Shadow of Destiny Hands-On

Konami's upcoming cinematic adventure, entitled Shadow of Destiny, stars Eike Kusch, a veritably doomed young man on a mission to preempt fate. While taking a lazy walk one quiet afternoon, Eike was viciously stabbed by a mysterious mounted assassin with unknown motives. But as it happens, it apparently wasn't Eike's time to go - in the interim between life and death - he finds himself in the domain of an enigmatic being known as Homunculus, who seems bent on helping him. Granting him access to a "digipad" - a device that allows for the hopping of time - Homunculus sets Eike on the path that will ultimately lead to the undoing of his death. Homunculus' motives, though, aren't clear, and it's doubtful that they're wholly philanthropic.

Shadow of Destiny's opening cinematic illustrates Eike's untimely demise. What follows is a lengthy sequence depicting Eike's ascendance into Homunculus' manse and his subsequent briefing pertaining to all things digipad. Once learned on the minutia of time hopping and its possible adverse effects, you're sent back to the hour of Eike's death in order to uproot the tendrils of fate.

Much of Shadow of Destiny's gameplay revolves around running around the streets of the small, fictional European town in which the game is set. Each chapter revolves around reversing a particular occurrence of Eike's demise. When one is avoided, though, others present themselves - fate isn't so simply circumvented, it seems. Foiling fate usually consists of zipping to the right time period, talking to the right people, visiting the right locations, or a combination thereof. In all cases, gameplay heavily revolves around elaborately produced real-time cutscenes, often giving the impression that the actual play mechanics take second seat to whatever cinematic pretensions the game is harboring. Those accustomed to traditional adventure gameplay will surely feel right at home with Shadow of Destiny; the game is definitely similarly paced, and narrative, in truth, seems to be the game's dominant factor. Unlike traditional adventure games, though, Shadow of Destiny seems rather light on item collection, fortunately, instead focusing on information gathering. As you travel through time, the town's physical layout will change, and so will its inhabitants. Certain objectives will call for you to communicate with a certain character from a certain time period; in truth, the game's time-hopping theme seems quite heavy, and it ultimately affects all of its aspects.

The town in which the game is set is dynamically rendered in real time, and its appearance changes with each period. The modern day version of the town, for example, is rather bland and dim, while in the medieval times, the whole environment seems washed with a sepia tone. At first glance, Shadow of Destiny seems rather dull, from a visual standpoint. Only after repeated shifts through time does the game's character make itself known. The character models are at the same time oddly grotesque and starkly idealized, and the environments, while often intentionally drab, seem painstakingly crafted and organic. There is some barely perceptible pop-up in some areas of the town, but to mention it is to nitpick.

In the end, Shadow of Destiny seems the antithesis of a twitch game. There is, in fact, absolutely no combat in the game. If anyone out there still cares about narrative-driven, laboriously cinematic games, then Konami apparently has you covered. The game's narrative - which touches on such subjects as alchemy, life after death, and the themes of fate and destiny - seems fairly interesting, even though the voice acting seems a tad questionable. Look for Shadow of Destiny this March.