Opoona Review

Written by: Steve Martin Posted: 31st October 2008

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We take a look at this RPG offering on the Wii.

Opoona Details:

	RPG
	Nintendo Wii
	ArtePiazza
	Koei

Out Now

Opoona is a traditional RPG with a few quirks, including an engaging visual style and an interesting and innovative control system.

You take on the role of young Opoona, the titular character of this game, who is from an alien race known as the Tizians. Opoona and his family are on a vacation when they end up crash landing on Planet Landroll, his parents are hurt severely and so he is stranded alone on an unfamiliar planet, and must wait for them to regain their health.

Many years ago, Landroll was hit by a dark meteorite that started to spread its evil force over the entire planet, but only managed to take over half of the planet before some strange holy force stopped it. So now half of the planet is overrun with evil entities known as rogues and the other half is inhabited by the humanoid like beings of Landroll.

So, it’s the old fashioned good against evil storyline expected in this genre of games.

On this planet, the people obtain licenses from a specialist centre that allow them to do certain jobs, the licenses you can obtain are unique to that particular area. So, in one of the first domes you can obtain a Seamaster licence and an Attendant license, that allows you to go fishing or act as a fast food restaurant assistant. Each time you receive a license you will be at trainee rank, and will be given a task to perform, once you have completed the quota you can upgrade your licence to the next rank, and this unlocks the next task for that license. The first licence you are given is a Ranger licence that allows you to go out into the wilderness and fight against the rogues. Your progression through the Ranger ranks should be viewed as your main quest, however you must also complete the other licenses to gain friends and new items that will become useful in the main quest. As you go up in rank your standing in the society increases, until eventually you are approved entry into Paradiso, which is like retirement but in a much more heavenly setting. The side quests are also a welcome change after many battles with the never ending supply of enemies.

Although the domes are safe, the world outside of them still contains rogues, and you will encounter numerous enemies as you travel across the area to complete your quests. The battles are triggered randomly as in most RPG’s, they are acted out in real time and show your party at the bottom of the screen and the enemies facing you at the top. Because you are Tizian, you do not need weapons to fight with, all Tizians have an Energy Bonbon, which is like a ball full of energy that can be thrown at enemies to damage them. You choose which enemy to attack by holding down C on the nunchuck and moving the control stick, once you have chosen your target, you simply flick the control stick to throw the Bonbon at your opponent. The way you push the control stick determines the path of your bonbon, if you push the stick to the right and then let go the bonbon will curve left and swing around the right, and vice versa if you hold left. If you push the stick forwards, the bonbon will start low and curve upwards, and the opposite is true if you push the control stick backwards. Carefully choosing the correct type of attack can increase the amount of damage you deal to the enemy. The amount of time you hold the stick in position also determines the damage caused and the speed of the bonbon, hold it for longer your attack will go faster and be more powerful but it depletes more energy. You have an energy of 100 shown on screen next to your character and as you build up your attack this decreases, then it begins to refill and you must wait until it reaches 100 again before you can attack so careful choice of how you fight is required. It is an amazingly simple system, but is also quite deep as you figure out which type of attack works best.

You also have force powers, which are basically just like magic in normal RPG’s, you access this by pushing Z on the nunchuck and choosing Force from the menu, and selecting which power to use. Some heal you or your party, others increase your offensive or defence, and others damage the enemies with fire and ice and so on. Each member of your party has a force bar that is depleted as they use their Force powers.

Although, it can be tough at first to take on several enemies, as you progress you are joined by your brother, Copoona and your sister, Poleena, and this makes it much easier to take down large groups of enemies. As usual, every fight you complete gives you experience points, and once you have gained enough you will go up a level and your stats will improve. The level changes are quite frequent and the stats increase is generous so you will notice the difference!

There are many domes to visit on the planet, and eventually you will be able to move between them all. At every dome there is always a license centre, a skypod (which transports you from dome to dome) and a shop to purchase upgrades for your bonbon as well as healing items.

The control system should be praised here for being the most simplistic and easy to get to grips with. You only need to use the nunchuck in this game, the analogue stick moves your character and moves the cursor in menus and is used in battle to attack. The C button is used to interact with people and objects and makes selections in menus and selects a target in the battles, and Z is used to enter the menu from where you can check your inventory and brings up your battle menu.

Mapping all the controls on to two buttons is amazing and makes you wonder why other developers haven’t thought of it before! Although, this game doesn’t make use of the Wii specific motion controls, it’s unfair to hold this against it when it’s got a simple control system that makes the game easy to play, why try to force the motion sensing hardware into the game if it doesn’t fit.

The game play can get a little repetitive in places as you get used to the usual collect object A from place B and bring it back of the main quest, but if you take the time to do some of the side quest stuff you’re have a much more enjoyable experience from Opoona. The games story is also quite slow moving and you have to pay a lot of attention to what people tell you when you talk to them to figure out what you should be doing next, although this does mean that it is quite open for exploration.

Graphically, the cell-shading looks good, and is one of the styles that really suit the Wii. It is bright, and the characters are nicely modelled if a little under detailed, although the facial expressions of the main characters are quite charming in places. The only problem is the camera angle in the outside world is too zoomed in and makes it difficult to find the treasure shells doted around as well as any alternate routes that you can take.

The music is very much the sort of thing you expect in an RPG, and is pretty good although some of the ditties will grind on your nerves eventually! The sound effects are suitably zany in places, but there is no voice acting to comment on.

Overall, fans of the RPG genre will be home here, although it lacks the visual power of the Final Fantasy series, and I think the lack of urgency in the plot of the story may put some players off. The general quirkiness of the title may also be too much for the more hardcore fans. I also have concerns as to whether it will hold the attention of the player long enough for them to enjoy the game. At the beginning of the game it felt very pedestrian and dull, but it does get better as the game progresses. It should be applauded for its simplistic control system and its unique bonbon battling system, which stops the random encounters from becoming tiresome. I’m sure there are RPG fans that will adore this but I feel that it maybe too different from the norm for today’s audience.