3D Dot Game Heroes
“Retro by royal decree.”
PS3. Developer: Silicon Studio. Publisher: From Software (JP), Atlus (NA).
Played on PS3 for review.
The king of Dotnia has decided his kingdom is old-fashioned. It’s flat and has only 2D sprites, and tourists have stopped coming. So he does what any ruler with a failing tourism board would do and makes everything 3D. He doesn’t redraw anything. He just stacks the pixels into blocks. That one gag holds up the whole game, and to its credit it holds up for a long time.
Make no mistake, this is the original Zelda. It isn’t “inspired by” or “in the spirit of” it. It’s Zelda with the serial numbers filed off and the filings glued back on as tiny cubes. You leave a starting cave, wander a big overworld, find temples, collect items, and use each item to get into the next temple. The bombs, the boomerang and the lantern are all here, and they work exactly as you’d expect. Silicon Studio doesn’t hide where it borrowed from. The whole game is a confession.
If a game could ever force you to look up the word “voxel” this is it.
Something has to be said here. I’ve never liked this kind of game. Top-down action adventures have always been something I respected from a distance, like jazz or cardio. Yet about seven hours later, halfway through and stuck at the Desert Temple, I’m enjoying it. I’m not sure what that says about me, but I’ll leave the self-examination for the podcast.
Part of the reason is the difficulty. 3D Dot Game Heroes doesn’t hold your hand. The puzzles are simple, often a block to push or a switch to find, but the game trusts you to work them out without a fairy shouting at you every thirty seconds. Modern Zelda has forgotten that kind of respect for the player, and it was nice to get it back. Enemies hit hard, and dying sends you back far enough to make you careful.
Then there’s the sword. At full health your blade grows enormous, often wider than the screen, and sweeps through enemies and bushes alike. Take a single hit and it shrinks back to something sensible. It’s a clever mechanic that turns your health bar into your weapon, and it makes every careless hit hurt twice. I spent more time than I’d like to admit playing like an accountant so I wouldn’t lose it.
I’ve never seen one as big as that before.
The game looks great, if a bit cluttered. The blocky world is lit softly and blurred with depth of field, so the whole thing looks like a tabletop diorama photographed through a macro lens. Some will say it looks like Minecraft, though Dot Game Heroes was in development while Minecraft was still in beta. The camera sits somewhere between 2D and 3D. That makes for a strange perspective now and then, but it rarely gets in the way. There’s also a character editor for building your own blocky hero pixel by pixel. I used it once, made something regrettable, and put it away.
Sadly, the humour doesn’t land as well as the game it’s dressed up in. The jokes nod at JRPGs and are clearly made with affection, but they’re more knowing winks than actual laughs. At one point you visit a studio called Prom Software, an obvious dig at the publisher, and the joke goes nowhere. The jab at Demon’s Souls in the shop is funnier. Anyone who has suffered through that game will smile, and anyone who hasn’t won’t notice.
Those are small complaints. 3D Dot Game Heroes is hugely underrated, especially as a From Software title. It’s best known for its gimmicky look, but underneath is a well-made, demanding adventure that treats the player like an adult. If you grew up with the original Zelda, it will feel like going home. If, like me, you never did, it might be the game that finally gets you there.
- Phil Fogg