Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom.

Well it did. All I can say is that I was tricked.

This is one of those cases where the trailer and intro is way better then the game itself. Sure I understand that it has to be because that is after all, the selling point.

But this was ridiculous. This is basically someone telling me to eat this yummie chocolate and I end up eating a pile dog (fill in word here)

Alas, I am going to give this a fair analysis and you might understand to why I rip on this game so early on.

So the game starts, I like the design, I like the story, it is classic and safe. The graphic art design reminds a bit of Totoro and Folklore mixed up together to create Torolore. Music reminds me of something from Nausacaa valley of the wind.

The main prologue is safe, basically by let me quote “blah albhblahg kingdom, blah blah darkness blahal, un-likely hero blah blah”. We have heard this one before.

My first reaction is the voice acting. It seemed to me like one person was doing all the voices in the game, they were very poor. Not to the point where I muted my TV but enough to be an disturbance in the game enjoyment. The initial feel for the controls is that they are a bit off, I cannot put my finger on it (or thumb, excuse the pun) but it is noticeable, not to the point that it ruins the game. As the game progressed i noticed that it might not have been the controls as much as the camera. The giant guy (Majin) is non passable. You cannot pass through him which creates several awkward situations. For instance, when he stands behind you and goes transparent. You aren’t really paying attention that he is there, so you try to run through him, which you can’t, so you have to run around his large stature. There are several tight situations where it is near to impossible to pass by him and where he is just in the Effin way.

You also notice pretty early that the graphics aren’t as wonderful as promised. Run pass a water fall, I dare you! The noise sounds more like static and the water fall is just a step back in graphic creation. It just sucks because this did have the potential to be a beautiful game. Also the rats will throw you off in the beginning, except the cheesy  (there, I did it again!) voice acting, they shift voice pitches, making you think that the same rat is going through some weird personality disorder. Once you played for a bit, you come to a point where you are told “Did you know that by controlling the Majin, that you can understand what animals say?”.

Every bit of the way you are told about something you already know, as if you weren’t intelligent enough to come to a simple conclusion of 1+1=2 all by your self. They have to remind you.

You have the animals talk to you, and an hour later “did you know animals can talk to you?”

The monsters reminded me to much of the heart less from the awesome amazing super game Kingdom hearts. It is the basic concept, shadow, goo, dark, etc. In kingdom hearts, the “heartless” are begins that have lost their hearts and turned into walking shadows of dankness. While in this game, the darkness engulfed monsters used to be people…

The first boss fight almost made me put down the controller and do something productive, like go treasure hunting in my belly button.

Imagine yourself controlling a huge beast. Now you have to tell him to pick something up to throw at this giant jerk that wants to kill you. Every time he shoots something on your Majin, the Majin looses its prior command.

Ok, so you command your Majin to pick something up, then the beast spits at you and your Majin drops whatever he was holding or any command he was executingt. “damnit” and repeat this a few times, gets annoying right?

Not only that, when the beast is out of balance enough to beat up, the stupid walking pile of mold finally completes his command and cannot cancel that current command to do a different command that is required while the boss is disabled. The boss recovers after a bit, just enough time for the walking degenerate to start the belated command which now doesn’t do any good at all.

Is this interesting as a game? Yes, but it TOTALLY blew it on the small part that makes a game good and play able.  Games are supposed to push the boundaries of the technology at hand, this was a step back in all sense except the music, the music was awesome!

Even though there was so much that was bad with the game, it actually does balance equally with all the things that were good. The problem is when the bad things pile up, you end up overlooking the good parts. It is a charming game. It does have some spirit, heart and sense of adventure. The big ol lump does grow on you and maybe once I complete the entire game I might have a change of heart. Who knows? Some people actually thing that the Black eyed peas were awesome during the super bowl halftime show 😉

And now, some unbiased facts from Wikipedia:

Plot

Majin’s story is set in a once prosperous and fruitful kingdom, which is overtaken by a mysterious darkness and thrown into disarray. While many citizens attempted to explore and find out what’s going on, they were never to be seen again, and the decay continued. To cleanse this forsaken kingdom of the darkness, a young thief, whom the Majin refers to as Tepeu, sets out to free the mythical Majin – an all-powerful and mystical beast, to reclaim its power and restore the land to its former glory.

Gameplay

The game is an action/platformer, with puzzle elements thrown in at different intervals. Players control Tepeu, while Majin is A.I. controlled. Though the player takes no direct control over Majin, they can give him commands, which are often used for solving puzzles or during combat.

As the game progresses, Majin will gain powers, such as the ability to produce electricity. These elements will be used both in combat and puzzle solving.

The game is intended to emphasize the differences in Majin and Tepeu. For example at certain points, the characters will be separated and Tepeu must dispatch enemies using stealth, as he does not have the strength Majin does.