The long-awaited LostWinds sequel is getting released on WiiWare tomorrow in North America. I'm sure there's a bunch of members who are looking forward to this, and rightly so. I bought it last Friday when it came out in the PAL regions, but I only started playing last night thanks to a busy week. Here's my impressions.
I'll address what's on everyone's mind. My time log is just under three hours at this point. I haven't completed the game yet, though the profile card shows that I've obtained all of the new abilities, so I figure the end can't be too far off. Nintendo Life states four hours, plus a little more if you aim to collect all 48 Melodia figurines, which actually appears to unlock a Secrets section in the main menu. Basically, the 1000 Point price tag is more justified and reasonable this time.
It requires 307 blocks of your Wii System Memory, IIRC - I guess that shouldn't be a problem for anybody owning a functional SD card. Having said that, the space is put to good use, as the overall presentation is fabulous. The graphics retain the style of the original but have easily noticeable improvements, specifically the effects. Relatively early on, you navigate an ice cavern with transparent pillars situated in the foreground; when you walk behind one, the polygonal surface of the pillar displays a distorted refraction of Toku (the hero of the series), which is a stunning visual effect. There are other cool touches like vegetation rustling and snowflakes changing direction in the breeze when you just move the cursor over them, as well as characters moving around in the background independently. Music is beautifully arranged too, with different tracks for Summer and Winter, not to mention separate recordings to compliment each type of enemy. High quality instrumentation, I might add.
Gameplay wise, Winter of the Melodias is yet more refinements across the board. It entails platforming and ability-based puzzles again, which are thoughtfully put together as expected. Obviously, the season switching is the big hook that has received exposure since the game's announcement. In the overworld exploration, it is prominently featured in order to reach inaccessible areas. In cavernous locales, it is scarce, although a new wind ability shines in those areas: the Cyclone. This is controlled by holding A+B together and spinning the Wii Remote to create a Cyclone, which can then be used in multiple ways like boosting Toku, forming rain clouds and drilling through weak patches of earth. One particular puzzle that stuck in my mind was somewhere near 2 hours in, when I had to transfer a pool of water elsewhere by collecting it in a cyclone and shifting the cloud, allowing me to access a switch, then I pressed a Sonté statue to change it to Winter so I could produce a snowball and weigh down the switch while I passed under the gate. There's tonnes of stuff like that, where the goal is clear immediately after examining the location you are in, but you need to carry out a handful of tasks before that goal is met.
I am having a lot of fun with LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias. Everything the first game did well is kept, and everything it didn't has been tweaked to make it superior. The brand new mechanics are great, as are inclusions such as a fleshed-out story and a very helpful map. I'm looking forward to seeing what else this title has in store for me when I play it tonight.
Topic: LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias (Read 3807 times)
