Refreshing and full of charm. A classic game that deserves better marketing.
The game can be described as an adventure game with equal amounts of puzzles and combat with monsters. There are bosses to fight and they can only be defeated by targeting weak spots. The kingdom is quite large to explore and some backtracking will be required once you gain new abilities to open up new areas and search for treasure. It will take at least 15 hours to complete, its longer if you explore all areas.
As you control the human Tepeu, the Maijin will follow. You give instructions to the Teotle to perform certain actions, to stop, or walk to a certain spot, or attack a particular enemy. Teotle can open doors which are very large and heavy. He can also crouch and Tepue jumps on his back to jump up to a high place. In many situations teamwork is required in combating enemies and to solve puzzles, to unlock new sections to explore. The bond of friendship increases between the two main characters as you progress further into the story and discover the past. In combat Tepeu and Teotle can perform team moves to defeat enemies like spinning around and launching high and crashing down on enemies. Performing these moves will cause red crystals to drop. You collect these to improve the friendship level. Collect blue ones to increase Tepeu's Level. Sometimes when puzzles are solved a tune plays and they do a victory dance! I think this happens more often with a high friendship level. Teotle always has words of encouragement like "You did great". Also when Tepue is getting low health he says "you are trying to hard" The two characters add some much charm to the game as you get to know their backgrounds and personality. It is well executed and memorable and really is the heart of the game's appeal.
The voices are done perfectly for the main characters and bosses. On your travels you may talk to birds who will offer some hints about puzzles or stories of the past, some of the voices sound strange but hey they are talking birds ! At the start of the game their is a talking rodent but its confusing as the camera focuses on the main character.
The environments have beautiful graphics, the main characters are excellent and you can collect different costumes and change their appearance later in the game. The music is memorable and catchy, I can play it in my head even when I'm not playing the game. It changes to combat music when enemies start to attack.
Overall to wrap up this review. This game deserves better marketing. Its a classic.