Created to bear resemblance to 8-bit action-adventure games from the 1980s such as “The Legend of Zelda” from Nintendo within a generation of 3D graphics, Silicon Studio’s “3D Dot Game Heroes” is delightfully amusing and does a marvelous job at conveying the feel of an 8-bit classic action-adventure.

Primarily, the game’s story starts off explaining that the Dotnia Kingdom was once a 2D pixelated world; however when the King felt that the 2D graphics and sprites were outdated he proclaimed that the kingdom would be updated to 3D but retain its original pixelated look. It’s an unusual way to partially break the fourth wall, yet that’s about as far as the game goes in doing so. The main story element presented in the game is that legend tells of a vile king known as the Dark King Onyx and a legendary hero sealed him away—however now within the time of the game, a man known as the Dark Bishop Fuelle plans on resurrecting Onyx. Thus, the player’s hero comes in—as the grandchild of the legendary hero—and is tasked with stopping Fuelle and Onyx.

With that said there isn’t much detail to the story; although in true 8-bit classic fashion, the game is mostly an open world for you to play (however you will find it nearly impossible to do certain areas without certain items and the main areas of the game are linear in nature).  Despite the lack of an in-depth story to the game, the game stands tall in what it was made for—to resemble 8-bit action-adventures! Because of this, the story elements were obviously put aside in order to give the look and feel of these classics that inspired its creation; from the open world nature, to the difficulty, to the pure look and feel of the game fans of the “Legend of Zelda” franchise would relish the classic essence of the game. In fact, when you gain your first sword from the King he “utters” the phrase “It’s so dangerous to be alone! Take this!” Sound familiar?

Considering the intent of the game, “3D Dot Game Heroes” strength lies in the gameplay and customization features. Customization is presented to the player in the form of designing or choosing their own character to play as and what weapon to wield. The character creation is indeed the largest portion of customization, allowing you create, edit, and select premade characters of different natures. Humorously, the premade characters range from your standard male or female warriors to Santa Claus to even a dragon.

Gameplay wise, it’s extremely obvious the developers’ biggest influence was “The Legend of Zelda” for the NES/Famicon as the game feels and plays just like it; however you can upgrade and switch your weapons at will, giving you plenty of different play styles. The main task of the game even resembles the “Legend of Zelda” franchise, as you must go through six different temples of varying difficult and motifs—all complete with a dungeon boss monster and central items hidden within each. The influence is seen even further when you defeat the dungeon bosses as you’re given an extra increment of health upon their defeat! Nonetheless, the game may feel like a flat-out copy of the original “Legend of Zelda,” but “3D Dot Game Heroes” has a particular originality and humor about it that makes it enjoyable.

There are even side quests within the game and the rewards vary between each quest—from empty bottles for potions to pieces of health to items that you can use to upgrade your shield. The shield side quests are easy enough as it is, more often than not just needing to pay for an upgrade or find a particular item and bring it back to the person that could upgrade it; however depending on your level of skill these shield upgrade may become necessary throughout the game. The standard shield you receive at the beginning cannot protect you from certain attacks—such as fire or lightning—and because of this the shield upgrades that allow it to protect you from it could very well save your life and save you from frustration.

Yet, with everything the game has to offer in humor and acknowledgments towards one of Nintendo’s largest franchises, the game is indeed difficult in some areas and can often lead to frustration for newer generation gamers that are trained and used to being told and shown exactly where to go. The game requires you to gain skills in using its controls and tools all while compelling you to pay attention to the (unless you changed the settings) slow moving text of the NPCs to know where to go or what to do.

Needless to say, “3D Dot Game Heroes” has an undeniable peculiarity to it that some may easily be dissuaded by. Fans of the “Legend of Zelda” franchise may find the game a satisfactory tribute to Nintendo’s franchise or they may even it a mock representation of the franchise they hold dear. Regardless of this, those that do pick up the game are in for an off-the-wall experience that they could very well come to appreciate.

 

“3D Dot Game Heroes” was developed by Silicon Studio and published by From Software in Japan, Atlus in North America and SouthPeak Games in Europe. The game was released for the PlayStation 3 2009 in Japan and 2010 in North America and Europe.

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