First impressions for this title can be misleading. Usually I find I can judge a book by its cover however this one I got a very misleading impression from it. This is an odd crossover between Pikmin, Final Fantasy: My Life as King and many other games from within those genres. Does it pull this feat off well or does the game crash and burn? Read on for more details.
[Quick Note: Images will be added in soon, internet very very slow]
Characters
Really, this game does not have much to do with the individual characters. You play as a young boy named Corobo Bred who just like King Leo in FF:MLaK, does not speak very well and follows the orders of his advisors well. Your advisors consist of a Howser, who aids you in his own conquest to take over the world, Verde who handles administration also known as saving and Liam who is the advisor for everything. The rest of the characters consist of generic characters. Nothing special.
Storyline
Kind of interesting. Corobo comes across a magic crown which once putting it on, makes everyone like him and makes him become king of Alpoko, which to be honest is a very dilapidated down with a 0% unemployment rate. You travel around the world gaining new areas for you to expand to and eventually gaining more areas to explore… and you repeat. The problem is, the storyline comes across as it is mean’t for children under the age of 12, therefore isn’t really appealing to anyone older than that age.
Music
Really, a good portion of the music in the game most people would have heard before as they would be songs that have been around for decades. Still, the music is pretty decent for the game and it comes across as effectively used, but a bit repetitive after a while. Songs such as Morning Mood are some I would have never expected to be in a video game yet here it is.
Graphics
For anyone that has played Pikmin, they would recognise that this game has the same graphic style as that game, however more advanced with well detailed buildings etc. Really, the graphics style does not match up to some of the other games on the wii and remains at the quality of a normal Gamecube game at best…. however, I could not help but enjoy the graphics, as it was simple, but it was effective for the genre and it wasn’t overly complicated, a feature that I was thankful in Pikmin. The only main problem I had was with the camera, as it wouldn’t go into the angles I needed, usually being blocked by a wall.
Gameplay
The gamplay involves you recruiting carefree adults from your village as a certain class such as soldier (Who deals with the fighting), gardener (Who can dig holes… wow) and animal hunter (Nekomimi wearing archers) who you take out onto the field to fight monsters and clear challenges, which leads to you having to consider the correct combination for the team. For example, you can take a team full of soldiers to fight a boss, but what if the monsters are throwing items, you might need an animal hunter, and what if you need to break some stones to get to the boss, you will need a miner for that. The possibilities are limitless. Your main targets are expanding your land whichj allows you to build new buildings and gold which provides you with the buildings and updates. Everything you collect is either sellable for a sum of gold or a treasure item which can boost character stats. This game does not limit itself to just this through, with several minigames such as the painful Fat King Pinball Game, where you have your party force a king to lose weight (From 1,500kg – 50kg), by hitting him then pushing him through a hole, very challenging to do. As well, several mini quests such as the 20 landmarks quest and the 100 art pieces quest is a nice way to earn items and does add variety to the game.
Replayability
This game should take you a considerable amount of time to complete on the default normal mode. However, if you were to consider the difficulty of the normal mode, then you may proceed on a harder mode, which should add a greater level of difficulty to your gametime, getting to play the strenious moments of the game all over again!
Personal Opinion
Despite my comments above, this is actually a really enjoyable game to play. I rather enjoyed the original pikmin games and it was nice to see a game similar to that, but different, with added features from other games. It is a tad out of date for its time however I do agree that this game is one of the best third party games on the Nintendo Wii at this current time, as if you look past the graphics, you can actually see a really fun game with a lot of gametime potential. Hope you enjoyed my Little Game Review!
Overall
Characters: 4/10
Storyline: 6/15
Music: 11/15
Graphics: 9/15
Gameplay: 18/20
Replayability: 8/10
Personal Opinion: 15/15
Total: 71/100 (71% – B)
However, going against my marking structure, I would say that this game was more around the 85% – 90% range.
