3D Dot Game Heroes – PS3 Exclusive – review

When 3D Dot Game Heroes came out on the PS3 a little while back, I got giddy with excitement. Here’s a game company–From Software–that really knows how to bring gameplay from the 16-bit era kicking and screaming into the age of HD gaming consoles and a saturated FPS genre market. It seems no game made today can compete for gamers’ dollars if it doesn’t include shooting someone in the face.

Enter the age of heroes, courtesy of Atlus, the publisher who brought us the incredibly successful and fiendishly difficult Demon’s Souls. 3D Dot Game Heroes isn’t an original concept, nor is it disguising itself as anything but a Zelda title, but it pulls off this homage in such a unique way that the magic, lore, and nostalgia I felt when I played Zelda as a child isn’t lost on me today at age 32. The game harkens back to a simpler time, when games weren’t all about graphics, cinematic presentations, and fifty-some-odd weapon types that you could rip apart your friends with while hurling smack talk and tea-bagging their dead digital corpse. No, 3D Dot Game Heroes is not that, but it’s a journey you won’t soon forget.

PRESENTATION

Underneath the cool facade worn unambiguously by 3D Dot Game Heroes (3DDGH from here on out) is a feature-rich game that pays much homage to the title of its inspiration: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Before I continue, it must be said that I realize not everyone will side with me on the incredible nature of 3DDGH. One has to have experienced all that the Zelda franchise offers before you can appreciate what 3DDGH is presenting to you. Why? Because not only does 3DDGH have Zelda-esque elements spattered all throughout the game, it truly IS Zelda in a new wrapper. Some will call this a rip-off, some call it homage. I side with the latter in that I feel that there are few games today that don’t borrow from others. Again I bring up the FPS genre. Show me an original title that isn’t an updated version of Doom or Wolfenstein, and then we’ll argue. Be that as it may, on with the review of the title at hand.

3DDGH is presented in a blocky, 3D graphic style. Basically, it’s the 2D top-down view of 8-bit and 16-bit Zelda games, just popped out in 3D. The block nature of the graphics is a pun, intended to illustrate exactly what would happen if a 2D game was suddenly moved into 3D without a major facelift. Hence, the blocky bits serve a purpose, and serve it well. If you can’t appreciate the graphical art style in 3DDGH, check your head at the door, because it may have been shot off by your friends in Call of Duty. I love graphics more than anyone here can fathom, but I’m also an open-minded gamer who loves a departure from the norm. I also appreciate art more than anything. A graphics engine is only as good as the art poured into it, and From Software and Silicon Studios did a fabulous job bringing the era of 2D gaming into 3D, while preserving the studded graphical style.

The blocky world of 3D Dot Game Heroes

The audio in 3DDGH, as you should expect, is chock-full of orchestral 16-bit tracks, updated to not sound so…ancient, but old school enough to fit the overall presentation. The overworld locations each have a happy theme, resolute and triumphant, whereas the dungeons have a forboding and sinister appeal. Boss fights have their own tracks that kept my blood pumping. Overall, the sound is exactly what you’d expect from a title like this, which is to say stunningly accurate and fitting.

The primary distinction that 3DDGH brings to the table in the presentation department is the color palette. Let’s face it, this might be a tribute title, but it is running on the PlayStation 3. The color palette maintains a wide variety of splash to keep things fresh. Again, it’s a rudimentary display of style, and you won’t find anything eye-poppingly gorgeous here, but you can tell the developers made the world much more vibrant than anything from the past.

One area of complaint I had was in the framerate in some spots, mostly in dungeons. I mean, come on:  3DDGH doesn’t seem to be that much of a technical achievement as to make framerate crawl. The Fire Dungeon is where I came across the most trouble thus far. Additionally, I’ve had the game lock up on me twice so far, once before I was able to save. This may not fit exactly within the realm of “presentation,” but technical glitches and issues detract from the overall presentation package, in my opinion.

SCORE: 9.0/10 (you won’t find anything ground-breaking, but if you love Zelda games of yester-year, this title’s all you; the game earns a 9.0 Presentation score out of sheer nostalgia and homage to games long forgotten)

Killing an enemy rewards a digital block explosion...and loot!

STORY and CHARACTERS

It’s tough to review this area of 3DDGH, because there’s not much depth when it comes to who the main protagonists and antagonists are, and what the story is. There’s a hero (that’s you), there’s a bad guy, and there’s a good vs. evil plot to get rid of said baddie. Oh, and there are six sages who possess orbs. Guess where those six orbs are? Yep, in six dungeons scattered across the land of Dotnia.

While both the story and characters are lacking by design, the character editor in 3DDGH is a welcome addition. It doesn’t add anything to the narrative, but it does enable you, the player, to build a character of your own creation. Using a colored block system and a rotational 3D grid, you can build your 3D Dot Hero in a variety of poses, including Stand, Walking, and Hurray. It’s rather robust, and there’s even a Trophy available for your efforts.

The editor is a welcome addition to the game, and although there are myriad pre-made characters available for you to choose, creating your own and sharing them with friends is nifty and very “next-gen.”

The downfall to 3DDGH’s story is that there really isn’t one, at least not one you haven’t seen before if you’ve played any Zelda game from the 8- or 16-bit eras. But it’s enough of a story to keep you searching for the next dungeon, laying the smackdown on lots of baddies, grabbing the next special item, and purchasing the next sword for your arsenal.

SCORE: 7.0/10 (the story is as basic as your character, but that’s the whole point; 3DDGH never takes itself too seriously and it doesn’t pretend to; the story isn’t bad, but it’s not good…it just is)

Make your own 3D Dot Hero with the Character Editor

GAMEPLAY

Being that 3DDGH is a shout-out to the old school gamers, a love letter to us if you will, the gameplay is a masterpiece. The same mechanics of slash, travel, puzzle-solve, upgrade, and moving forward are all there, including the reward style of play where every action leads to more powerful loot that you can use to access new areas or defeat baddies.

3DDGH excels because it improves on an already awesome formula. Instead of a wood sword, then iron sword, then upgraded iron sword, then Master sword, there’s a much more intricate system. Each weapon has a width, length, strength, special, and unique attack power-ups that are governed through a system built on “Potential.” Basically, each weapon has a set amount of potential, and as long as the weapon has potential, you can buy upgrades for it. Once it runs out of potential, that’s it, you can’t upgrade anymore and there’s no way to gain more potential for said weapon.

In my first play-through, I bought the Claymore and upgraded it to max because its potential allowed me to. This is, by far, one of the best weapons in the game. The width and length are insanely huge, which looks very funny when wielding it. The image below is good, but this isn’t a fully upgraded claymore. Trust me, the weapons in this game are COLOSSAL, a pun unto itself and a sarcastic tip of the hat to games of this ilk.

Is that really a sword, or are you just happy to see me?

Other items your hero acquires include a Boomerang, Bow, Bombs, a Hookshot-type-device…any of this sounding familiar? It should. But one unique item stands out: the Bestiary. When you acquire this book, you can wield it as your secondary weapon and strike foes with it. It damages them, but the main point of doing this is to find the strike that eventually “books” the enemy and logs it in the Bestiary. Once done, you can read more information about it in the Pause menu, which sometimes gives you clues on how best to defeat it, what it looks like, where to find it, etc. You can even log bosses, which is VERY, VERY difficult because it takes an incredible amount of hits to book them. Again, there’s a Trophy waiting for you if you log every foe in the game.

This style of gameplay, while mostly enjoyable and deliberately linear, also means that the same issues are present. For example, movement is still very “square,” meaning you only get four directions to walk in. In Zelda, when certain enemies change direction rapidly, it’s very difficult to line up your sword swing, and you typically get nabbed once or twice before you can defeat the foe. Same in 3DDGH. From Software put in some new elements to help alleviate this issue, such as the Spin upgrade to certain swords you acquire in-game. Not all of the weapons have Spin available, and they’re much more challenging to use.

SCORE: 9.5/10 (you won’t find anything but raw gameplay here with only slight issues here and there; the developers included sarcasm a-plenty; there’s tons of items, weapons, power-ups, and upgrades to be found, keeping the rewarding style of gameplay intact)

SUMMARY and OVERALL SCORE

3D Dot Game Heroes isn’t for everyone. It’s for old schoolers who don’t mind the occasional dungeon crawl with stereotypical gameplay and mute characters. The game rarely takes itself seriously and is meant not to. It’s part of the charm that is From Software, Silicon Studios, and Atlus. New additions update the genre in a big way, such as more items, more and upgradable weapons, and mini-games scattered throughout the various towns. This is a true love letter to the 8- and 16-bit days when games were more than how they looked or who you could shoot…it was about the triumph of gameplay mechanics and raw fun. 3D Dot Game Heroes achieves this end and can’t be missed if you own a PS3.

OVERALL SCORE: 9.0/10 (some technical glitches and inherent gameplay mechanical problems keep this one from scoring near-perfect; still, it’s a rare gem and a shout-out to those of us who remember the age of heroes)

About B.T. Robertson

B.T. Robertson is a writer, published author, and avid gamer, and has been playing video games his entire conscious life. Currently, he resides in Pittsburgh, PA with his family and is awaiting the launch of his third fantasy novel. Visit him online at www.btrobertson.com.