Dual Hearts

Dual Hearts Review

By, Jason Ferguson

Dual Hearts was one of this fall’s RPG releases, but it was largely overshadowed by another Hearts game… Kingdom Hearts. Although it isn’t quite as good as it’s Squaresoft counterpart, it’s still a fun game with some noteworthy features.

Long ago an evil being known as The Nightmare was born from the evil within people’s minds. A powerful sage, wielding the holy instruments and the dreamstone, and his Baku companion teamed up and sealed the Nightmare away. Fastforward to today, where a top-level treasure hunter, named Rumble, is searching for the dreamstone. At the same time the Queen of the Dream World sends out the descendant of the sage’s Baku companion, named Tumble, to gather the orbs of the holy instruments so that the Nightmare can be resealed to keep him from escaping after all these years. Rumble agrees to the mission from the Queen, but as clumsy as he is he manages to lose the orbs, which escape to all parts of the island and find their way into people’s dreams. Rumble, realizing that Tumble may be able to lead him to the dreamstone, decides to help in the search for the orbs, and the two embark on a journey through the dreamworld to find the keys and stop the Nightmare from escaping! The story wasn’t all that fast paced, but the makers kept the game short enough that it never really had time to get boring. The whole plot is pretty straightforward, and although there are a few twists and turns, most of them you’ll be expecting before they happen. Still, the story turned out to be an enjoyable journey that I was glad to have experienced.

While traveling through people’s dreams you’ll meet a lot of different characters. Some of them will be minor, but there are others who you’ll meet constantly. Few of the characters had strong development, but they didn’t seem to really need it. The characters were likeable and by the end of the game you can feel the bond that has developed between Rumble, Tumble and the people they meet along the way. I’d be lying if I said that Tumble wasn’t REALLY annoying for a good part of the game, but if you can overlook that you’ll see a variety of characters, each facing difficulties that Rumble and Tumble will help them to deal with while traveling through their dreams. The characters and their interactions helped keep the game moving nicely, and although there wasn’t a lot of depth to any of them, you learn about them through their dreams, which is easily more informative and fun than lots of boring text story anyway. The whole game may seem silly to some gamers, and I’ll admit it does have a kind of childish feel to it. I mean, at one point you meet Santa Claus in the game, so it’s tough to deny the “kiddie” theme.

After you pick up one of the holy instrument orbs you’ll gain access to the instrument sealed within. The holy instruments range from swords and spears, to a shield and bombs. Many of the holy instruments have charge attacks, which are used by simply holding down the circle or square button. These charge attacks have various abilities, such as the crossbows charge ability to pierce objects, or the spears ability to send an object flying. The more one of your holy instruments is used the more it will level up, and as the instrument levels up you can gain access to combos, which help to liven combat up a lot. At times combat can get a little dull, but as you learn combos and acquire more instruments things pick up a lot. Rumble can wield two holy instruments at a time, so you don’t have to switch back and forth constantly when you need to use a specific one. Your comrade, Tumble, also has several abilities. You can ride atop him (on land, sea or air!), perform attacks with him, or have him heal you! Tumble feeds on little creatures called esamons, which are left behind by defeated enemies and found in plants. Each ability Tumble performs requires a certain number of esamons, so you must keep his tummy full! Oh, and I didn’t refer to his stomach as his “tummy” because I wanted to…that’s what they call it in the game.

The game is FULL of puzzles, so if you aren’t a puzzle fan think twice about this one. I didn’t care much for the puzzles in this game. Not because they were too hard, but because they were too easy! After a while the easy puzzles just seemed like a pointless waste of time! Not to say I want a bunch of super hard puzzles…that could easily be just as annoying, but few puzzles in this game even required thinking. Most of them require you to use a specific holy instrument to complete a task, or involve using a certain one of Tumble’s abilities. The enemies in combat are much like this, and there is often a pretty obvious solution to defeating the bosses once you’ve figured out which holy instrument is most effective. Overall the game is pretty easy, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your preference. Puzzles are easy, enemies don’t provide a challenge, and the levels are all pretty linear. If you’re looking for a game to challenge you this isn’t the game to play, but if you’re looking to have fun then this may be for you. The ease of the game along with controls that are set up pretty nice make this a good game for beginners of the RPG genre.

Graphically, there aren’t a lot of good things to say about this game. The graphics certainly didn’t break any new ground, and they aren’t going to impress anyone. If nothing else good can be said of the game’s graphics, the environments are bright and colorful, featuring a broad range of backgrounds depending on whose dream you are in. But, some of the characters are blocky, and the camera isn’t always cooperative.

The sound was at about the same level as the graphics. There are a few catchy tunes in the game, but for the most part the musical score is nothing special and is often repetitive. There isn’t any real voice acting in the game, but occasionally when you pick up an item Rumble will say something like “All right!” and Tumble will say “Yay, yay!” Tumble’s voice is pretty annoying, and the fact that he dances when he does it doesn’t make things any better. A few of the bosses say a thing or two during combat, but it’s very repetitive. The sound certainly could’ve been better in Dual Hearts.

The game isn’t all that long and can easily be beat in less than 20 hours. Personally, I prefer games of this length, but there are those looking for length in RPGs. Despite the short length, there are plenty of puzzles to solve and hidden items spread throughout the levels to search for. There are also plenty of mini-games to play, so if you’re in to puzzles and mini-games in your RPGs then you’ll enjoy this game. If you’re looking for depth in a game though, than there isn’t much more to this than smacking around the occasional enemy and easy puzzle solving.

It’s unfortunate that Dual Hearts received so little attention because it was a good and very entertaining game. Still, it’s a game that’s not for everyone. It’s short, it’s easy and it’s got a very childish feel to it. But, I’ve seen it for as low as $19.99 already, which means it’s easily worth purchasing if it sounds like a game you’d be interested in.

Dual Hearts Screenshots

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Dual Hearts Videos

Dual Hearts Official Trailer

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBrCG6mC3n0[/youtube]

Dual Hearts Guides / Links

Dual Hearts Wikipedia Entry

FAQ/Walkthrough