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By | mollipen |
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| Filed Under | A, Japan, Nintendo DS, Review, RPG, Video Games | ||
| Tags | jrpg, nds, xseed |
There were countless reasons why I loved the last great hardware effort from Sega (the Dreamcast, of course), but somewhere at the top of that list was the overall wonder I felt at the system’s game library. It was the console that, for me, made gaming fun again, as it seemed developers Japanese and Western alike took chances on ideas that they might not have attempted elsewhere. It isn’t to say that every Dreamcast project was totally unique and groundbreaking, but there was this overall sense of creativity that seemed to re-assure games that it was okay to try new things and dare to be different. It was the world were Jet Set Radio, Seaman, Napple Tale, and Shenmue were the norm, not the niche; a world that I came to love living in.
This is all relevant because The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road (or Riz-zoawd as it was known in Japan) keeps telling me that it’s a DS game, but I would swear to you that the entire time I played it I was certain I was back in the days of the Dreamcast. Sure, it probably has something to do with the fact that in my mind, the DS is a return to that “let’s be daring!” mantra that fueled Sega’s final console, but I just can’t shake the ability to see myself, DC controller in-hand, playing Oz. Mybe not even the stock controller: upon telling a friend how I felt like this could have ben a Dreamcast game, after agreeing with me he said he wouldn’t have been surprised had somebody been crazy enough to make an official rollerball controller to bundle it with.
That’s the first thing you’ll notice about Oz: control over Dorothy is done by flicking the stylus around on a large (virtual) emerald rollerball displayed on the DS’s touch screen. Why exactly this was the control method chosen remains a mystery, though may possibly be explained by some combination of “seemed like a good idea at the time” mixed in with a dash of “touch-screen gimmick” to hopefully help the release standout more. How is it that my first experience with such an idea comes from a strange Japanese RPG based around a classic story and not from some Sega-crafted Sonic title? The quick burst of speed as you give the rollerball a good flick, the smooth control around twists and turns once you get the hang of things, heck, Dorothy’s even decked in blue, as if she’s giving us an extra nod at what you could imagine this game being at times should you squint your eyes enough.
As utterly baffling as the whole thing comes off as at first, it doesn’t take that long before the idea sinks in and it all become second nature. I’m moving Dorothy around the world of Oz with a trackball like she’s a marathon runner because, well, that’s just what you do.
Dorothy’s Oz here is a world of paths and crossroads, one that is strict dungeon crawling with enough flair to sometimes trick you into forgetting that you’re playing a dungeon crawler. Forks in the road provide signs were you can leave marks to remind yourself what lies down each path, and those paths often stretch out into a number of twists and turns before you come across a second intersecting path, the means of transporting to another area, or a dead end offering up treasure or the switch you’ve been searching for in order to open up a previously inaccessible route. Oz‘s dungeon design–in terms of construction–feels strangely uneven, where interesting multi-path exploration may then be broken up by singular paths that are unnecessarily long seemingly just for the sake of being long. There’s a fine line between dungeon crawling feeling exciting and tedious, and I wish that Oz had understood the exacts of that line a bit better.
Where the world of Oz never fails is in its presentation. Simple put, this may be one of the most beautiful 3D games I’ve ever come across on the DS. The game’s four main areas–Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter–are all distinct and carefully-crafted, and the first thing I did upon entering every new area in each was stop for a moment to appreciate what lay before me. The dungeons are simply gorgeous, not just because of the tech that Media.Vision somehow got running on the DS, but because of how that tech was used to bring to life worlds rich in detail, color, and creativity.
Being an RPG, there are of course the required array of monster battles, all (thankfully) initiated by running into monsters also present in the dungeons versus the worn-out “random battle” idea. Oz‘s combat engine is another area in which it does things a bit different: the player has four turns in each round of combat, and what you can accomplish in those turns is governed by a character ratio system. Dorothy and the Scarecrow each have a ratio of 1, so four full turns can be taken with any combination of the two. Lion has a ratio of 2, so he can be active twice, or he can take one turn with two open slots for ratio-1 characters. Finally, Tinman, being the big bruiser of the group, has a ratio of 3, so if used a full round would consist of one turn from him and one turn from a ratio-1 character.
Within five minutes of starting the game, you’ll have assembled your full party as Dorothy makes her way down the yellow brick road in order to speak to the all-powerful Oz. (Who, it seems, is waiting for you to show up so he can task you with doing his dirty work.) So, as bringing together your party is taken care of right away, part of the strategy required for combat comes from deciding who you’re going to use in battle when and how. Each character is strong against a particular type of enemy, and progression in the game will unlock special abilities for each that will then play even more into careful decisions of who to use. (Your party line-up can be changed after each round, however, so there’s no worry of having to plan ahead for who to take with you into a fight.) Combat from there resembles a typical classic RPG, but one other interesting note is that, each round, the game will suggest its recommended actions for the next round based on who you currently have active in the battle. This is often a handy feature, as the game will automatically have a character target who they’re strong against, but it can also result in a bit of frustration, as you notice after it’s too late that you’ve told the game to go ahead and burn through those healing potions that you had been saving for a later time.
It pays to avoid the “mash the button to speed up combat” mindset sometimes, I guess is what I’m saying.
What I remember most about all of those interesting Dreamcast games that I played and enjoyed back in the day was that, while I wouldn’t consider a lot of them to be among the high-ranking blockbuster titles of the world, their charm and eagerness to bring me enjoyment helped me to overlook their flawed and awkward moments. The same, I would say, is true of The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road. Sometimes it is flawed, and sometimes it is awkward, but it was still a strange and wonderful experience from beginning to end, and a reminder of why I’m such a sucker for the Nintendo DS and its quirky offerings.
Rating: A
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 11:40 pm and is filed under A, Japan, Nintendo DS, Review, RPG, Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
