3D Dot Game Heroes

What 3D DGH lacks in originality, it more than makes up for in quirkiness, nostalgia and hilarious references to other games.

At it's heart it's a Zelda clone, conquer the world one screen at a time, save the princess, save the world, the same tried and true equation.
Where it stands out from the crowd is it's presentation. The story goes, the king of Dotnia needed to attract more tourists and in an effort to modernise the land, went 3D. This is a literal translation of the 2D world so everything is made up of individual ‘dots’ or cubes. This definitely gives it a unique look, especially when vanquished foes explode into a cloud of cubes which bounce around like shrapnel.
Another unique feature is that your sword can be upgraded in damage, girth, and length. When fully upgraded, your sword can take up a huge amount of the screen and even go through solid objects making you a force to be reckoned with.

While it's true that it's a rehash of games of old, it does so in a unique way making it a great game for casual players and diehard fans alike.

I thought it was going to be a total cakewalk. I was quite pleasantly mistaken, the challenge is manageable and not completely frustrating. The graphics are charming with a great tilt-shift camera effect, and tons of modern graphical effects coupled with that old pixel art charm.

The ability to build your own avatar pixel by pixel in three dimensions is pretty wicked also. I was initially hesitant about building one at first, but after playing with a pre-fab at first, I decided to give it a go and now I'm out gallavanting about as Sir Donut, quite possibly the first sword wielding donut in an RPG!

Audio is generally great, but the noise that appears when your heart gauge is nearly depleted is really grating, so I guess it does the job of motivating you to either refill your hearts or die.

Being able to fly off to already visited towns and inns is an incredible relief and there are a ton of neat easter eggs that reference other games.

Highly recommend this game!

The first thing you need to know is that this is a loving tribute, verging on remake, to A Link To The Past. If you know what that is, 3D Dot Game Heroes is more of the same, in the best way possible. If you don't know what A Link To The Past is: go and play it. Now.

The graphics are a fantastic re-imagining of the old graphical stylings of the SNES-era technology. The game technically uses 3D models, made up of voxels (3D equivalent of a pixel), but the isometric perspective of the camera makes it look, at first glace, like an old pixellated game. Some might not like this, but for older gamers it can be glorious.

The difficulty ramps up to the level of older games as well, and with three increasingly difficult replay modes, as well as 20 or 30 optional swords and other items to collect, this beauty of the game is that it can be played as in-depth or casually accessable as you want. Easily worth the price-tag for completionists or old-school gamers.

This game is best described as a tribute to the classic Zelda games. So if you enjoyed the classic Zelda games or are curious about what made gaming great back in the era of 8 bit, you will want to check this game out.

From the guys who brought us demon's souls (From software) and if you have played demon's souls you'll know that your in for a challenge. With two extra modes which modify the difficulty and a stack of sidequests there is a tonne of replay value in this game.

Another thing with noting is this game doesn't take itself very seriously. The story is far from groundbreaking but at no point does it try to be. Infact it quite often makes fun of itself and the games that inspire it.

So with multiple playthroughs, an enormous amount of weapon and treasure to be found, the ability to make your own hero, a huge amount of sidequests and a world full of colourful characters and charm, if your thinking about trying this game out, you could definatly find worse ways to spend your money