The other is Keats, a magazine writer who fights like poetry in motion.
Their individual chapters provide different - and conflicting - takes on the mysterious happenings.
As they explore the supernatural realms, both end up fighting colourful fairy-tale creatures called Folks, and become more powerful by absorbing the souls, or 'Ids', of defeated Folks.
This is a physical activity that makes good use of the PS3's motion-sensing controller: you have to follow onscreen cues to shake, rattle and roll the controller to absorb the Ids. (Yes, it does seem a 'Wii' bit like a rival game console!)
Once absorbed, these Folk Ids become part of your arsenal and can be assigned to the four key buttons of the PS3 controller, to be summoned to battle other Folks - and they can be switched on the fly too.
Collecting the 100 Folks hidden in the game can become an obsession. Like Pokemon, there is a 'scissors, paper, stone' element involved: a water-spewing Folk, for instance, may just be the right tool to defeat a fiery Folk.
So for the 'kiasu', capturing and powering-up every type of Folk to prepare for every possible scenario is recommended. Expect to replay the various stages repeatedly for weeks until every Folk has been collected.
The game's visuals are sharp and beautiful: the huge screen-filling boss monsters known as Folklores are literally, killer graphics. The sweeping musical score is a perfect blend for the colourful visuals.
The only quibble I have is the annoying two-second freeze that inevitably occurs after switching Folks.
But all folk tales have a moral. Folklore's is: at $68, it's the best value-for-money experience for the PS3.
