Review: 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
Like the last From Software developed, Atlus published game, Demon’s Souls, 3D Dot Game Heroes has generally been boiled down to one core idea when people talk about it. With Demon’s Souls, you would always hear, “It’s so brutally difficult.” With 3D Dot Game Heroes, “It’s the first Legend of Zelda.”
That comparison isn’t completely off base, but it does do 3D Dot Game Heroes a bit of a disservice. There have been quite a few improvements to the action adventure genre over the years, many of which are (thankfully) included here.
But before I get ahead of myself with how the game plays, I wanted to mention the story, or the pleasant brevity of it. There aren’t any long, pre-rendered cutscenes to suffer through or any overwrought exposition from villains. The story follows the classic formula of the 8-bit games that it honors; there’s a bad guy with a dark orb, you, as the hero, need to find six different orbs to make the light orb, then defeat evil. All the writing is pleasantly old school, but without the accidentally bad translations that we usually had during those days (though there are plenty of references to those translations in some places).
In keeping with its 8-bit roots, the land holds six different, monster- and trap-filled temples that contain an orb you need. Of course, before you can grab that orb, you have to fight a monstrous boss, most of which are pretty challenging (especially the fourth temple’s damnable boss). The temples themselves are challenging but fair; you’ll have to tax your brain on a few of the puzzles in later dungeons (especially the temple with the red and blue switches). The enemies themselves are probably the biggest challenge, especially the more aggressive ones with small crowns over their heads. I was able to hold my own through the majority of the game on Normal difficulty, but the game’s other two unlockable difficulties should prove an even greater challenge.
Of course, each temple also holds a different weapon or item you’ll need to progress in that dungeon or in the world itself. These items are where the Zelda similarities are the strongest: you get a bow and arrow, bombs, boomerang, hookshot, and a few that I don’t want to spoil. I’d certainly be remiss if I didn’t mention one of the game’s most notable features: the swords. Definitely not normal swords, these steel monstrosities can be upgraded to cover the entire length of the screen and have a width of just about the same amount. Once you start upgrading, it can pierce through objects in the environment and even shoot out small energy beams (as long as your health is at max). I never got sick of walking into a room in a temple with full health and destroying all the enemies from across the room in a few swipes. And though I didn’t find many in my first playthrough, there are over 20 different swords; the few that I came across were vastly different, which should fit any play style.
If you want to take a break from your hero’s destiny between temples, there are plenty of side quests from random town NPCs to keep you busy. Most involve grabbing something from another town, but there are a few people looking for random items you run across in your travels in the world. In older games in this genre, a task that sent you to another town meant you had to wander over there on foot. Thankfully, there is a fast travel system in 3D Dot Game Heroes that makes travel quite a bit easier; open the world map and select a town or inn you’ve already been to. If you have the fast travel item, you’ll be whisked away to your destination. While I spent a good amount of time with the game during my review, I felt like I only scratched the surface of the side quests.
I typically don’t like writing about graphics; there are plenty of outlets for you to see trailers and screenshots of these games (in fact, there’s probably a screenshot or trailer right above or below this paragraph). However, I’d be doing the game a disservice if I didn’t mention the great voxel graphics in 3D Dot Game Heroes. Everything in the world (including your character) is made out of these 3D pixels. The most satisfying part of the game is defeating enemies and seeing them burst into a shower of voxels (that each have physics) that bounce around the room.
If you love the voxels as much as I do, you can create your own character with the in-game character creator. I was surprised with how easy it was to do, even if I admittedly have very, very little artistic talent. For each character you want to create, you merely have to place your blocks to create your character in the five different stances. If you create an amazing pixel Solid Snake or, like me, lack any artistic talent whatsoever, Atlus has the Hall of Heroes webpage, where you can download user-submitted heroes to a flash drive and transfer them to your PS3. If you don’t want to go through any of that, there are plenty (30+) heroes built into the game by default.
I had an absolute blast with 3D Dot Game Heroes (and there’s tons of little things in the game that I don’t have the space to gush over). If 8- and 16-bit games hold a special, nostalgic place in your heart like it does in mine, you’ll probably have a blast, too. You should especially check it out if you love the 2D Zelda games, if only for the random references to past games (or the amazing Demon’s Souls references). From Software made a tight, focused, and incredibly polished game, which is more than worth the price.
Few games lately have sucked me in compelled me to keep playing like 3D Dot Game Heroes. Maybe it was how I felt playing, like I was young again, enjoying wandering around a large world, listening to the music. Whatever it was, I’m looking forward to going back for more.
I totally agree with your review. The game is just simple fun, and allows you to play with becoming stressed out like newer games can.