N-Philes

Page 3

Homeland

Chunsoft, the developers of several Mysterious Dungeon games (including the Pokémon Dungeon for the GBA and DS), developed and published a quirky RPG in April 2005 called Homeland. The GameCube exclusive was initially only available through the developer's website, but after a month, SEGA distributed the game to retailers. You begin as an ordinary kid who was cleaning his closet one day when he was suddenly transported to a fantastical world. In the same breath, he becomes a Quester, someone who goes around helping people with all kinds of problems. Along the way, you meet townsfolk, battle monsters, gain experience, and transform into all kinds of weird mascots, like a mermaid, or a box. You can also do combos with and protect party members by holding hands.



Of course, the biggest twist the game offers is that it supports 30 players at once – online. One player sets up a game while everyone else connects to the host GameCube. The connecting players get to play the game while the host controls the game, the quest, and spawns the monsters.

Let's face it, this BMORPG (big multiplayer online role playing game) could find an audience on Wii. Its overly colorful, yet artistically twisted graphics are right up there with the likes of Animal Crossing, Monkey Ball, and Elebits. Not unlike Pokémon, the game has simplistic turn-based menu-based battles, but has great depth and a variety of locations to explore. To top it off, every Wii has built-in internet support; with Wii Connect 24 and Wi-Fi Connection, the game can be ever-changing in order to maintain the gamer's interest as well as making the whole online process simple and easy for everyone withh a Wii. The game's artistic direction even fits in with Wii's Mii Channel, so it may even be possible to being the gamer's avatar to life in a full-fledged RPG.



"I hope that [massively multiplayer online games] are really explored on [the Wii]," Reggie Fils-Aime mentioned in an interview toward the end of last year. "That's a genre, from the home console standpoint, that really hasn't been explored very well." If anything, Wii needs a game that proves that MMOs, as well as other PC-centric game ideas can work well on the system. What better than an innovative, scarcely-played title that would need only a few tweaks to reach the masses?

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