Thursday, 10 May 2012

Solatorbo:Red the Hunter

Gamespot score:7.5 (Good)

My score:7.8

(+)Pros:-Solid story that keeps getting better and stretches into two parts,-interesting  overall theme,-nice visuals for a DS game,-lots of different areas give the game a lot more visual variety,-some interesting and funny characters,-tons of nice collectables,- some sidequests are fun and interesting,-cool puzzle elements,-epic conclusion.

(-)Cons:-Battle is too simplistic and doesn't evolve until much later in the game,-sometimes sidequests bog down the game's pace,-no challenge at all.

Gameplay time:10-20 hours

Okay, so Solatorbo isn't perfect. Its a strange game with its own flaws, but I love it. Yes, Solatorobo:Red the Hunter is a strange game indeed, but in a good way. Its unique, unlike anything I have ever played (the closest thing is Tron bonne on the PS1)/. Its solid story, interesting theme and lovable characters make it a game I never regretted playing. Like monster tale, you can't judge a book by its cover. While Solatorobo looks like a stupid animal game up front, its something that I won't be forgetting soon....and definitely something I won't ever regret playing.

Okay, so the story is what sold me the most. It starts out slow paced, but quickly accelerates into a thrill ride. There are two arcs to the story. The 1st arc is more on an introductory arc and the story goes as I said in the previous sentence. The 2nd arc kicks off with a bang, and concludes epically. Starring Red as our hero, he states at the start that he is a hunter. A pretty kickass one at that. He rides his ship with his sister Chocolat, and they go accepting quests, completing them for fame and fortune. One particular quest though, sends him to a government controlled ship, to steal some documents. However, things take a turn for the worse when he picks up a strange medallion on board that ship, and finds a mysterious boy that he brings along....As usual things go horribly wrong as the medallion binds itself to Red and it turns out that that medallion is the key to saving the world against a planet trampling beast.

Gotta say, for a DS game this has pretty good graphics.

There are some things that make Solatorobo so likable. The story is one thing, but the overall theme and characters add to the goodness. The whole game revolving around this world of beast kin is a nice change of pace. It might look kiddy and unappealing, but when you're in the game you will grow to appreciate it. The characters are also worth mentioning. Its hard to find someone I actually hate (other than the trio of losers), Elh and Red get insane character development, and even minor characters from sidequests get interesting enough that we might actually LISTEN to their back stories. Solatorobo really did the story and settings well.....and it even goes all out with their characters. A very good effort!

The gameplay and combat is simple. You go around towns and islands, and each one of them has a quest broker (all the quest brokers are Flo, don't ask me why). You accept sidequests or story quests there, complete them and the story progresses. Sometimes if you haven't done enough sidequests, the main story quest won't show up. Its not too bad though, since the sidequests actually FEEL like they have some story to them, not like in other games like Tales of the world, where you only kill or collect stuff. The sidequests here introduce their own characters and stories, boasting unique objectives unlike other games. Its always interesting to see a quest from the same client, as they will actually remember you, and doing more quests with the same client builds his/her friendship with Red, and future quests from them become more fruitful.

Talk to Flo for all your questing needs.

Some times during these quests (okay I lied, most of the time), you will have to fight. Combat is simple, basically you grab enemies, pick them up, and throw them. You can also throw other objects at them for damage. Picking stronger enemies up require more force, by rapidly tapping the grab button, your further increase your grabbing strength. This can be further enhanced by upgrading your robot with buy able and collectable parts. Easy right? You can do this to the many varieties of enemies in the game... though that's not saying much, there are other games with better monster variety. This game however, does have a nice variety of areas to visit. Ranging from floating junk islands to forest islands, there is a good lot of visual variety.

Another nice thing about the game is the simple puzzle elements it has going. You'll spend an equal amount of time tossing your enemies as much as solving puzzles. While these aren't terribly difficult, its actually more interesting to have them around. Lifting objects, pushing buttons and finding name them, Solatorobo throws them at you. Of course some of the more tedious and annoying puzzles aren't compulsory, but they net you nice collectables. Like tune points for making music, or missing picture pieces to complete existing ones (my favorite). By the way the collectable art in this game is awesome, I actually went out of my way to find a guide and locate all those pieces.

Combat is as easy as grabbing and flinging your enemies.

Unfortunately its easy to find flaws in this game, and one of them is the battle system. For something with such an epic story, its saddening that the combat is so stupidly simple. For a majority of the game its just lifting and throwing, and that is just sad. I expected more, like a skill tree or something. It gets better much later in the game, but that's not saying much as they only give you a couple of new moves. Another thing is the sidequests. I said earlier than you have to do some sidequests for the story quest to open up, this gets annoying towards the end of the game, where the world is about to end. I mean, HELLO?! I got a world to save, and you want me to run errands? DAMMIT FLO! This totally ruins the moment. Oh yes, and lets not forget that the game is stupidly easy. Not gonna lie, I didn't even die once...THE WHOLE GAME. I lost a couple of coliseum matches, but meh (come on, winning without jumping? Without getting hit once?).

The verdict? Solatorobo:Red the Hunter is an easy buy for casual gamers. The steady pacing is good, and the story is something to look forward to. Most of the game is easily likable, but it has no challenge and the combat is far to simplistic for my tastes. Still, Solatorobo:Red the Hunter is a gem of a game, unlike anything I have ever played. If you want a change of pace, this is the game for you.


Happy gaming!