Now, a lot of great games have come out in 2010 and many of them are really good! I mean, we have hits like Bayonetta, Darksiders, No More Heroes 2, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Heavy Rain, God of War 3, Red Dead Redemption, 3D Dot Game Heroes, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 as some of great games we have gotten. However, two games have caught my attention since some criticism has come towards these two games because of some similarities to each other. While I don’t want to point fingers at people, thinking they are too harsh, here are my thoughts and argument for Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom and The Last Guardian.
The main criticism I have heard is that the two games have similar stories. However, let’s take a look at each of the stories from each game. The first one we will talk about is The Last Guardian. The main story revolves around the relationship of a young boy and a giant griffin-like beast named Trico or Toriko in Japan. The young boy releases the creature, and they both must escape a ruined kingdom that is guarded by some soldiers of some kingdom. We don’t know a lot about the story, and we all probably know what’s going to happen to the cute little, well, large creature. I want to talk more about it, but for some reason they are not showing us a lot. It kind of sucks, but it makes the anticipation that much better. Now, the story of Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is a little more revealed than The Last Guardian. A thief has wandered into a forsaken kingdom, hence the title. He then finds that a large creature called a Majin is trapped, and the thief releases him from his slumber. First of all, this creature looks like he needs to be in Where The Wild Things Are. He has a very simple mind and does have a name, but I forgot what his name was, sorry! They find out that the Majin doesn’t remember a lot, and many of his powers were taken away. They also find out that a slimy tar-like creature that looks like some of the villains in Nier are all over the kingdom. They both must escape and make it out alive. While they both have stories very similar to each other, they are going to be unique in their own way, which brings me up to the game play or what everyone’s thoughts are about it.
The gameplay for both games is somewhat the same, but in some ways, different. The Last Guardian s more in the line of a stealth adventure game that requires some puzzle-solving, using the beast that you have become friends with. The stealth section comes from defeating guards. Maybe the griffin can destroy the soldiers, but it isn’t fully shown, or has yet to be revealed. It looks like it’s going to focus a little more on the relationship of the boy and the griffin than the thief and the Majin in the other game. Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom has also stealth, adventure, and puzzle elements added into the game, but it also gives the Majin powerful abilities that will help in battle. This is one area that I like more than in The Last Guardian. In games like ICO, your partner is mostly dead weight, and is usually set there to make a love-bonding relationship with the girl and the boy from that game. The same is the case with The Last Guardian. The griffin itself is more in the line of dead weight and needs to be fed, and its animal behaviors manipulated so you and the creature can get through the kingdom safely without getting hurt. However, in Majin and the forsaken Kingdom, you can actually fight with the Majin and kill the enemies with him. The stealth elements so far are also more offensive, like Assassin’s Creed or Batman Arkham Asylum, where you can sneak behind the enemy and stealthfully use a one-hit-kill to get rid of them. From what I have seen from The Last Guardian, it seems like you will have to use the environments to defeat the soldiers or just use barrels to get rid of them. Overall, I might enjoy the combat system in Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom more than The Last Guardian, but I bet I will enjoy both games’ combat systems.
Now, I am going to look at the game’s developers. The Last Guardian is being made by, of course, Team ICO who has developed well-made and different games, like ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. Sadly, those are the only two games they have made, if you rate a developer’s greatness by how many games they make. While I think they could work on more games during the time between each game since The Last Guardian was announced and a trailer was shown 4 years after Shadow of the Colossus. They could have easily made one game on top of The Last Guardian, but my guess is that Team ICO is a small group of people and is actually a sub-team of Sony. Here are my thoughts though, they do take years to make one game, but it just increases the quality of the game and the story. Now, Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is being made by a company I personally respect, known as Game Republic, who is well known for games like Folklore, the Genji series, Toy Home, Dark Mist, Catan, Brave Story: New Traveler, and the recently released Clash of the Titans video game tie-in with the movie, which is weirdly already out on DVD. I like this company for their artistic approach to games. A lot of the creatures in Folklore are really fun to look at and are well-designed. I also like how they make games mostly for the Playstation 3. I don’t really have anything bad to say about this company since I don’t know much about them. I mean, I know what kind of games they have made, and I don’t really have anything against them, though they could have waited till after the Playstation 3 launch to make Genji: Day of Blades a lot better…oh well.
Finally, let’s take a look at the trailers. Now, I actually knew about The Last Guardian, way before Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom. Granted, the people who are making Majin have said that they have been developing Majin way before The Last Guardian was ever announced.
The trailer for The Last Guardian is pretty impressive, and pulls you in, making you feel as though you are watching a film. It works out great, and the execution is well done during the trailer. The trailer for Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is more on the line of you know that it is a video game. Not saying that the trailers I have seen for this game are bad. I think they are very entertaining since you actually get to know more about the creature and the thief’s relationship and the Majin’s past. Overall I think both trailers are very well done, and are worth a watch if you don’t know about either game.
I think both games have the same concept of story, but at the same time, I think they are both uniquely different in their own ways. They both look like solid games and I am going to do a special where I review both. As a special bonus, I will put down the trailers for both games below. The first two are for The Last Guardian and the others are for Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom. Hope you all enjoyed my argument and opinions and have a good day.
The Last Guardian
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-the-last/50284
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/tgs-09-the-last/56977
Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom.
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/announce-trailer-majin-and/63302
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/combat-trailer-majin-and/100483
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-majin-and/700714
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