Imagine the most beautiful picturesque day at the countryside. You’re just sitting on the meadows surrounded by flowers in full bloom, the nearby pond glistens from the warm sunlight. Suddenly, a blue object comes careening down the corner at amazing speed — breaking the sound barrier and flattening everything in its path. You sit there dazed and confused, trying to make sense of the chaos. All you managed to see was a blue blur zipping around enemies while grabbing coins littered about. Right now, the only question on your mind is: Who’s that girl in the blue dress!?
That, my friends, is Dorothy, the fastest thing on the Yellow Brick Road.
What you don’t see is how beautiful the water looks in motion.
Ok, so I’m over exaggerating how fast Dorothy really is, but trust me, you will have to get used to her speed and the controls, because Dorothy is control through a virtual trackball on the touch screen. Roll the ball to make her move. The faster you roll, the faster she goes. Turning corners at high speed takes a while to master, but damn, I had fun speeding through the beautiful world of Oz. You could also give her a simple push, and the ball will continue to roll, while Dorothy takes a more leisurely pace. I don’t think you need to constantly roll while running, but I feel like I have more control this way. I can definitely see people not being too enamored by this unique control scheme, but don’t knock it till you try it.
Oh oh, I’m sorry, I almost forgot; this game is an RPG — and a pretty unique one at that. For now, I’m going to be lazy and say this game is a cross between Dragon Quest and Crash Bandicoot (PS1). The combat resembles Dragon Quest, minus the random battles, and add in some brain power. The world exploration is similar to Crash due to the more confined environments you must travel though, but it also makes running around simpler. There are branching paths to explore, and basic puzzles to solve, too.
Now follow the ORANGE brick road.
The actual combat requires more active participation, because you want to maximize the damage you do. Each turn, you have four available slots and each character requires a different number of slots to move. Dorothy and Scarecrow takes up 1 slot, the Cowardly Lion takes 2, and Tinman takes 3. Using an individual or combo of Dorothy and Scarecrow will allow 4 hits each turn, but they aren’t as powerful as Lion or Tinman. Those participate in the fight will also be the only one(s) to take damage. To further complicate things, each character has an affinity against certain enemies. You’ll want to make good use of your team, while doing as much damage as possible.
I don’t know whether this is a design choice, or my fault, but this game (or just me) puts running to good use. The combat gets tricky when the real adventure begins, and money is hard to come by. You will need to make frequent trips to heal from damage, and that’s where speed comes into play. When my party was dying, I found myself using my speed to escape the dungeon. Some enemies might even chase you for a bit, so you best start running! If you’re not good with the controls, you can also end up running into enemies you’re trying to avoid. Yeah, there’s an instant dungeon escape item, but I sold them for cash for better equipment.
Screens REALLY don’t do this game justice.
This is one of the best looking DS RPGs to date. Just wait till you see the animation, the vibrant colors, the smooth frame rate, the environment mapped water, and scenic roads. All this in an RPG that captures the sensation of speed better than Sonic Chronicles. Hell, you’re better off pretending Dorothy is Sonic and call this Sonic RPG. My play time is about the same as Sonic Chronicles, and I’m already more impressed with this game. Just look at the length of this preview and how much there is to talk about.
Dorothy does what Sonican’t!
I hope Super Mecha Death Christ is a boss in this game, or at least Shitpickle joining you.