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Info & Screens Updated: 3/3/03 Nintendo doesn't dip into role-playing games too often, but when they do, chances are they're aiming for something special. Giftpia epitomizes this idea, ditching the traditional idea of a rag-tap group of rebels overthrowing an evil empire cliché, instead having players in control of Pokkuru, a young boy who missed his coming of age ceremony, and now has to repeat it for the price of 5,000,000 mane. Yikes.
Screens Updated: 2/14/03 A new set of screenshots for GameCube's latest altrnative RPG. Thanks to Olimario for the contribution once again.
Screens Updated: 1/30/03 A new set of screenshots for yet another wacky looking RPG type GameCube game. Thanks to Olimario for the contribution.
Skip would like to extend a warm welcome to everybody to Nanashi Island. The bright and promising developer is working with Nintendo to produce the Gamecube Giftpia, a game the developer says combines “gifts” and “utopia”, hence the name. Along with that comes the first solid details on what the game will entail. As the developers tell it on the official site’s FAQ, the stage is set on Nanashi Island, a place where time flows calmly. Lately, the island has been trying to modernize, so much so that it’s a become a bit… “high-class”, perhaps? (Actually, the exact word is “westernized,” but I highly doubt the developers meant it as a slight to any western sensibilities.) Well, today is the day the main character, Pockul, becomes an adult, or “The Coming of Age Day.” However, Pockul is a weak man. He sleeps in on the day of the ceremony and misses it. Now, as Mr. Mayor, the obvious village chief tells him, the only way he can become an adult is to redo the ceremony, or else he will remain a child forever. Not that hard a task, except for the fact that the fee to redo the Coming of Age Ceremony will be 5,000,000 mane (Giftpia’s supposed currency). Thus the aim of the game will be to raise the money Pockul is promised to have for the redoing of the ceremony by consulting, co-operating and conspiring with the island’s people. Characters thus far revealed include the blue-haired Kyappi, Pockul’s girlfriend who keeps him in line and who Pockul promised to lead to the mysterious place behind the island after the Coming of Age Ceremony, but now must put off. The aforementioned Mayor is Kyappi’s father and the island’s chief; his wife died years ago. Mappo is a robot who lives to protect the village and aims to become a policeman one day. And then there is Yukio, a goat who wears a bell and um, currently, just looks at you. And what’s a game without a fancy buzzword these days? Skip is calling Giftpia an “Alternative RPG.” Skip says they would like to present an RPG in direct counterpoint to the mainstream line of gameplay seen in “normal” RPGs, and have worked to make Giftpia something of a counter culture game that aims to open fresh avenues in the heavily streamlined genre. They would like to fill it with a sense of unique style and a profound sense of magic. That may sound like the average PR hype to you, but I’d extend a warning not to underestimate the abilities of this group of people. I’ve previously played Moon: The RPG Remix Adventure, a title that some of Skip was involved in. To say that that game was profound would be like saying the world’s oceans are kinda big. It mixed together a scathingly cynical sense of parody with a bizarre and warm style that practically gushed dignity and charm. It was criminally overlooked in Japan (I never would have played if I had not run into at a used manga store one day and thought it looked interesting for the price of 980 yen). Therefore, it never had a chance in the States. I’d rank Moon on a scale with games like Chrono Trigger and Planescape: Torment and Skip’s pedigree seems to aim for the same type of success with Giftpia. Moon was entirely critical of every RPG cliché in the book, from big huge villainous projects to knights in shining armor to “meaningful” quests. It had a hilarious sense of humor imbued in characters that were nonsensical, but frighteningly realistic. The grandmother at the beginning of the game almost seemed like she was sitting there right beside me as I talked to her, even though the graphics weren’t realistic at all. The game was simple, but forwent all manner of battle systems for a more adventurous RPG type of world. It did take skill and careful consideration though, as a clock in the corner would tick down showing your energy and you would lose energy the farther you traveled from home. By collecting “Love” though by helping people out in various ways and eating food you could survive. So a large part of the game worked on principles of resource management and a kind of PC adventure game puzzle-style inventory. Days proceeded like they do in the real world with sunsets and sunrises, nights and afternoons and characters who moved on their daily routines of their own accord way before Shenmue or Majora’s Mask ever attempted the same thing. But there was a lot more to the game than these simple descriptions can suffice to describe. The truth is it was so outlandish that without actually showing you physically how the game works its difficult to outline the gameplay. The aesthetics were entirely fresh as well. Working on the assumption that a child has been sucked into a terribly tedious RPG he has been playing, Moon worked into a combination of claymation, rendered and hand-drawn graphics and an anime sense of surrealism. Its characters often spoke in snippets of mixed together recordings of commercials, radio broadcasts, remixed songs and TV shows mixed together like a DJ would with Japanese subtitles. And somehow, someway that did not feel too odd after a while, it didn’t alienate or turn off me as some bizarre games do, games that take too much liberty and are innovative or different just so they can say they are. But it was the message above all that impressed me above and beyond the numerous other impressive elements of Moon. It was something that could only be said through a videogame, a book or a movie just wouldn’t have worked and it is the only thing in all my years of gaming that isn’t just a reflection of the type of glorious stories that can be found in other media. And it did it without being melodramatic, overbearing or preachy, or even all that overt in the first place. Thus, I’d venture to say that Skip represents a spirit of small-time ingenuity and innovation, heart and dedication that might be disappearing completely from the industry with all the massive mergers and such going on. They seem to be allowing even English speakers to post their correspondence on the site, as long as it is of course respectful and moderate. If you don’t want that spirit to disappear, you might take a little time to give them some support at: giftpia@skiptokyo.com. Obviously Nintendo saw something special in them, so why shouldn’t you?
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