Lately, as I said it in the recent presentation of the new Alien Breed: Impact, the game manufacturers have embraced the fashion of remakes of classical old games, which had success to public. “The HD cloning” of their own titles became a normality today, the companies trying to make a profit as quickly from the most nostalgic of us.
Although 3D Dot Game Heroes seems to not stray very far from this formula, there are significant differences in the approach of From Software. 3D Dot Game Heroes has no precursor, preferring to use established recipes from other classics (Legend of Zelda perhaps?). 3D Dot Game Heroes does not try to demolish the mountains through its graphic appearance and, perhaps most importantly, 3D Dot Game Heroes does not be take itself seriously, by brighting the atmosphere filled with embarrassing situations with good jokes, which relax the players. From Software did not try through 3D Dot Game Heroes other thing than to pay a tribute to the old action and adventure titles, which ate so many days and nights from us in the 8-bit console era.
The humoristic line of the game is drawn exactly by the intrigue behind the Japanese creation: Dotnia, the bi-dimensional kingdom was, in times long gone, under the threat of an evil king, eventually defeated by a hero of the people, aided by six magic balls. This victory led to a visible growth of the economy of the kingdom, visited by many tourists fascinated by the brave hero and his victory.
But the story’s popularity has declined gradually during the transition years, the legend who beat the darkness being forgotten by almost everyone. Desperate, the king of Dotnia turned to a marketing strategy, transforming the kingdom into the world fully rendered in three dimensions, very suitable for those tired of the 2D images.
However, with the transition to 3D, a new threat against kingdom appears, when a dark bishop stole the globe where it was imprisoned the essence of the evil king defeated in the past. Now, from the position of a descendant of the legendary hero who eradicated the forces of evil, you must repeat your ancestor’s deeds of bravery, this time with in third dimension.
I insisted with this brief story because, during the game itself, the dialogue and narrative moments are showed only by displaying a simple text, just like the titles from the games of two decades ago. The plot is a simple pretext to throw you into the action in a world seemed drawn from an era long gone.
Thus, although there are several types of rooms, all are variations on the same theme: a top-down perspective on the character, which, through the few frames of animation has to traverse an entire kingdom in an attempt to collect six spheres of the wise, needed to release Dotnia from the new evil threat.
The character can be moved only in four directions, corresponding to the arrows on the D-pad, in addition to actual weapons, being also certain items, conducive for the progress of the player within Dotnia world. For example, the first such object found is a boomerang, with which the player can press buttons, that initially are not accessible to him. It is created thus a nonlinear game world, where certain locations can be unlocked only after you collect a specific item.
The player has always provided a map, you can see how to orient better and you see where the next objective is located. Besides the king’s palace and the villages in Dotnia, the kingdom is studded with caves and ancient temples, inside which usually are sealed the six spheres of the wise. These play the classic dungeon role from action RPG type games, being studded with all kinds of traps and monsters that try to stop the hero to continue his adventure. Each globe is guarded by a huge boss, they still having predefined behaviors, that can be learned fast enough.
Against all these threats, the hero is forced to use at first, the sword of his ancestor, during the game making their appearance other weapons as well, each more impressive and more effective. Moreover, the first impression that the swords of 3D Dot Game Heroes give to the player is of “tools” which are extremely “potent”. The size may exceed several times that of the main character (and even of the bosses). There are even cases where a single sword can clean an entire screen of enemies. However, as the controlled character loses health, its strength and range decrease, the sword is the hand of a dying character being almost useless.
Thus, the player is always encouraged to handle as well as possible, to have as many opportunities before the monsters attack. Alternatively, in cities there can be found smiths, who, at a fair price, can make significant upgrades to such weapons. Imagine a broadsword of 50m, capable of a circular blow only by hitting a button, movement that can quickly reduce to silence the most horrible boss.
Graphic, as I said at the start of this article, 3D Dot Game Heroes is not addressed in any case to those addict for Crysis or Killzone 2; the game aspect is satisfactory for those who twenty years ago were dealing with virtual dragons. The entire game world, including characters and monsters, are made of small tri-dimensional cubes (hence the title game), this approach providing 3D Dot Game Heroes a look that is reminiscent of a complex set of LEGO toys.
All the objects that can be destroyed break into dozens or even hundreds of such small cubes, each of them being naturally affected by physics, until it disappears. Moreover, thanks to this way of making characters, the producers were able to include an editor for heroes, also being supplied many models from which the player can choose.
And yet, throughout this sea filled with vintage items, there are also some more modern effects. Thus, Dotnia is always brighten by HDR, especially when the sunlight strikes directly onto the lakes of the kingdom. From the menu the user can choose a font clearer than the original and can capture screenshots, which can then be accessed through the photos menu of the PlayStation 3 interface. The music, though composed of remixes of some MIDI tracks, is worth mentioned, despite its repetition, which is sometimes disturbing.
