For anyone who knows my video game preferences, they know that japanese developer, Atlus is one of my favorite developers. The company is famous for its twisted sense of humor, incredible ability to westernize games and their ability to create leading ladies to make any anime fan swoon over.
Last year, Catherine was one of my top 5 games and it was for those reasons. So imagine my excitement when I heard that Atlus was developing a game for my heretofore unused 3DS.
I was even more excited when I found out that the main character was a half-dressed heroine with a hefty halberd. Enter Solange:
If Disney made a movie about Solange (and I don't think it would be out of the question) she would rank up there with Belle and Rapunzal in princess status. She is poised, innocent, tough and oh yeah she spends the entire game in her "Royal Robes" IE: an armor bikini. The game only partly addresses the fact that she is dressed this way when guards mistake her for a pole dancer or a bar maid. But take away the clothes and our misguided gender stereotypes and you get a lovable main character who makes the player want to see what happens in the next cutscene.
In addition to Solange, is a slew of great supporting characters: Ali Baba: a tomboyish thief, Zozo: a Necromancer that "borrows" (loots) body parts from corpses for her own body, and a narcissistic elf guitarist/cleric.
Yeah its a lot to take in, but the characters are well-developed and every cutscene is like a mini medieval sitcom.
The game play is pretty straightforward. It's your classic beat-em-up on a 3 rail system with a light magical element. After every battle you have the chance to level up and spend skill points. It resembles some of the classic fighting games with some RPG elements. The game is perfect for playing in short bursts because the story is easy to follow and each cutscene and accompanying fight usually lasts between 5 and 15 minutes not to mention the battle system is easy to pick up and smooth as Solange's skin.
The game includes one of the best original scores for a handheld game to date. It was definitely worth purchasing early for the art book and soundtrack. The Main theme is movie worthy and even if you dont play the game you'll want to give it a listen.
The game is not without flaws. The battle system gets old long before the story comes to a conclusion and there is very little apart from the story and Solange's perfectly flat tummy to keep the player interested through the span of the 20 hour campaign, but changing characters frequently makes the battles bearable.
It's not the best game in the world but it might be one of the best for a handheld system this year and if you're a 13 year-old kid whose parents only let him play games on the DS this may be your chance to play a game with adult themes and hot girls. If you're a fan of princesses, or Atlus, or old fashion Beat-em-ups with some RPG elements it's definitely worth your time. I enjoyed getting involved in the stories and characters.
In response to the IGN review that listed "senseless near nudity" as a negative, I say, "How is that a bad thing?"
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