Opoona

Opoona
North American box art
Developer(s)	ArtePiazza
Publisher(s)	Koei
Director(s)	Yukiko Sugimura
Producer(s)	Shintarou Mashima
Composer(s)	Hitoshi Sakimoto, Masaharu Iwata, Manabu Namiki, Noriyuki Kamikura, Kimihiro Abe, Mitsuhiro Kaneda
Platform(s)	Wii
Release date(s)	JP November 1, 2007 NA March 25, 2008 EU September 12, 2008
Genre(s)	Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	CERO: A (All ages) ESRB: E10+ (Everyone 10+) OFLC: PG PEGI: 7+
Media/distribution	Wii Optical Disc

Opoona (オプーナ, Opūna) is a role-playing video game developed by ArtePiazza and published by Koei for the Wii. The player follows the story of the titular Opoona as he attempts to find the location of his family from which he was separated after the occurrence of a mysterious accident during their travels. Former Dragon Quest art designer Shintaro Majima was the lead artist, with Sachiko Sugimura, who has also worked on Dragon Quest, as the planning director. Hitoshi Sakimoto, the composer for Final Fantasy XII, produced the soundtrack, which was composed by several Basiscape musicians.

Gameplay

To progress through the game, Opoona will acquire licenses for different jobs (e.g., rescuer, idol, detective), and players are able to choose what they would like to become. The game can be played one-handed using just the Wii's Nunchuk attachment, but the Classic Controller can also be used. In battles, flicking the Nunchuk's analog stick will fire a projectile, the trajectory of which can be changed. This style of play is named the Active Bon-Bon Battle System.

Plot

Several hundred years before the events of Opoona, the star Landroll was impacted by a large meteorite composed of crystallized dark energy. Creatures called "Rogues" were born from the meteorite and began an invasion on the star. When half the star had been destroyed by the Rogues, a sudden burst of energy encircled the star, halting the Rogue invasion and dividing the Deadlands from the inhabitable side of the star. The meteorite still remains half-embedded in the star, and glows ominously when viewed from space.

Several hundred years after, Opoona and his siblings, Copoona and Poleena, are on a family vacation from the star Tizia with their parents, Momeena and Dadeena, travelling in a spaceship to Landroll. Dadeena is a Startizian, a highly experienced Cozmo Guard, and Copoona believes that he is taking them to Landroll for training rather than a family vacation. Shortly after this, the spaceship is attacked by a mysterious dark energy, and the three children are placed into separate escape pods before the spaceship burns up in the Landrollian atmosphere.

Three days after the abrupt crash landing, Opoona awakens from a deep sleep in Tokione Dome and is informed of the incident, and told that his parents are being treated by Sages in Sanctuary, a massive hospital which floats high above Landroll. He is then introduced to Master Aizal, the Head Sage, who states that it will take some time for them to recover due to a shortage of Matia, Landrollian currency which also contains energy which can be used for its healing properties. With this information, Opoona is told that he must attend school at Starhouse and is trained as a Landroll Ranger with help from Chaika, a young Ranger girl and Commander Goldy, a high-ranking Landroll Ranger whom continues working voluntarily, even though is allowed to retire.

Once enrolled in Starhouse, Opoona meets a young boy called Ted, whom is apparently also training to become a Landroll Ranger. The two boys eventually become friends and Ted gives Opoona a hoverboard before he leaves Tokione with his parents for Intelligent Sea Dome. Shortly after this, Opoona is asked to investigate matters at the Wind Ravine as part of his training, as Rogue activity is interfering with Tokione Library. Opoona finds that the source of the activity is his own escape pod, which still emanates some dark energy from the spaceship. After defeating Rogues there, Opoona meets the spirit of the Wind, whose Aura aids Oppona in his journey, and subsequently graduates from Starhouse as a Level One Ranger and receives his first assignment in Lifeborn Dome.

Once in Lifeborn, Opoona is assigned the task of guarding the Matia Mine. Once there, Opoona is informed that a man called Joseph has a rock drill, which Opoona needs to fully explore the mine. Opoona finds that Joseph is currently staying at the Blue Desert Hotel at the Landrollian Northern Pole. Because of this, Opoona starts a second career as an Attendant to allow him access to the Blue Desert as a Hotel Attendant, befriending Mac along the way. Once Opoona achieves his quota as an Attendant and manages to persuade Joseph to return to Lifeborn, Opoona is assigned another Ranger quota - to investigate activity at the Lifeborn Volcano, which has become active again.

In the volcano, Opoona finds out that the volcanic activity is a result of Rogues in the Volcano, and proceeds to the Volcano's furnace to defeat them. After this, Opoona is greeted by the Fire spirit and Aura, who thank Opoona for his help. Opoona is then met by Commander Goldy and other Rangers, who congratulate him on his success and promote him to a Level Two ranger.

Characters

• Opoona - The protagonist from the planet Tizia. He has an orange Energy Bon-Bon above his head that he can use as a projectile. He starts off in Tokione dome, where he is enlisted to join the Landroll rangers.
• Poleena - Opoona's younger sister. She has two yellow Energy Bon-Bons above her head that resemble pigtails. Her escape pod crashes on the Orcalphin coast, where she is rescued by Aizel's mother
• Copoona - Opoona's younger brother. His Energy Bon-Bon takes the place of his legs and is purple. He becomes a sage, who is accompanied in the beginning by Sage Sarit, one of Landroll's most respected elders.

Development

Opoona was developed by ArtePiazza, a Japanese game company responsible for creating and porting games in the Dragon Quest series for Enix. Artepiazza was asked by publisher Koei "to create fun and unique visuals that convey the enjoyment of an RPG in a simple fashion" in place of using state-of-the-art CG and hardware technology available at the time of the game's production. Rather than utilize the traditional “single hero” or “chosen one” motif of RPGS, the staff members at Artepiazza emphasized the importance of relationships and family in Opoona. Planning director Sachiko Sugimura desired to "express that every single person means something and that the world grows and changes in accordance with the loving relationships among all people, instead of depicting the main character only as a special existence." Artepiazza wanted Opoona to appeal to family members of all ages instead of just children. The team designed the game so that it may be played with the Wii Remote Nunchuk attachment alone because of its limited control input that allows the player to casually play the game one-handed while relaxing or eating. The developers initially wanted to exclude any other control options, but decided to allow users to use the Remote or Classic Controller if they prefer.

Art director Shintaro Majima stated that he was first inspired to create Opoona after waking from a nap, taking a bath, and drawing his first design on the bathroom mirror. The main characters were meant to be simple enough that they could be easily redrawn by children; enemies were designed as non-living objects to make them distinct. Majima's personal interest in modern architecture and industrial design were the driving force behind the visual style of Opoona and that the Wii's "clean" and "something new" style overlapped the game's image. Majima's brother Tatuso, a modern artist, planned the locations and landscapes using what he considered to be the most attractive blend of reality and imagination. The musical score for Opoona was composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto and five fellow members of his Basiscape sound company. Sakimoto arranged the score in an orthodox manner with "futuristic" sounds as he had done with many of his past compositions by combining orchestral music with a synthesizer. However, his work on Opoona involved composing the songs through the characters' prespective to somehow lend the player their sympathy. The official soundtrack to Opoona was announced via Basiscape's Twitter account and was published over three years after the game's original Japanese launch.

ArtePiazza began working on Opoona in the spring and summer of 2005. The project had no publisher until Dragon Quest designer Yuji Horii sparked talks between ArtePiazza and Koei following the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2006. Majima came up with the game's title and the main protagonist's name. By using an Energy Bon-Bon projectile as the letter "o" the title, the spelled out "Opoona" was meant to resemble a child firing an Energy Bon-Bon rapidly. The three "o's" in the title was also meant to match Opoona's round shape. Opoona was announced as an untitled RPG in a September 2006 issue of the Japanese Famitsu magazine and was unveiled with its finalized title at a Koei press event the following March. Opoona was published in Japan on November 1, 2007 and in North America on March 25, 2008. The game was for release in Europe on July 25, 2008, but was delayed until September of that year.

Reception

Opoona suffered low sales upon its release in Japan. The game was released on the same day as Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy, a title that Artepiazza and Koei did not forsee as competition being in a different genre. Opoona received a positive review from Japanese magazine Famitsu, which gave the game a score of 31/40. The publication credited the characterisation, length, music, and difficulty level. In the US, Opoona received mixed reviews, with a Metacritic score of 65/100. Eurogamer gave Opoona 6/10, praising the control system, pace and presentation, and said "it's charming, strange and often fun, but too shallow and stretched out".

External links

• Official website
• Official website (Japanese)