The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road

The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road
North American boxart
Developer(s)	Media.Vision
Publisher(s)	JP D3 Publisher NA Xseed Games
Director(s)	Nobuo Nakazawa
Producer(s)	Tetsuya Okubo
Composer(s)	Hitoshi Sakimoto Michiko Naruke Masaharu Iwata
Platform(s)	Nintendo DS
Release date(s)	JP December 25, 2008 NA September 30, 2009
Genre(s)	Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	CERO: A (all ages) ESRB: E (Everyone)
Media/distribution	Nintendo Game Card

The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road, known in Japan as RIZ-ZOAWD, is a role-playing video game for the Nintendo DS. It was developed by the Japanese video game developer Media.Vision. The game is an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, using its characters, locations and plot. The game was originally published in Japan by D3 Publisher on December 25, 2008. Xseed Games published the game in North America on September 29, 2009.

Gameplay

RIZ-ZOAWD is controlled entirely with the stylus using a track ball on the bottom screen to move Dorothy around the 3-dimensional world of Oz where enemies appear on-screen and coming into contact with them triggers a battle. The game is a traditional console role-playing game in the same vein as Dragon Quest, where turn-based battles are fought in a first-person view. The abilities of the playable characters are based on their personalities and action from the original story, an example being the Cowardly Lion allowing you to escape from enemy encounters.

In this RPG, The Witches are divided up by seasons. Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Along with the two evil witches (Deene and Horiin), there are new enemies.

Plot

The game follows Dorothy and her group of friends as they complete a task for the Wizard of Oz. He asks them to defeat four different witches. After this, he promises to grant each of the companions' wishes. Each of the witches has a magical egg that the player is supposed to collect, there are ten in all, three each in the spring, summer, and fall levels and one in the winter level. After the player gets these Oz turns against them and they have to go defeat him by traveling the yellow brick road. But beware once you're in the castle there is only one way out, which is to defeat Oz. along the way you gain abilities by meeting the elemental spirits and by defeating the dragon masters. Each time you defeat them you will gain magical abilities such as the ability to heal or to double the power of one friend's move.

Characters

The game's depiction of the Cowardly Lion, Dorothy, Toto, the Tin Man and Scarecrow.

• Dorothy Gale: The protagonist, who, with her dog Toto, ended up in a magical world after a tornado and tries to find her way home by going to Oz Castle (Riz-Zoawd's version of the Emerald City).
• Scarecrow: A friendly scarecrow Dorothy meets who, while an optimist, lacks a brain.
• Tin Woodman: A metal woodsman Dorothy encounters in the woods who lacks a heart.
• Cowardly Lion: A lion who lacks courage, who Dorthy meets after the Scarecrow.
• Flora: The Witch of the Spring and youngest of the three witch sisters, her realm is North of Oz Castle (Riz-Zoawd's Witch of the North).
• Delphi: The Witch of the Summer who is the middle sister and gets to the point, her realm is East of Oz Castle (Riz-Zoawd's Witch of the East).
• Holly: The Witch of the Fall and 1st born sister, her realm is West of Oz Castle (Riz-Zoawd's Witch of the West).
• Snowso: The Witch of the Winter, her domain is South of Oz Castle. She is the mother of the three witch Sisters. (Riz-Zoawd's Glinda the Good).
• Hood Cats: Cat-like beings that serve the Three Witch Sisters. (Riz-Zoawd's Nekozukin)
• Oz: The Ruler of OZ Castle. (Riz-Zoawd's "Great and Powerful" Oz).
• Pachi of Fire: Fire elemental who helps Dorothy.
• Hyul of Wind: Air elemental who helps Dorothy.
• Doron of Earth: Earth elemental who helps Dorothy.
• Ulu of Water: Water elemental who helps Dorothy.
• Jiyukaku: Tall Dragon Grandfather
• Kouyoku: Overweight Dragon Grandfather
• Io: Shortest of the Dragon Grandfathers

Development

The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road was developed by Media.Vision, the company behind the Wild Arms series. The game was produced by Wild Arms designer Tetsuya Okubo and directed by Nobuo Nakazawa, who joined the company starting with Wild Arms 2. The game's Japanese title, RIZ-ZOAWD, is an anagram of "Wizard" and "Oz". According to Nakazawa, the name come about through Japan's "tendency to like meaningless enumerations of letters and coined words" and that they chose the title because "it had a ring to it, the feeling of the word, and it sounded good to our ears".

The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road was first unveiled in the Japanese magazine Famitsu in June 2008, and was later shown in more detail at the Tokyo Game Show months later. The game includes a limited edition music CD for its initial release in Japan, featuring six tracks including the game's title theme, composed and performed by Michiko Naruke and Kaori Asoh respectively. Xseed Games announced in July 2009 that they had acquired the North American publishing rights to the game with licensing by Warner Bros.

Reception

Critical reactions to The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road have been generally mixed. the game currently holds aggregate scores of 69% on GameRankings and a 68 out of 100 on Metacritic respectively. IGN reviewer Mark Bozon gave the game 8/10 stating: "It's great for younger (or casual) players, and it's also a haven for awesome RPG's – seldom is it both at once though...The Wizard of Oz is all about compromise, since the game is literally out to satisfy two very different crowds, it's simple enough for newcomers while still being deep enough for open-minded hardcore players too." He also goes on to praise the use of the trackball running/walking tool (calling it "catchy") and the sole use of the Nintendo DS's touch screen function.

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Official website (English)