26. Solatorobo: Red the Hunter
I've been curious about this game for a while. I'll be honest, that was in part just because it's one of the more rare and valuable DS games. I somehow managed to snag it complete in box for just 50 bucks though, and after that I of course had to play it too. And I'll be damned, I'm impressed. This game is fantastic!
Solatorobo is what I think I'd call an action RPG. First of all: its size and scope is legitimately impressive for the DS, with multiple large sculpted worlds, creative tricks for impressive animations, and multiple playstyles with decent depth. This is on par if not above some of the highest quality titles I've played on the system. The creators really put their all into it.
The game has a ton of variety. While the regular combat takes up a good part of the game, the quests are allover the place. You go from combat to doing other tasks with your robot to open-arena flying to flying on rails to walking around and talking to people. It switches up constantly, and impressively remains almost constantly engaging. The game is divided up into two campaigns, and while I admit I started to find the game a tad bit monotonous for a tiny bit towards the end of the first campaign, all throughout the second campaign especially I was totally hooked.
Combat is solid and good fun. You control your robot in 3D space, and use it to pick up and throw enemies. It's impressively unique, very smooth to control, and slamming enemies feels really good. I'll be honest though, especially in the first half of the game it's very largely a button masher. If you can mash A, you'll get through without ever breaking a sweat. At times the enemies are laughable. But in the second half of the game, it gets a lot more engaging, because your combat skills get expanded with extra options. It's genuinely satisfying and fun. It honestly makes me wish we had an expanded version of this combat system with more options at your disposal on a more powerful system, because what's here is unlike anything I've played before.
The characters and story are really good too. Especially in the second campaign, I was completely hooked. There's a surprising amount of lore and worldbuilding here, supported by strong characters and an engaging plot. It really draws you in. This world is captivating and speaks to your imagination. I will say there is a LOT of text and dialogue. It feels like you spend over half of your time reading. But with the solid writing and tight storytelling, I honestly didn't even mind. Never did I find a character annoying.
The game is not difficult at all. I got through most of the game completely ignoring the upgrades I could give my robot, and even towards the end I never really struggled. But low difficulty is not a bad thing at all if the game is engaging and fun, and this one definitely is.
If I had to criticise the game, I can think of three things. One, I don't like how they sometimes outright halt your progress and force you to complete sidequests before you can continue the story. It feels arbitrary, and while the sidequests are fun, they grind the plot to a halt. That could've been worked in a little better. I didn't love the music either, but that's no dealbreaker. The third thing though, there are two very brief moments in the game that really stuck out to me like a sore thumb, and I feel like I have to mention it (CW: inappropriate conduct. If you don't want to read this, skip to the next paragraph) (also spoilers). There's a main character who's hundreds of years old but is stated to look like a kid (yeah, they pull that trick). And while most of the game she's just treated as a good friend with at best completely sfw romantic undertones, there are two really out-of-nowhere scenes where, in a first person perspective, the protagonist opens a shower curtain and she's there, wrapped in a towel. It feels gross and inappropriate, and I have NO idea why it's there. I had honestly already forgotten about it until I started writing this, but it's a real shame, because it's completely unnecessary and I can see some people getting turned away from this game just because of these few seconds alone (and I can't blame them, that'd be fair). It honestly makes me feel a little weird to talk about how fantastic the game is otherwise (but just look at large review sites too, it really is!). I try to view it as some of the inappropriate stuff with Misty in the early Japanese Pokémon anime and manga, or like the suggestive stuff in Totally Spies. It's bad, it shouldn't be ignored, but you can look past it and still enjoy everything else that's there.
But yeah, apart from that, if you can look past that, the game is fantastic, and I highly recommend it. I think I can genuinely say it's one of the best games on the system. I know it's really hard to get a hold of nowadays, but if you have a way to play it, it's totally worth it.
(Also one final thing: yes, it's apparently part of a series, but that's not indicated anywhere in the game and I didn't even know that until I already started playing. You don't need to play the other games at all to understand this game though: it works perfectly on its own.)
