Fushigi no Umi no Nadia
Miyazaki's Miyazaki rip-offGenre: adventure - overhead
Publisher: Namco
Year: 1991
System: MD
Gameplay Score: 2
Gameplay Notes:
Basically a point and click title with Zelda gameplay. There's no combat, mind you, but the top-down traversal is clearly lifted from Zelda and its many clones. There isn't much to do, unfortunately. You can bring up a small menu to select and use the collectible items, but the one you need next is almost always the one you just found, so there's nothing resembling a puzzle. I had some fun with the story but the gameplay leaves plenty to be desired.
Level Design Score: 4
Level Design Notes:
Yes, it's incredibly linear and impossible to get lost, but this is more or less an interactive movie. The plot dictates your next step, but that's the whole point. The plot beats are entertaining so I'll give it props for the fun of progression.
Theme Score: 4
Theme Notes:
After only 30 minutes or so I thought "this is so much like Castle in the Sky!" On case you don't know it, that's one of Hayao Miyazaki's first films. In it a young boy meets a mysterious young girl wearing a powerful talisman on a necklace with shady but bumbling bad guys chasing after her to steal the macguffin. Come to find out, this game is based on an anime that has Miyazaki's fingerprints, so it's no wonder if feels, shall we say, inspirited by his other works. Anyway, it's silly, predictable, but innocent and fun.
Art Style Score: 3
Art Style Notes:
I wish I could taste it higher, but the visuals don't impress like you'd expect a Miyazaki work would. Sprites are small and lack detail and the backgrounds and settings are similarly bland. Good use of color, but ho hum in my book. Oh and whoever drew the Eiffel Tower for this game clearly was not told that it's an actual structure with photos that couldn't been used as reference. Sheesh
Audio Score: 1
Audio Notes:
After the first 60 seconds I felt that the soundtrack and I would get along nicely, but 10 minutes later and I wanted to weeks my ears shut. The songs themselves aren't that bad, but they loop so quickly that they're maddening. Also, each area uses its song on every screen, sapping any chance for variety.
Overall Score: 52
Review ID: 6025
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