Solatorobo: Red The Hunter (Nintendo DS) - Review by Chris

Introduction

With the 3DS now on store shelves and developers turning their attention to that platform, the original DS is slowly reaching the end of its cycle. But before it reaches that inevitable end, there's a last helping of big release titles, one of these coming in the form of Solatorobo: Red the Hunter. Developed by Cyber Connect 2 and published by Namco Bandai, this action RPG is stepping into a crowded genre on the handheld populated by stalwart franchises and excellent new IPs. So the question is whether or not Solatorobo can find its niche and provide a fitting experience for the DS' last few months.

Gameplay

Acting as a sequel of sorts to Cyber Connect 2's original title Tail Concerto released 15 years ago, Solatorobo puts you in the boots of Red Savarin, a hunter whose past is hazy at best and spends his time flying around the floating islands of the Shepherd Republic acting as a freelance hunter taking on any jobs that come his way. Your introduction to the game quickly puts you in the thick of the action as you're tasked with infiltrating another ship but upon receipt of the wanted cargo, events quickly begin to unfold which could spell the end for the lands above the clouds. It's therefore up to you to put together the appropriate counterattack and prevent the Shepherd Republic and its two main species, the Caninu and Felineko, from being killed. The further you get into the game, the more the story opens up and the more interesting it becomes.

Gameplay falls in line with Red's current career path and while you'll obviously be presented with key story quests that must be completed to push on the story, you'll also have to go to Quest Brokers in the various towns and ports you'll arrive in and complete side quests for residents and to gain points that go towards your Hunter rank, allowing you to take on higher levelled quests. For the most part, this is really where the role playing element of the game comes in as you'll have to complete lots of side quests and rank up to be able to take on necessary story quests, which is a bit of a cop out as it artificially extends the game's runtime and you'll quickly learn that most of the quests are carbon copies of each other, dragging out the experience much more than they should do.

That's not to say that you won't gain levels for your character, as you do by taking part in battles and for completing the quests. However, these level increases don't increase your stats. To do this, you'll have to scour locations for specific cylinder objects which you can then spend to unlock blocks in a grid on your Dahak and then you can purchase stat upgrades from stores and simply fit the desired ones you want. In reality, though, it's entirely possible to stay with the default stats for the entire game and complete it given the way in which the battle system is handled. The game is an action RPG with a difference, with battles revolving around grappling with the enemy, done by grabbing them and mashing the A button, and once toppled, you can pick them up and throw them around, at the scenery or at other enemies. With other enemies, you'll have to throw objects at them or grapple from behind to topple them. It's a quirky system and is definitely interesting but the lack of evolution, bar a late game super power, means that battles become more of a chore rather than something to look forward to the further you get in the game.

With a main story that's easily put away in around 15 hours or so, Solatorobo is perhaps one of the shortest RPGs in recent times and while the option for a new game + mode becomes available upon completion, you'll be hard pushed to find a reason to take up the offer, even with the story being as enjoyable as it is, as there's little new the second time around and you'll be forced to drudge through all of the side quests again. The addition of a side mode containing the Air Races is a nice touch, allowing you and 3 others to play through multi-card wireless play on a host of tracks with various aircraft available to pilot. It's a simple Mario Kart clone but doesn't come close to providing the same sort of experience as that title or any of its contemporaries.

Controls

Bringing full button based controls to the table, controlling Red and the Dahak by means of the d-pad can be a little problematic as it doesn't give you as much control over the characters as you'd want and can make judging platforms for jumping or dodging incoming attacks a little more difficult than it should be. It's a game where the absence of an analogue stick is sorely missed but it's something you'll get used to and learn to compensate for as you progress. As said, everything is button based so attacking and jumping are easily covered by the A and B buttons respectively, although the timing for pulling off a dash with a double tap of A takes some getting used. Some of the control issues carry over to the Air Races where cornering, even when employing the use of the shoulder buttons for banking, can be extremely difficult. Some refinement of these controls would definitely have helped make it a more pleasing experience but it makes manoeuvring on some of the more complex tracks difficult.

Graphics

With an art style and look that bears striking resemblance to the likes of Studio Ghibli's Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Solatorobo is a beautiful game to behold on the DS' screens. Mixing both 2D and 3D, the developers have created a beautifully realised world that showcases some of the best 3D work on the DS to date as well as a keen eye for detail making sure that pretty much every location that you'll go to is done to a very high standard. It's bursting with colour, ably recreating the look and feel of the hand drawn cutscenes which are of an extremely high quality and look as though they've been ripped straight from an anime with no loss in quality.

Characters carry over this level of detail and while recreating the full effects of their counterparts in the cutscenes was never going to happen on the hardware, they still look incredible and again, show some of the best 3D character design on the handheld. The non-playable characters don't fare quite as well though, with their 2D sprite based forms often looking extremely pixelated.

There are some frame rate stutters throughout the game, mainly in battles, and some can last for quite some time. However, the game is a DSi enhanced title meaning that play on either a DSi or the 3DS does improve the frame rate which is, for the most part outside of the battles, rock solid.

Sound

The soundtrack running throughout the game is beautifully composed, suiting both the locations you'll be visiting and fighting through along with the overall tone of the game. It carries a gentle note for the most part and kicks it up a notch when battles, particularly boss battle, commence. A scant amount of voice work makes it into the game, which characters uttering short French clips every so often. Again, it never feels out of place and suits the presentation of the game perfectly. Sound effects are a little on the ragged side occasionally, though, which is a bit of a disappointment considering the strength of the audio in other areas.

Dual screen

In typical RPG fashion for the DS, one of the screens is relegated to housing a map of the area you're playing in, albeit a rather basic one, but strangely this time around it's housed on the top screen while the touch screen shows the gameplay. The touch screen, however, isn't put to use beyond showing the action, with no touch elements or any interacting between the two screens incorporated into the gameplay or menus.

Final comments

Trying something different doesn't always come off as smoothly as you'd hoped it would and that's definitely the case with Solatorobo: Red the Hunter. The gameplay quickly becomes monotonous due to a lack of evolution over what is a rather short run time for the main adventure, propped up only by the tedium of side quests forced upon you to artificially extend the game's run time, and while the Air Races are a nice touch, they don't provide nearly as much enjoyment as you'd want. That being said, you'll find yourself pushing through and persevering because of how the story and characters open up and despite the issues, you'll definitely get a lot of enjoyment out of the game.

Pro: Beautiful hand drawn cutscenes and great art direction, story and characters are interesting, quirky battle system
Con: Some frame rate stutters, controls can be problematic on occasion, sides quests become a drag, not exactly the longest RPG you'll play
Final score: 7.5

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