Wild Arms Developers Bring Wizard of Oz RPG to the DS
New RPG themed in the classic.
June 13, 2008 - In one of those "only-in-Japan" moments, D3 publisher has announced, via the latest Famitsu, Riz-zoawd, a new RPG that makes use of characters and themes from The Wizard of Oz.
The story of Riz-zoawd begins in the countryside where a young girl named Dorothy lives all alone. Her only friend is Toto, her dog. Dorothy's parents have passed away, but, unable to part from her house full of memories, she decided to continue living by herself.
One day, a huge tornado appears and sweeps up the house, along with Dorothy and Toto. When she awakens, Dorothy finds herself in a mysterious land. A giant shadow appears in the skies and introduces itself as Oz, king of the land. Oz gives Dorothy a pair of magic shoes, which allows her to freely walk through this land of magic, and orders her to come to his castle.
Playing as Dorothy in this 3D RPG/adventure, you work your way through four fields of play themed in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Throughout your travels, you'll end up coming in contact with the expected characters, including a Lion, a Tin Man and a Scarecrow.
The game makes use of stylus-based controls, with the player using the stylus to manipulate a virtual trackball on the bottom screen. Rotate this ball, and Dorothy moves around on the top screen. The bottom screen also has buttons for switching your viewpoint.
The touch controls are used during battle as well. To control the turn-based battles, you tap icons on the bottom screen, selecting to attack, switch between your three party members, or flee. The action is displayed on the top screen using a first person Dragon Quest-style perspective, with Dorothy and friends coming out to attack when commanded.
Outside of the bizarre premise, this game is drawing attention due to its development staff. The title is being developed by Media Vision, known for Sony's Wild Arms series. Serving as producer is Tetsuya Okubo, a designer from that series. The game's planner/designer is Nobuo Nakazawa, who started working on Wild Arms with part 2. Music is being handled by Basiscape's Hitoshi Sakimoto.
Media Vision's CG production division is actually in charge of this title, and the visuals seem to be benefiting. The game's 3D rendering engine is said to push the DS to its limits.
Japanese DS owners can look forward to this strange twist on The Wizard of Oz this Winter.
This game looks and sounds good.
Screens of the game http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=29302
