Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom
It's a pity the game was forsaken sales-wise because it's an interesting fairy tale with a good cast.
Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Developed by Game Republic, published by Namco Bandai.
A once prosperous kingdom falls to corruption, becoming infected with darkness and turning citizens into twisted monsters. The legendary Majin, both harbinger of destruction and savior in tales of old, was severely weakened and imprisoned until a nameless thief joins up with him to set things right.
One part Jim Henson's Labyrinth with one part distilled essence of The Legend of Zelda, Majin pairs the player up with a powerful-yet-dumb monster to explore the regions surrounding the castle in hopes of eliminating the darkness forever. Offering exploration, team-based combat, and solo stealth sessions, this title has a bit for everyone in the beautifully rendered environments and inspired soundtrack that all fits neatly into a 15 hour adventure.
The human protagonist, called Tepeu by the Majin, acts as the nimble rogue and brains of the team. Capable of performing sneak attacks upon unwary guards or commanding the Majin to topple a wall or breathe fire onto foes, you'll be leading them into the ruins of the kingdom to defeat the four generals of the corrupt king before heading into the palace. Along the way, you'll discover seeds which contain a fraction of the Majin's former powers, boosting his health, elemental abilities, and attack strength, preparing your brown bruiser for the challenges ahead. Though the Majin isn't as quick-witted as Tepeu, his AI is reasonably competent when performing his own actions and is capable of completely restoring Tepeu's health when they're not being attacked, so don't think that the game is one big escort mission. It's all about teamwork.
In fact, teamwork is the only way fully realize the duo's combat capabilities. As the two heroes take down monsters with team attacks (activated by pressing the B button when prompted after felling an enemy), red and blue crystals are dropped: red crystals add to the experience total of the team gauge, while blue crystals add to Tepeu's personal experience system. When Tepeu levels up, he gains more health and attack power, but increasing the team gauge unlocks more powerful team attacks to swiftly defeat enemies. Tepeu will pretty much level up on his own as blue crystals are found in chests, but red crystals are only gained from team attacks so it's in your best interest to learn to fight with the Majin whenever possible.
As you explore the kingdom, you'll need to use Majin's elemental powers to bypass/solve the puzzles ahead. Majin can move suspended objects with Wind, crystallize sticky pools of darkness with Purification, or even use Lightning charge up inactive engines to move lifts for reaching remote areas. A day and night cycle continues while you're getting your bearings, changing the monsters you encounter while also revealing memory shards. Yes, the backtracking to previous lands is unavoidable, but it's not on the level of the Zelda series as these areas aren't as distant from each other and there's even a region-select room for quick transport.
I'll be up front with you on this: you should take the time to get all the power-ups. It's a short enough game, so doing this will tack on maybe just a few hours getting everything complete, but more importantly is that it affects the ending of the game. An incomplete game offers an end to the darkness... but at a great price. If you're playing this with your kids, then it probably won't turn out well when they start crying from the bad ending, so spare yourself that pain and just grab everything the first time through by looking for unrevealed items on your map.
The backstory is told via artistic paper cut-out shadows, which really drives home the fairytale aspect, but be warned that this fairytale is also dark at times; each of these shadows were once humans, now irreparably altered and they must be destroyed. It does raise questions of cultural relativism and ethics as there is another side to the tale, though such dialog is poorly written at times.
I'm willing to forgive most of Majin's flaws as the majority of the game is quite solid, but there's an issue with controlling Tepeu. There's a hair of a delay after moving the analog stick in a direction from a standing position, causing Tepeu to often have a slower reaction time than you'd expect. Moving along the landscape isn't such a big deal, but performing jumping puzzles or certain combat scenes quickly become frustrating thanks to this delay. Given how most everything else works so well, I'm surprised that this wasn't addressed before being shipped out.
Overall, I enjoyed the title. Majin is a silly companion, Tepeu is okay as an antagonist, and there's just enough to experience without becoming overburdened with backtracking or side-quests. The music is good, the kingdom is well designed, and team combat can be quite fun and rewarding.
Is it worth playing? Yes. It's a decent dark fable with a few flaws, but it works as an abbreviated action RPG with some great touches by the art and sound teams.
Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Developed by Game Republic, published by Namco Bandai.
A once prosperous kingdom falls to corruption, becoming infected with darkness and turning citizens into twisted monsters. The legendary Majin, both harbinger of destruction and savior in tales of old, was severely weakened and imprisoned until a nameless thief joins up with him to set things right.
One part Jim Henson's Labyrinth with one part distilled essence of The Legend of Zelda, Majin pairs the player up with a powerful-yet-dumb monster to explore the regions surrounding the castle in hopes of eliminating the darkness forever. Offering exploration, team-based combat, and solo stealth sessions, this title has a bit for everyone in the beautifully rendered environments and inspired soundtrack that all fits neatly into a 15 hour adventure.
The human protagonist, called Tepeu by the Majin, acts as the nimble rogue and brains of the team. Capable of performing sneak attacks upon unwary guards or commanding the Majin to topple a wall or breathe fire onto foes, you'll be leading them into the ruins of the kingdom to defeat the four generals of the corrupt king before heading into the palace. Along the way, you'll discover seeds which contain a fraction of the Majin's former powers, boosting his health, elemental abilities, and attack strength, preparing your brown bruiser for the challenges ahead. Though the Majin isn't as quick-witted as Tepeu, his AI is reasonably competent when performing his own actions and is capable of completely restoring Tepeu's health when they're not being attacked, so don't think that the game is one big escort mission. It's all about teamwork.
In fact, teamwork is the only way fully realize the duo's combat capabilities. As the two heroes take down monsters with team attacks (activated by pressing the B button when prompted after felling an enemy), red and blue crystals are dropped: red crystals add to the experience total of the team gauge, while blue crystals add to Tepeu's personal experience system. When Tepeu levels up, he gains more health and attack power, but increasing the team gauge unlocks more powerful team attacks to swiftly defeat enemies. Tepeu will pretty much level up on his own as blue crystals are found in chests, but red crystals are only gained from team attacks so it's in your best interest to learn to fight with the Majin whenever possible.
As you explore the kingdom, you'll need to use Majin's elemental powers to bypass/solve the puzzles ahead. Majin can move suspended objects with Wind, crystallize sticky pools of darkness with Purification, or even use Lightning charge up inactive engines to move lifts for reaching remote areas. A day and night cycle continues while you're getting your bearings, changing the monsters you encounter while also revealing memory shards. Yes, the backtracking to previous lands is unavoidable, but it's not on the level of the Zelda series as these areas aren't as distant from each other and there's even a region-select room for quick transport.
I'll be up front with you on this: you should take the time to get all the power-ups. It's a short enough game, so doing this will tack on maybe just a few hours getting everything complete, but more importantly is that it affects the ending of the game. An incomplete game offers an end to the darkness... but at a great price. If you're playing this with your kids, then it probably won't turn out well when they start crying from the bad ending, so spare yourself that pain and just grab everything the first time through by looking for unrevealed items on your map.
The backstory is told via artistic paper cut-out shadows, which really drives home the fairytale aspect, but be warned that this fairytale is also dark at times; each of these shadows were once humans, now irreparably altered and they must be destroyed. It does raise questions of cultural relativism and ethics as there is another side to the tale, though such dialog is poorly written at times.
I'm willing to forgive most of Majin's flaws as the majority of the game is quite solid, but there's an issue with controlling Tepeu. There's a hair of a delay after moving the analog stick in a direction from a standing position, causing Tepeu to often have a slower reaction time than you'd expect. Moving along the landscape isn't such a big deal, but performing jumping puzzles or certain combat scenes quickly become frustrating thanks to this delay. Given how most everything else works so well, I'm surprised that this wasn't addressed before being shipped out.
Overall, I enjoyed the title. Majin is a silly companion, Tepeu is okay as an antagonist, and there's just enough to experience without becoming overburdened with backtracking or side-quests. The music is good, the kingdom is well designed, and team combat can be quite fun and rewarding.
Is it worth playing? Yes. It's a decent dark fable with a few flaws, but it works as an abbreviated action RPG with some great touches by the art and sound teams.