Contact (video game)
Contact is a game published by Marvelous Entertainment that was first released in Japan on March 30 for Nintendo DS. The game is currently being localized for North America by Atlus and has been dated to be released September, 2006 in North America[1]. The game was developed by Grasshopper Manufacture, the group responsible for Killer7.
Visual Style
The game has a simple, pixelated style on the top screen, reminiscent of the Commodore 64 and the Mother series of RPGs. The top screen is where the professor will observe and offer assistance to the main character, a boy named Terry, who moves around on the bottom screen. The bottom screen has a pre-rendered, lavishly detailed art style. When the professor goes onto the bottom screen, or vice versa, it offers a strange clash of styles.
Story
The story of Contact begins with the Professor flying through space, fleeing from a mysterious enemy known only as the Klaxon Army. He ends up crash landing on a strange planet, scattering the "cells" that power his ship, preventing him from getting his ship off the ground. He enlists the help of Terry, a young boy who mistakenly came with him. Terry agrees to help the Professor and sets out with a mysterious set of "Decals" from the Professor. Helping the Professor is the only way that Terry will be able to get home. However, as the game progresses the Professor's intentions are slowly thrown deeper and deeper into question. Perhaps collecting all the cells is not the only objective the Professor has in mind...
Gameplay
Contact differs from ordinary RPGs in that exp. (experience) gain is instantaneous, meaning that leveling up in the middle of a battle is required, complementing the real time combat system. Rather than the tradition in RPGs where a character "levels up" increasing multiple statistics at once and making the character stronger after fighting in battles and gaining experience points, Contact's experience system is more realistic in that Terry's stats increase individually as he performs different actions. For instance, when Terry takes damage, his defense increases; as he damages an enemy, his strength increases, and so on. This system is similar to Final Fantasy II or the SaGa series of games, though it has been said that the stat increases come sooner and gaining experience is considered less frustrating than in these games.
Contact makes use of two main gameplay systems. Giving the game somewhat of a loose connection with Killer 7 is a costume system through which you make Terry change into costumes, earning new skills along the way. You'll earn seven costumes as you work through your adventure, turning Terry into such forms as a fisherman, a cook and a pilot. With greater use, a costume will add extra power to its associated skills and statistics, including elemental magic and magical properties. For instance, the Ninja suit increases Terry's water magic power/defense. Outside of the costume-based skills, Terry also has weapon-based skills which can also be gathered as you work through the game. These include fist weapons (gloves), blunt weapons (clubs and staves), and slashing weapons (swords). Each skills can be upgraded by using each type of weapon throughout the game. Each enemy has its own weakness it is susceptible to, so some of Contact's strategy involves switching to the appropriate weapon to exploit an enemy's weakpoint. This system resembles a far less complex variant of Vagrant Story's weapon-strengthening system. The other gameplay system centers on the Decals that were mentioned in the storyline. Terry can stick multiple Decals to himself, resulting in added powers. Decals can also be used to attack enemies who get in the way of your travels, heal Terry's wounds, and other functions of combat.
There are other statistics that affect Terry's relationship with the game's non-playable characters. These include:
- Fame - Terry's popularity. Goes up by defeating enemies.
- Courage - How well people think of Terry. Goes up when Terry defeats stronger enemies.
- Karma - Goes up when Terry does good things, goes down when he does bad things. Terry can attack any NPC at will, so there is a level of freedom not found in other typical console RPGs. As animosity towards Terry grows, townsfolk actually start to attack Terry on the street.
Perhaps the most intriguing portions of the game are the minigames. Which harken back to Atari 2600-style graphics, and include a side-scrolling RPG reminiscent of Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and an F-1 racing game.
External links
- Commercial
- Contact at GameSpot
- Contact at IGN
- interview with Contact's director at [Pocket Gamer]
- Official US page
- Official Japanese page