3D Dot Game Heroes

3D Dot Game Heroes came out on the 11th as a PS3 exclusive, and having finished it, I thought it was worth discussing my opinion on it.

-What It Takes-

3DDGH is a Legend of Zelda clone. I want to get that out of the way. It's obvious just by looking at it. It plays like a Zelda game. The weapons/items you get are from Zelda games. The map is reminiscent of a Zelda game. The dungeons have puzzles that are like those of a Zelda game. Though it's not the default, if you change the camera options, you can view the game from the same view as a 2D Zelda game. Even the overworld music sounds a lot like the LoZ theme (and the load music sounds like music from a Pokemon Center, oddly enough).

-What It Gives-

Yet it's much different than a Zelda game. The borrowed items don't play exactly the same: arrows arc instead of flying straight, bombs aren't set off when you hit them with something, and the swords... well, the swords are a lot different.

The sword, like in a Zelda game, is more powerful when you have full health. However, instead of simply shooting out a small beam, it grows in both size and strength (though your sword is also longer than the average Zelda sword when you have less than perfect health as well). There are about 20 swords in the game, and all of them have different options for upgrading. It completely changes how you play the game, because you will need that extra power, especially if your sword has the ability to bypass obstacles and is big enough to hit the entire room in a single swipe. And speaking of swiping, that's another difference: one of the other qualities a sword can have (by default or only when at full health) is the ability to turn while your sword is out. It actually helps with strategic attacking, because you can hit around corners if you're careful.

The one thing I regret the most in playing this game is that I don't have time to enjoy the many, many sidequests within the game. There are literally tons. Some are more complicated than others (such as having to be done before a certain point in the story), but others are simply "talk to his person and then come back". They do add quite a bit to the length of the game, and people who want an extra challenge might want to go for the Trophies... Which will require you to do just about everything in the game, including playing it on all 3 difficulties, one of which has you playing through the entire game with one hit equaling death. I'm certainly going to come back to this game at some point to try out the New Game + feature, but I don't think I'll ever be trying that mode... This game is hard enough as is!

3D Dot Game Heroes also provides something that's sure to please just about everyone: an easy to use character editor. If you can make something out of legos, you can use this character editor. Although I only peeked into it myself before starting the game with the default character, I ended up playing the final portions of the game as various characters, since it was just that fun to play around as some as my favorite characters from other series (see if you can name the ones you see in the pictures). The characters don't provide any truly significant statistical benefit based on appearance, but they do change your life and magic balance based on what class they are: Hero (more health and strength), Royal (balanced), or Scholar (magic). You can also change your character whenever you reload, although you stay the same class as the character you picked at the beginning of the game.

-What It Should Have Taken-

Unfortunately, the game also does away with some aspects from Zelda that it really could have used. Puzzles in Zelda games often provide arrows/bombs in pots within the room if they're needed for a puzzle, and that doesn't happen here- I had to grind enemies for a good five to ten minutes to find arrows for a puzzle. Additionally, the bosses and dungeons do not fit the standard Zelda pattern- that is, they don't depend on the item found in the dungeon. Boss fights depend on using your sword, and sometimes the item you found can't even hurt them (and, especially since having full health makes it much easier to fight, the fact that there are not pots to hold apples (the game's version of Zelda's pots) is also an annoying loss). The dungeons do, to a point, rely on the item that contain, but much less so than a Zelda game would. The wire rod (which is basically the hook shot), for example, is actually used much more in later dungeons than the one it's found in. These aspects don't ruin the game, but they're annoying. It's odd to say that the game should be even more of a clone, but it would certainly help in this case.

And... While we're talking about dungeons and their related items... The Flame Temple doesn't rely on the item inside it all, and many people have complained about missing it- and even though they don't need it in the dungeon, it's important to overworld travel. I found it while lost in the dungeon, but if I had actually paid more attention to the Flame Temple map, I probably wouldn't have found it. And while we're talking about the Flame Temple's reception... People have pointed out (and although I somehow survived through most of the dungeon and didn't experience myself, judging by what I saw, this is true) that the design of the dungeon almost intentionally forces unneeded backtracking to hit switches to allow you to proceed- there's two colors of blocks, and you need to switch them to move on... but the switches are set out in such a way that you need to loop back several times in multiple parts of the dungeon to get anywhere. And then the Flame Temple results in an utterly impossible boss. It's not even that hard; it just has a huge amount of HP (and you can't see how much is remaining). I got so mad at it that, after having wasted about an hour on it, I went all the way back to the nearest village, bought the two potions I could hold (and had used during the dungeon itself), and walked back to the dungeon, where I beat the boss... after failing once more. Thankfully, when I had to face a more powerful version in the final area, I knew to bring potions and beat him on my first try. The Flame Temple is, by far, the most annoying area in the entire game.

-How It Adds Up-

Despite its flaws, 3D Dot Game Heroes is an excellent game. Sure, it could be more updated and forgiving, but it doesn't want to be. If you're a fan of Legend of Zelda, or indeed, any older RPG series in general (such as Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, etc.), you'll love all the references, but if you're not, you may miss what really makes the game great. It's certainly worth the $40 it cost, and while it's probably not worth buying a PS3 for (like I would say for LittleBigPlanet and Valkyria Chronicles, which now have a PSP port and sequel, respectively), it's something every PS3 owner should look into.