A fun tribute to retro gaming that's harder and more complex than it first appea
As a result fans of the original Legend of Zelda series will feel right at home when playing 3D Dot Game Heroes. The land layout is the same, dungeons the same, weapons/gadgets are the same, the sound effects are identical and the music would fit seamlessly into a Zelda title. You can even store potions in empty jars, collect pieces of heart to increase your health and partner up with a fairy. That said, 3D Dot Game Heroes also has quite a few features all its own.
The story takes place in the land of Dotnia. You play the descendant of a legendary hero who is charged by the King to take up your Grandfathers sword, rid the land of evil and save a kidnapped Princess. To do this you must retrieve six magical orbs from 6 temples located throughout the kingdom, free trapped sages from the aforementioned temples and use their powers to defeat the Dark King Onyx.
Like many retro titles the story is told via in game dialogue and dream sequences, not by cut scenes. To fully appreciate the depth and humour of the story you should regularly converse with the NPCs scattered around the land. Their quips and other game references are often amusing although it's doubtful anyone playing the game will get them all. Even the character select and loading screens are riddled with references to retro gaming culture and older titles like Armoured Core 4, Mega Man, Final Fantasy, Bionic Commando and even Otagi.
In concept 3D Dot Game Heroes is very basic. You are presented with an isometric 3D view of the Kingdom and must make you way to each of the six temples. You are provided with a mini map marking your next target however reaching them isn't always straightforward. For example; some paths are blocked with boulders, others have large gaps or are covered in water, and many prevent your passage with overgrown tree stumps. All are traversable at some point in time providing you have the correct item or spell to do so. Items can be purchased in shops, found throughout the land or are awarded for finishing a dungeon/beating a boss. As you complete the game more items and spells become available and you will be able to access more of the map.
Once you enter a temple your goal is very simple: Find the boss room key, locate and defeat the boss then rescue the sage. Each dungeon is made up of a series of rooms. Each room takes up a single screen and has one to four exits. Often exits will be blocked and must be opened by either solving a puzzle (usually moving blocks around), finding a key, hitting a switch or killing all the enemies in the room. Every dungeon is essentially a maze so you'll need your wits about you when trying to locate the correct path to take. Luckily every dungeon has a map which, once found, shows an overview of all the rooms and how they connect. At the end of every dungeon is a Boss fight. Boss fights are another testament to games of days passed. All bosses have a limited number of basic movements and attacks so, once you learn the pattern/warning signs, theoretically you should be in for an easy fight. This is not always the case as powerful attacks, high health, and the time it takes you to actually beat the boss can wear down even the most practiced gamer.
Both the kingdom and the dungeons are riddled with a variety of enemies. Most can be killed with your sword however some require use of magic and a bit of strategy to defeat. At any time you have a shield, a sword and a special item/spell equipped. Your special items range from weapons like bombs, boomerangs and a bow thru to items like a hookshot or bestiary. As you progress thru the dungeons you will also gain a number of spells that can freeze enemies, reflect magic or create earthquakes. There are a nice assortment of items available however you rarely need to use them for combat and will end up uding your sword for 90% of your fights.
A great addition to 3D Dot Game Heroes is the unique customisable sword. There are a number of swords in the game each allowing a varying number of modifications (providing you have the coin). These range from basic things like length, width and damage thru to things like spin attacks, firing beams and being able to strike thru walls. Many of these customisations only affect your sword when your health is at 100% however even the most basic sword becomes gigantic when your health is full and can strike enemies over half a screen away.
Customisation doesn't just stop at the sword though. Silicon Studios included a complete character sprite editor as part of the game. This allows you to either create character from scratch or modify one of the existing ones, pixel by pixel. A nice feature of this editor is the ability for you to upload or download creations from the 3D Dot Game Heroes website. Unfortunately this is done by exporting it to an external device and accessing the site via your PC but it's still a great addition.
This wouldn't be a complete 3D Dot Game Heroes review if I didn't mention the graphical styling. Silicon Studio has done an exemplary job of mashing old s_tyle pixelated graphics with current technical advancements. Characters and the landscape maintain a pixelated look however the world is presented to you in 3D brilliance complete with shadows, reflections, physics and special effects. For example killing an enemy or smashing an object makes them explode into pixels (cubes), all of which tumble around the screen. Whilst this works well for the most part there were a few occasions where the attempts failed. For example the water has a reflective "Vaseline" look and distant objects appear are very blurry, sometimes ones only half a screen away. This is by design but it was a "feature" I found very visually unpleasant. Another visual negative was that edges in the game aren't clearly defined. This is easily remedied by turning on a "show grid" option in the settings but, in my opinion, something that should have been enabled by default.
Trophy wise this is a very challenging platinum. There are a total of 51 trophies over half of which are secret. You will need to play the game thru at least 3 times (or strategically save) in order to get them all and many can be missed. None are ambiguous and involve tasks like kill boss X without taking damage, collect information on boss Y in the bestiary, collect this sword, max out health/magic, etc.
3D Dot Games Hero can be a bit of a sheep in wolves clothing. Whilst it looks very basic and easy there is a wealth of content and the later levels will have even the most veteran of gamers on the ropes. Once you finish the main game you can choose to play it again in one of the two New Game + modes or you can go back and get everything you missed the first time around. With collectible swords, blocks and heart pieces scattered thru the land alongside tower defence and racing mini games, there's a lot to miss the first time around. In fact, without a guide, it's highly likely you won't even see some of the side quests in the game until our second or third playthru.
The most important thing about this game is that it's a pleasure to play. The sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant humour is a nice reminder that it's shouldn't be taken too seriously. It's a tribute to the last 30 years of gaming culture that will be enjoyed by old and new gamers alike.