Dual Hearts stands on its own as a well constructed game, but there's no denying that it shares similarities with others from this genre. After the story begins, you'll be in control of a young boy and his companion (I can't tell if it's a dog or a pig or what) from the dream world. The movement controls are straight out of a platform title along the lines of Jak and Daxter, and the battle system is vaguely similar to The Legend of Zelda.

There are two different worlds to explore. One consists of the world as we may know it, and one is comprised of the dreams of other people. In these dream worlds you are searching for keys that your traveling companion fumbled and lost at the start of the game. The level structure is laid out like a Mario game where there are multiple objectives for each dream. You main objective is to find the keys, but there are many other items to collect, all of which are kept in a tidy statistics page. You can't complete all of your tasks on the first run as there are new skills that you'll need to learn along the way in order to reach them.

Gameplay is dependent on both characters. Your piggy companion can do powerful things for you in the dream world. When you are low on hit points, he can heal you. He allows you to ride on his back to move faster, and he can also jump higher to help you reach new places. Objects that are ordinary orbs in the real world become your weapons in dreams. The combat is simplistic. You lock on to enemies and attack. Your weapons progress in level as you use them, and they'll earn new attacks and combos.

The visuals are also geared towards youngsters. The characters are simply constructed and shaded. It has a very clean cartoon-like appearance. The level design fits the mood equally as well. Considering the game is built around dreams, the designers could take liberties in the construction. One early level in particular when you are in the dreams of a young artist girl, you'll notice a Salvador Dali theme. Clocks are melted and the whole level defies gravity in its spherical shape.

Dual Hearts does come across as a game for little people. The story has its moments of adult humor, but I still found the gameplay to be rather simplistic. I mean, there are a lot of things to do and multiple moves to learn and master, but I never felt in danger of losing the game. The mix of gameplay from previous successful games works well for Dual Hearts, and if you are in the mood for a light-hearted adventure with RPG undertones, then this may be right up your alley. Atlus seldom misses.