Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom

I could guess many of you don't even know about this game as it was pretty new to me too. I just bought it because it was cheap and I remembered reading something good about it. The game is about a young man, Tepeu, who tries to save his kingdom which is controlled by mysterious darkness. Tepeu is accompanied by ancient giant known as Majin. The game's genre is mostly adventure although it has some action too. Tepeu and Majin explore the old kingdom and fight, or mostly Majin fights, the soldiers of darkness that control the land. I wrote few days ago that I like to lie down on the couch and relax with some nice adventure. Well, Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is exactly what I meant.

The story in Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is the usual (someone could say classic). The darkness has spread over the land and no one knows where it came from or how to destroy it. There has been some adventurers who have wandered into the kingdom to find out what's wrong, but they have all disappeared. So now it's Tepeu's turn and he, with the help of Majin, tries to solve the mystery of the darkness. Nothing really special about the story, but I found it nice how it's told by flashbacks of Majin's slowly returning memory.

The game is easy and fun to play. You control Tepeu and Majin is controlled by good enough AI. You can give simple orders to Majin, like follow, wait and attack, and he tries his best to obey. As Tepeu himself isn't a huge killing machine the fighting is mostly done by Majin. After Majin has knocked down an enemy you can finish him off with a combination move where Majin throws Tepeu in the air and Tepeu delivers the killing blow. Killing enemies with combinations fills Tepeu's power meter and the more full the meter the more powerful are the combination attacks. Although Tepeu isn't so great of a fighter he has the ability to kill smaller enemies with a single blow. This is done by sneaking behind the enemy. Sneak attack comes in handy when the partners are separated. This basically happens only when Tepeu has to go alone to turn some switch.

Majin kicking ass!

Fighting in the game is easy because you don't have to do much yourself. You ask Majin to attack, finish the enemies when they are knocked out and heal Majin if he's running low on health. Tepeu is healed by Majin, but he can't heal you during fights. So there's no way to heal yourself when in battle. Although if your health bar drops to zero you won't die instantly. Majin still can come and revive you, but if he doesn't make it in time then you're dead. But this doesn't happen very often. I think I died three times, and Majin once, during the whole game.

As the game progresses both heroes gain levels, Tepeu by just killing enemies and Majin by eating certain fruits. There are few special fruits that give Majin new powers. These powers are used in combat, you can ask Majin for example to blow enemies away with wind power, and to solve puzzles. With puzzles you don't have to guess which power to use as you only ask Majin to "act" on something. He then uses the right power, if he has it. The puzzles in the game are quite simple. They are basically turn the switch and the door opens type of puzzles. You just have to find the way to the switch and that usually requires for Majin to use a certain power on something.

This guy sure likes his daily fruits.

The thing in the game I liked most is the overall atmosphere. Although the graphics aren't the best in business the game still looks nice. At most parts the surroundings are bright, nice and green. This game isn't dark, scary, sad or depressing but instead it's fun and sympathetic. As a central part of the game, Majin plays his role well and is the biggest reason for the sympathetic term. This lovable giant sneezes and stumbles to the ground once in a while. He also talks in this simple "me hungry" way.

Bright and green, just like I said.

In case someone is close to an overdose of happiness here are few points I didn't like. Firstly the small animals who talk to Tepeu during the adventure. I found them annoying. They don't have anything important to say and the voice actors suck. Well you don't have to talk to most of these animals so this is not a big deal. The other bad thing is controls. In general they work fine, but they have a little lag which makes it hard and irritating when you have to jump from a small platform to another. Thirdly I would have liked the story to be a bit more interesting. Now it was just too ordinary and simple.

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is a game for those who like their games to be relaxing. It's fun to play and makes you smile. Maybe if you take all your games seriously, you get bored if nothing happens every minute or you are looking for a real challenge then this isn't for you. I wrote about games and girls a while back and this game is one more example to add to the list of a bit different games to show someone who has only heard about the CODs and WOWs.