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Platform: Nintendo
DS
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Contact
Most
people who have been playing console RPGs for a decent length of time
can probably point to any number of archetypes in the genre, from angst-riddled
heroes, to a young party of adventurers filled with heart.
We’ve seen these things countless times before, which can
sometimes be fun, but other times are amazingly trite.
In time, it’s not hard to want something more, and that appears
to be exactly what Atlus plans to address as they localize a highly
unusual DS RPG for the North American market called Contact.
The
game will start with a character simply known as The Professor performing an emergency landing of
his spaceship on a mysterious planet.
After he has gathered his senses, he realizes that his ship’s
energy source, known as Cells, have scattered across this planet, and
if he wants to get off this rock he’s going to have to gather them all
up. This is where the
game’s hero, Terry, comes in, as it will be up to him to go from one
locale to the next in search of the Cells, learning more about the
planet along the way, as well as a shady organization that seems equally eager to get their
hands on the Cells. Adding
another layer to this narrative is that Terry and the Professor are both
well aware that someone is playing this game, and will address the
player as such, so if either of them need something in particular,
don’t be surprised if they speak to you directly.
Hence, this is where the name “Contact” comes from.
This whole process of gathering the Professor’s Cells will be fairly involved, as it’s not just a matter of exploring the planet, and beating up monsters. At its core, there are a number of action RPG facets to Contact, like traversing dungeons, collecting, and customizing decals that are used when fighting monsters, but players will also be able to go fishing, take care of |
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animals,
collect different costumes (each providing Terry with new abilities),
wining and dining the ladies of Contact’s main city, Habara, cooking,
and gardening. There will
be plenty of distractions along the way for when players need a break
from the constant monster attacks.
Besides
these, it appears that there will be a number of mini-games throughout Contact. From what we can
see so far, these include go kart racing, and a dungeon crawler that
looks an awful lot like Gauntlet. It
wouldn’t be surprising if there were even more mini-games, but what
they will be remains to be seen.
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Despite
all of these little side projects that players can busy themselves with
in the game, it’s still a RPG at its heart.
As such, there will be lots of times where Terry will learn new
abilities and spells, and slowly grow stronger.
The combat itself is hard to figure out from what has been
revealed so far. Part of it
looks like a 2.5D action RPG like Y’s III, while other parts display
the action from an overhead, Zelda-esque perspective.
All the while, players will need to collect and customize decals so to be properly equipped to
fight monsters, each decal having its own unique properties, as well as
the option to be customized.
No
matter what genre one looks at in the game industry, there will always
be a segment of fans that crave something a little more off the beaten
path. Conventional games
are all well and good, but sometimes a change of pace is in order.
Looking at Contact, this game might be just what these
people need in
this regards.
Mr. Nash (March 6, 2006)
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