Too PG?

[p R o X y m o R o N]

Most of Ghibli's films can easily appeal to a range of demographics and age groups, but is it just me or this one is kind of leaning on the kiddie side?

So here's the question, does this carry the same childish tone from the opening hours all the way through to the end? I've got no qualms with the art, as expected it has all the charm of a great Ghibli flick, but I'm a little disappointed by the hand-holding and constant tutorials disguised as dialogue (which is a bit more frequent than I'd like).

To those who've played through the story, did the story/gameplay hold your interest?

[mosspit]

I think the best way to describe it as "child-like" rather than "childish". If you have seen the animated movie Spirited Away, I would think it seems similar in its presentation. And without spoiling the story, it is definitely not all sunshine and rainbows.

Gamplay-wise is very similar to other jrps. Familiar system would be like FFXIII-2 (I never done complete playthroughs of Pokemon). If you do additional content apart from the main story, it can get grindy with plenty of RNG involved. But gameplay is serviceable and drives the story well enough.

[p R o X y m o R o N]

Thanks man, this kind of allays some of my concerns but no better way than to keep pushing forward and finding out for myself whether it sorta meets my expectations from years ago.

[Gimo]

Ugh. I have the same issue with this game.

Honestly, I have a huge issue with it not having a """difficult""" mode where you can actually use the locket and spells mechanics on your own instead of just pressing A repeatedly and the story doing everything for you.

If the story is going to babysit the player and spell every little thing out, then there is nothing to be played except the repetitive battles and boring walking around. If something doesn't add to the gameplay, leave it out of the game. i.e. don't pretend it's part of the game, just leave it to the cutscenes.

What a way to milk that sweet sweet cash instead of just doing an animated movie.

The worst part is that if this game was really meant for 7yo kids, why the hell is it teaching them that beating living beings is the way to make them fall in love with you? That's terrible, terrible interpersonal relationship advice. But surely, publishers were more concerned in changing the names of the characters. I mean, can you imagine a character named Mark in a game for KIDS? We gotta change that to Phil ASAP!

[mosspit]

The game touches upon the concept of mortality. That is not a subject that can be approached by 7yos. At least not without some guidance / explanation.

[it's love]

It's really childish, I can barely stomach any of the dialogue unless it involves drippy lol

[Valkinaz]

I feel it is mostly translation team fault. Despite my highly limited japanese knowledge I noticed that some dialogs were translated really loosely and not forget some name changes. Goroneru Underground Waterway became Ding Dong Well, Simple Queen became Cowliphta(yeah, forcing cow pun where there were none) not to mention that she was renamed from Qara to Lowlah.

[Gamerzilla]

Originally posted by Valkinaz:

I feel it is mostly translation team fault. Despite my highly limited japanese knowledge I noticed that some dialogs were translated really loosely and not forget some name changes. Goroneru Underground Waterway became Ding Dong Well, Simple Queen became Cowliphta(yeah, forcing cow pun where there were none) not to mention that she was renamed from Qara to Lowlah.

They def changed some things in translation, but you have a problem with added puns? In case you missed it, the vast majority of characters in this game are loosly pulled from various folklore and fairy tales. Those sources didnt translate very well into the JP version as they have no clue about stuff like Arabian Nights, Greek queens, English nursery rhymes (go look up "Ding Dong Bell" and youll see why DDD is the way it is).
I think they did an awsome job cramming puns in the game, and Al Mamoon is LITERALLY a city made by and ruled by a giant cow lady. Why would the silly name they gave her in the JP ver be better than the pun Cowlipha which is a play on Caliph, a desert-region city leader.

[Elvick]

Originally posted by Gimo:

Ugh. I have the same issue with this game.

Honestly, I have a huge issue with it not having a """difficult""" mode where you can actually use the locket and spells mechanics on your own instead of just pressing A repeatedly and the story doing everything for you.

If the story is going to babysit the player and spell every little thing out, then there is nothing to be played except the repetitive battles and boring walking around. If something doesn't add to the gameplay, leave it out of the game. i.e. don't pretend it's part of the game, just leave it to the cutscenes.

What a way to milk that sweet sweet cash instead of just doing an animated movie.

The worst part is that if this game was really meant for 7yo kids, why the hell is it teaching them that beating living beings is the way to make them fall in love with you? That's terrible, terrible interpersonal relationship advice. But surely, publishers were more concerned in changing the names of the characters. I mean, can you imagine a character named Mark in a game for KIDS? We gotta change that to Phil ASAP!

The original game Dominion of the Dark Djinn was made for the Nintendo DS. Which came with an actual book that had the spells in it and you'd draw the spells. This wasn't translated to PS3 with Wrath of the White Witch. It ~could~ have with PS Move requirements, but they didn't do that. They even translated the physical book for the Collector's Edition.

I get why they went the way they did with handling of the game, but it would've been nice to have had at least optional Move support. Which could have been translated into different control schemes like using the mouse on PC, or the DS4's lightbar on PS4 or using Switch's joycons somehow. But that would've required more work.

And Dark Djinn was some of the same story in Wrath of the White Witch, just without any influence of the WW in it. WW weaved the new story throughout the original story and was basically a full game expansion, rather than the story being tacked on at the end; though obviously the resolution is at the end. The DS version also had some of it's own Ghibli animated scenes [and drastically different combat].

[Valkinaz]

Originally posted by Gamerzilla:

They def changed some things in translation, but you have a problem with added puns?

I personally don't have problems with it(though I still don't get why Mark became Phillip...) however I understands why such obvious puns can feel childish for some people. Queen is just that. Queen. It feels neutral to hear. Cowlipha is more on the nose and more of "funny" so for some people it might be too much and make text feel more "childish"

[Gamerzilla]

I got a big kingdom hearts vibe with all the fairy tale and folklore tie ins myself and lets face it, when kingdom hearts started trying to take itself seriously the series went down hill. Thus I didnt have a problem with the game story being childish.
I am not sure on all the JP version names but the ones they have are pretty deep when you look up meanings:
The White Witch A.K.A Cassiopeia: IRL was a greek queen who pissed off the gods and was imprisoned in the sky as a constellation. Who else pissed off a bunch of god-complex trash and was imprisoned in the sky all by herself for thousands of years as a result? And speaking of the council, what are they named for? Star constellations!
Apus, the EVUL Parrot? thing. Also a constellation, named for the bird of paradise he might have been originally?
Shadar - not sure on this one but Shadar can mean shadow and dark djin is literally dark spirit/soul. Pretty apt for a guy that let his dark side take over his soul.
Sindbah the ship captain... Sindbad, also a ship captain in 1001 arabian nights.
Tengri - named for an acient turk/mongol "Blue Sky god" Pretty good description for a big blue flying dragon lol.
Swaine - Play on words for Swain, or "country boy".
Abull the faithfull servant. Pretty obviously comes from Abdul, or "Servant" in Arabic.
Aapep - Apep the Egyptian Serpent god of chaos. He did his job well.
Ding Dong Dell - obvious reference from "Ding Dong Bell"
Tomtoro - from movie about Totoro.
Philip/Pip - Not sure why it was changed from Marc but here is a theory: There is a french cartoon about a Mouse, Philip, and his pet/toy cat Pip. If you speak french go watch it and tell me if it sounds close. The Author of the book also had some part in making the cartoon and is named Olivier... coincidence? MAYBE!
Rusty/Betty Cartwright - A Cartwright is a skilled repairman of carts, or in Rusty's case, Motorvilles autos.
Hamelin - Link to Pied Piper? A man controls a whole town worth of kids making them dance to his tune. Kinda like an emperor making hundreds of silly laws and a whole town dressed as pigs. Also the games currency is Gilders... The same Gilders the Pied Piper was paid in his story.
Gallus A.K.A The Rooster Zodiarch - Gallus means rooster and makes it twice as funny since Pea calls him "Doodle-doo"
King Tom Tildrum XIV/Timmy Toldrum - From old english poem "The King of Cats" Where Tom Tildrum inherits the title of king after the old king Tim Toldrum dies.
Little Tommy Stout - From "Ding Dong Bell" nursery rhyme. Saves a cat from drowning in a well. Hmmmmmmm.
Hickory Dock - Nursery rhyme "Hicory Dickory Dock" Has a mouse who first climbs a clock and back down... for reasons!
Kublai/Genghis(the dog soul mate) and Great sage Khulan - IRL Kublai was the grandson of Genghis Khan and Kulan was Genghis Khans wife so... not going to go there but Kublai is related to another Khan in the game so obvious reference. Also Khulan is the mongolian name for a wild ass so that fits this story to a T ;p

There are more but this should give you an idea of how hard the translation team had to have worked since none of these names are remotely the same in the JP version.

[Aurian]

Originally posted by mosspit:

The game touches upon the concept of mortality. That is not a subject that can be approached by 7yos. At least not without some guidance / explanation.

Wrong, Bambi and the Lion King do the same thing. I cried my little eyes out over Bambi when I was like 3, but at 7 I could handle it just fine.

To the OP: yes, it is extremely childish - I bought it based on all the rave reviews praising the story and was flabberghasted. After 9.4 hours I couldn't stomach it anymore. Even Ollie acts much younger than he actually is. There is apparently one big, good twist near the end, but personally I couldn't keep slogging through until I got there...

[mosspit]

Originally posted by Aurian:

Originally posted by mosspit:

The game touches upon the concept of mortality. That is not a subject that can be approached by 7yos. At least not without some guidance / explanation.

Wrong, Bambi and the Lion King do the same thing. I cried my little eyes out over Bambi when I was like 3, but at 7 I could handle it just fine.

To the OP: yes, it is extremely childish - I bought it based on all the rave reviews praising the story and was flabberghasted. After 9.4 hours I couldn't stomach it anymore. Even Ollie acts much younger than he actually is. There is apparently one big, good twist near the end, but personally I couldn't keep slogging through until I got there...

Wrong? I disagree with your assessment of my post being wrong.

You do realize that 7yos term is referenced from the post preceding mine right?

Point being having a presentation that is supposedly catering for children whilst having a concept that is suitable for them to experience without guidance is contradictory.

[Aurian]

My point is that it's very child friendly to experience without guidance. But let's just agree to disagree. :)

[mosspit]

Originally posted by Aurian:

My point is that it's very child friendly to experience without guidance. But let's just agree to disagree. :)

You clearly havent chanced upon the quests towards the end of the game. Sure agree to disagree aka we will not change the opinion of each other.

[Aurian]

Originally posted by mosspit:

You clearly havent chanced upon the quests towards the end of the game. Sure agree to disagree aka we will not change the opinion of each other.

No, I had to give up after about 10 hours because I just wasn't enjoying it at all. But imho a game shouldn't dramatically alter its tone towards the end, it should always be directed at the same audience all the way through.

That said, the cutscenes were REALLY nice and if I ever have a kid, I'll definitely encourage them to play it!