Hello there everyone! This time it's SkyDX and in my first article I want to share my opinions about Solatorobo: Red The Hunter. First of all a huge thanks goes to Maryfourdee who told me about this great game and provided me with infos about it!
Now to Solatorobo itself, it's an Action RPG for Nintendo DS developed by CyberConnect2 and the spiritual sequel to the PlayStation game Tail Concerto. I haven't played Tail Concerto myself so far but plan to do so later on as it seems like a great game too. As for the connection between the games, you don't have to play Tail Concerto to understand the story of Solatorobo, the games take place in the same so called "Little Tail Bronx" world, albeit in a different area.
Tail Concerto takes place in the Prairie Kingdom while Red and his friends experience their adventures in the Shepherd Republic. However this isn't the only conncetion, if you played Tail Concerto you will meet some of the characters again and side-quests will explain what made them travel to the new region. Speaking of side-quests, questing is the heart of Solatorobo, you take on different quests from a quest agency which are distinguished in story and side-quests. But slowly, let's start from the beginning!
The game starts with our hero Red and his sister Chocolat approching a flying freighter named Hindenburg (who wants to guess its fate with that name? >.>) in their airship Asmodeus. Flying freighter, airship?
Yep! The world of Solatorobo is made of many bigger and smaller flying islands which you explore over the course of the game via a location select menu. Overall the atmosphere kinda reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki's movie Laputa: Castle in the Sky, which is quite nice and there's also quite a bit of French influence in the game, especially the names.
Tail Concerto takes place in the Prairie Kingdom while Red and his friends experience their adventures in the Shepherd Republic. However this isn't the only conncetion, if you played Tail Concerto you will meet some of the characters again and side-quests will explain what made them travel to the new region. Speaking of side-quests, questing is the heart of Solatorobo, you take on different quests from a quest agency which are distinguished in story and side-quests. But slowly, let's start from the beginning!
The game starts with our hero Red and his sister Chocolat approching a flying freighter named Hindenburg (who wants to guess its fate with that name? >.>) in their airship Asmodeus. Flying freighter, airship?
Yep! The world of Solatorobo is made of many bigger and smaller flying islands which you explore over the course of the game via a location select menu. Overall the atmosphere kinda reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki's movie Laputa: Castle in the Sky, which is quite nice and there's also quite a bit of French influence in the game, especially the names.
But back to the happenings on the Hindenburg: Red boards it to steal some documents for a client. Our hero is a hunter that means he makes a living by fulfilling quests from a quest agency, how exciting! So yeah, that's the games first mission and soon after the story introductions you will be in control. Gameplay-wise the game plays alot like the classic Megaman Legends which plays out nicely on the DS. The biggest difference though, while Red rides a robot named Dahak he doesn't shoot holes in his enemies, instead he picks them (or objects and projectiles) up and throws them around.
As simple as it sounds, there is a bit more to it, the heavier the enemies are, the biggeer is the chance that they counterattack before you lift them up completly. Plus the enemies later on actually require a bit of strategy, for the most part though it's enough to grab them from behind and use the combo system to chain up to three throws together for extra damage till the enemy finally blows up in a hot explosion. This works quite well till Red comes across a section where the Dahak cannot pass, but fear not he isn't glued to it.
At almost any time of the game Red can dismount the Dahak and go on by foot to find a way forward, should he encounter an eneny in that state no problem! For these cases Red has a stun gun which does... SHOCK what the name implies. Eventually you find the oh so important documents and a seemingly unimportant amulet too though DUN DUUN DUUUN, as soon as the amulet is taken, hell breaks loose. The Hindenburg goes down and Red manages to flee in the last second while rescuing a mysterious boy while being attack by even more mysterious enemies made up of some black energy and who would have thought, some baddies have set their eyes on the amulet too!
As simple as it sounds, there is a bit more to it, the heavier the enemies are, the biggeer is the chance that they counterattack before you lift them up completly. Plus the enemies later on actually require a bit of strategy, for the most part though it's enough to grab them from behind and use the combo system to chain up to three throws together for extra damage till the enemy finally blows up in a hot explosion. This works quite well till Red comes across a section where the Dahak cannot pass, but fear not he isn't glued to it.
At almost any time of the game Red can dismount the Dahak and go on by foot to find a way forward, should he encounter an eneny in that state no problem! For these cases Red has a stun gun which does... SHOCK what the name implies. Eventually you find the oh so important documents and a seemingly unimportant amulet too though DUN DUUN DUUUN, as soon as the amulet is taken, hell breaks loose. The Hindenburg goes down and Red manages to flee in the last second while rescuing a mysterious boy while being attack by even more mysterious enemies made up of some black energy and who would have thought, some baddies have set their eyes on the amulet too!
Now you might ask, where is the RPG in all the action? Well there is a level system that grants more HP for each level up and the Dahaks stat points are also customizable with a simple yet effetive Tetris style grid so you can power up how you like but to be honest I haven't noticed much of a terrible difference yet.
Lastly, while reading all this, you might also ask: "Still, why should I play Solatorobo?" That I will sum up in the final part of my post!
Well all in all it's a really entertaining game, the gameplay is smooth and fluid, the quests aren't a chore unlike most MMORPG quests and vary quite greatly. Sometimes you have to sort crates, fly around with the Dahak in flight mode, escape from prision, rescue someone from a enemy airship, take part in flying races called Air Robo GP in best Mario Kart tradition (wireless multiplayer included!), find magical books, heck you can even fight in tournaments and I did all that in mere four story chapters so far!
Should all this still not be enough, you can download additional quests if you're connected to WiFi, find hidden items to unlock artwork and the soundtrack to listen to it on the Asmodeus. So you see, there is lots to do in Solatorobo and it has a huge amout of variety. All this comes mixed with a beautiful world in the sky which has a mesmerizing atmosphere that will sometimes make you chuckle like when you see the Stardogs Coffee shop.
Well all in all it's a really entertaining game, the gameplay is smooth and fluid, the quests aren't a chore unlike most MMORPG quests and vary quite greatly. Sometimes you have to sort crates, fly around with the Dahak in flight mode, escape from prision, rescue someone from a enemy airship, take part in flying races called Air Robo GP in best Mario Kart tradition (wireless multiplayer included!), find magical books, heck you can even fight in tournaments and I did all that in mere four story chapters so far!
Should all this still not be enough, you can download additional quests if you're connected to WiFi, find hidden items to unlock artwork and the soundtrack to listen to it on the Asmodeus. So you see, there is lots to do in Solatorobo and it has a huge amout of variety. All this comes mixed with a beautiful world in the sky which has a mesmerizing atmosphere that will sometimes make you chuckle like when you see the Stardogs Coffee shop.
The characters do the rest, Red is a hotblodded hero with a slightly childish attitude which often drives him into a funny pinch with other characters while Chocolat does her best to keep her brother from running into trouble which is really fun to look at. And of course like always with with fantasy stories things aren't that simple as they seem at first, the bigger plot slowly unfolds and the secrets of the characters slowly surface. Especially Red seems to bear a bigger secret, Maryfourdee told me the lyrics of the opening which are Japanese tell of one of his secrets :3 What it is I haven't found out myself yet, like said I'm only up to Chapter 4 as of writing this.
The bad guys also aren't that bad :P and cover quite the cliches: So far I have seen a evil boss, a strict right hand, a mysterious guy who doesn't talk alot (he seems to have his own agenda) and a lightheaded almost-idiot, evilness and hilarity ensured!
The bad guys also aren't that bad :P and cover quite the cliches: So far I have seen a evil boss, a strict right hand, a mysterious guy who doesn't talk alot (he seems to have his own agenda) and a lightheaded almost-idiot, evilness and hilarity ensured!
Okay I think that article got long enough, I could still write many more things about Solatorobo but then I might aswell write a full FAQ which I don't feel like and I hope I could spark enough interested for this great, fun game with my article.
That was it from me for now, goodbye, go playing!
And lastly a thanks to PCocoro too for helping me with the images and such!
That was it from me for now, goodbye, go playing!
And lastly a thanks to PCocoro too for helping me with the images and such!
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