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Review:

7th October 2002:
Doshin the Giant
After the success of Pikmin, Nintendo brings another strategy game to the GameCube, but will it prove to be too simplistic for some?
Posted by Marc Hull - GameCube - UK and Europe

Just a few years back, the thought of a strategy game appearing on a console would conjure up images of incredibly complex control systems, where even the simplest features such as being able to move a large number of 'units' would require a hideously long string of button presses to be accomplished. However, with Nintendo's famous project director, and general gaming God at the helm, even the intricacies of a strategy game were brought to the mainstream console market (if in a slightly simplified state) in the form of Pikmin. After it was propelled to classic status in Japan, Nintendo tried to recreate the same level of success with a quirky title called Doshin the Giant, and after much deliberation, they decided to bring it across to European shores. However, whereas Pikmin was most definitely a strategy game, Doshin's links to the genre are slightly more hazy. In fact, it has more in common with Black and White, since instead of having direct control over the game's inhabitants you simply perform God-like tasks to influence them in order to fulfil your goals.

When you first boot up the game, you'll be presented with an unusual FMV sequence in which a sage-like character called Sodoru explains the legend of a yellow giant called Doshin rising from the sea to look over a tropical paradise known as Barudo Island. Once the sequence is over, you gain control of the giant, and get to walk around and examine the island as Sodoru gradually explains the control system. Instead of having a large range of intricate moves, Doshin's abilities are quite limited, but can be applied in many different ways. For instance, one of your moves allows you to lower the ground on which Doshin is standing, which is helpful for providing flat areas on which buildings can be constructed, but also allows you to create rivers which will stop the spread of fire across the island. Similarly, you can also raise the land, which will generate mountains that can channel the movement hurricanes.

After a bit of wandering, you'll quickly come across some of the island's inhabitants, who unfortunately are not intelligent enough to survive on their own. Instead of finding flat land on which to build their settlements, the lazy blighters are more likely to want you to flatten the terrain instead. They will stand on the area that they think is too high or low and tell Doshin to raise or lower the ground by using a speech bubble with a symbol in it. If you decide to fulfil their wishes, they'll begin to like you, and will give you a heart (no, not a real one, just a heart symbol) which will stick to the edge of the screen. Once you've got enough hearts to circle the screen, the giant will grow to be bigger, and will also be slightly more powerful. As you grow larger, you'll be able to pick up heavier objects and shift more terrain at a time, as well as get extra moves such as the ability to flatten ground with a single button press. However, being nice to the islanders isn't the only way to increase your power. By tapping the L-trigger you can turn into Jashin the Giant, who is an evil, red-coloured monster with wings. In this form, you can cast spells to destroy buildings and kill the villagers, which will usually give you many skull symbols. Once you've accumulated enough skull symbols to circle the screen, you'll also grow more powerful.

The aim of the game is, bizarrely, to collect monuments that are built by the villagers after you help them enough. Initially, there are four different tribes on the island, which are represented by differently coloured clothes. Each of these tribes will construct a different monument once you've helped them enough, but many more different combinations are available by mixing together two different tribes. This is accomplished by either moving a member from one tribe to another, so that they share knowledge with each other, or by creating whole new villages with a male from one tribe and a female from another. Things are also made more complicated by the fact that any old monument won't do - only monuments constructed with special flowers will count towards your progress in the game. Flowers are grown by concentrating green energy, which can be accomplished by moving many trees together into one spot, but only one can be grown at any time, so you can't stockpile them. When a tribe likes you enough to construct a monument, flower icons will begin to appear in their speech bubbles, indicating that you need to give them a flower before they get too impatient and build the monument without it.

Graphically, the game will at first appear a little to basic for some people's liking. The island itself starts off quite bland, with some very angular mountains and some quite simplistic trees dotted around the place. However, after the islanders begin to multiply and construct their villages things being to look more busy and detailed. There are also some quite nice effects, such as reflections in the water, day to night progression and weather changes that give everything that extra bit of sparkle. However, sound is where Doshin seems to have the most problems. Firstly, there's no actual background music to the game, instead you get spot-effects depending on where you are on the island. If you walk into a village then you'll hear that tribe's particular chant, which is quite a nice touch, but most of the time the game is either in semi-silence or full of over-used calls by the islanders.

There are also a few problems with the gameplay that prevents this from being a true top-class title. One of the first things you'll notice is how slow Doshin is to move around the island, making a trip from one side to the other take minutes to complete. Since all the four tribes are initially scattered all over the place, to keep track of them all you'll spend most of your time simply traversing the terrain, which can become very tedious. However, upon reaching a village you will find another problem; trying not to step on the villagers. The further you progress in the game, the more villagers you have to avoid, meaning that you'll end up walking really, really slowly inside a village or risk them losing faith.

In terms of length, there are only about sixteen different monuments to be collected, but each will take quite a while to build. Also, the way that the game gives you loads of freedom to extend the island, set up new villages and destroy old ones means that you'll often find new things to keep interest levels high. Unfortunately, the frustratingly slow walking pace of Doshin means that the replay value drops considerably, but this is more of a game in which you keep going with one save, rather than start a new one.

Overall, Doshin the Giant provides the GameCube with another solid and innovative strategy title. Although there are niggles that drag it below Pikmin's high level of quality, it's still the sort of game in which you can lose yourself for hours at a time.

Marc Hull

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Review Summary:

Doshin is like a simplified version of Black and White, in that you control a giant who can influence islanders to build monuments for him. It may bow down to Pikmin in terms of graphics and sound, and there are some gameplay problems such as Doshin walking far too slowly, but overall it's a fairly solid title.

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