Few times have I seen only screenshots of a game and was instantly convinced I would love it. Such was the case with 3D Dot Game Heroes for the Sony PlayStation 3. At first glance this very clearly was a copy of the Zelda formula and used pixel art decked out into three dimensional designs. It looked incredible, and I was not disappointed with it at release. I decided to take another look recently and discovered that 3D Dot Game Heroes just just as fun as it ever was. Let’s take a look!
3D Dot Game Heroes opens up with a re-telling of the legend of Dotnia. It is in this land that a hero, along with six sages, rose up to seal away a great evil many years ago. Following the crusade a great number of people ventured from far and wide to hear the tale. As time went by the masses lost interest, and soon Dotnia was but a shell of its former self. The king in his infinite wisdom decided to transform this two dimensional sprite based world into one of 3D. Following this the evil dark bishop Fuelle has stolen the dark orb and thrown the land into chaos. A new hero must rise up to save the people, and that’s where our protagonist (a descendant of the legendary warrior) comes in.
Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room. Despite how it may look 3D Dot Game Heroes isn’t actually a copycat of the Legend of Zelda. It’s much more of a parody than anything. 3D Dot Game Heroes plays in a similar manner to early Zelda titles; you wander a world map to find dungeons wherein you collect and item and defeat a boss. Your character’s primary attack is with his sword but as you progress you’ll gain a bow and arrow, boomerang, bombs, hookshot, etc. It’s very familiar territory, but rather than a clone, everything in 3D Dot Game Heroes feels like a direct reference and parody. The game does not take itself seriously. That’s the main charm.
So how does it play? Rather than being displayed from an overhead perspective you instead view the action from a skewed front view while wandering the map. The game is designed with this in mind therefore you won’t miss anything because of how the camera sits. The map itself contains different towns, types of terrain (forests, plains, desert, etc.) and of course, dungeons. Rather than being only a means to get from one place to another this contains its own secrets, characters and items. The map is very fun to explore, and the graphics (especially the distance blur) makes it a real treat visually. 3D Dot Game Heroes contains within it a very memorable world to explore.
The area where the game is most different from the Zelda series is in its combat. Yes, you use a sword, and yes, it can only be thrust in front of your character. The big difference comes from the size of it. You can get special upgrades to this weapon that significantly increases its reach. If you focus on this aspect of the game your weapon will eventually fill significant real estate on the screen each time you use it. As you get hit by foes and lose your life points (indicated at the top of the screen by red apples) your sword shrinks back down temporarily. You can also add new enhancements to your swords at the blacksmith which include its length, rate of spin, and even add a projectile shot to it. There are over twenty different swords found in the game which is great.
Puzzles and combat don’t offer much of a challenge to be honest. The former doesn’t rely on anything more complicated than tasks such as pushing a block or using an item at the right moment. Combat can be too easy with a fully powered-up weapon, and restorative apples are dropped frequently by felled enemies. With each boss you defeat your life increases by one. You’ll also find these container items hidden on the field. The same goes for your magic. When you reach a certain point 3D Dot Game Heroes just becomes kind of a push-over to be honest. I found myself trying to get the trophies for defeating boss characters without being hit once, and even that wasn’t a real challenge most of hte time. The game definitely would have benefited from increased complexity. Or something. Anything to make combat more inventive and complex.
One area I found a little disappointing is in the boss encounters. Yes, they have dynamic attack patterns that you won’t find anywhere else in the game, and they offer the biggest challenge, but they aren’t particularly creative. It was forgivable in the original Legend of Zelda because it was such an old game, but here it definitely feels outdated. More creative tools should have been included here, and I’m sure had they that there would have been many more ideas for the boss fights. The parody elements carry 3D Dot Game Heroes pretty far, but I’m pretty disappointed at the developer for lacking ambition beyond these trappings.
On the plus side this game does have a lot of secrets. You’ll want to explore every nook and cranny of the world of Dotnia because you never know just what’s out there.With so many weapon and shield options there’s plenty of reason to search under every stone. What’s cool is that the developers included some customization options in this game. You can not only choose your hero’s gender at the beginning of the game, and even design their appearance! I’m not a particularly creative type when it comes to things like this, but I’m sure a lot of people out there will appreciate this feature. It’s still nice that they were thoughtful enough to include it.
3D Dot Game Heroes is a beautiful game visually. Some will hate the way it looks, but that’s because you need to have an appreciation for sprite based visuals. The engine perfectly replicates the look but in total 3D. The results are great, but it could be a bit more colorful in my opinion. I think this was a design choice to replicate the old 8-bit style though. Everything uses very few frames of animation but the style is immaculate. Within dungeons the viewpoint skews to a more overhead perspective and the visuals are kind of bland. It’s forgivable overall though. If you aren’t a fan of bloom or perspective blur then 3D Dot Game Heroes might be a little much.
The soundtrack is absolutely incredible. A lot of it consists of just bleeps and blips, but with orchestrated instruments in the background. The end result feels like something that could have been reproduced on older hardware. Obviously this would have been impossible. The main world map theme is highly memorable and very adventurous. This itself is easily one of my favorite arrangements of music from this era of gaming. 3D Dot Game Heroes has a very good soundtrack.
