77. Shadow of Destiny | PSP | 2010"Shadow of Destiny" was originally a PS2 title released worldwide back in 2001. It was soon ported to PC and Xbox, and many years later PSP as well. (Apparently Konami really believed in this game.) The PSP port had a few improvements, the most important being an entirely new English dub. "Shadow of Destiny" is an adventure game about a man named Eike, who travels through time trying to prevent his own death. He is able to do so via a device called the Z-pad, which a mysterious "person" gave him when Eike first died. That's how Junko Kawano chose to write this tale alright.
+The base concept is interesting, and implemented uniquely.
+Well directed cinematics.
+The town of Lebensbaum is convincingly rendered.
+The overall experience has a somber, mature tone.
+Many different possible endings. (I got ending B2.)
-The player is given zero background information on the protagonist.
-Easy puzzles are mitigated by forcing the player to wander around town for plot triggers.
-The town of Lebensbaum is usually empty and boring.
-The crux of the tale centers on a massively illogical paradox.
-The writing is overall amateurish and terrible.
While I can respect "Shadow of Destiny"'s ambition, I found its writing to be so bad I could hardly enjoy the game. There are so many examples of dumb it would take me twenty paragraphs to capture it all. I'll just give you two examples; one of Eike's deaths centers on him being poisoned in a restaurant. Illogically Eike goes on an eon-spanning jaunt involving complex puzzle interactions, in order to secure an antidote, so that when he is poisoned in the future, he can take the antidote. The logical thing would have been to go back in time, and simply not eat at the restaurant.
Another death focuses on Eike getting pushed off a tower, and falling to his death, because the only rope he could grab was rotten. Illogically Eike goes back in time to when the rope was originally made, so he can bring it with him to the present, and use that newer rope to secure his fall. The logical thing would have been not to go to the top of the tower again. Have a laugh when Eike goes to the 16th century, and the people there still talk in modern English. Also it's very hard to care about the well being of a protagonist who is given zero character development. Ugh. This game's writing is amateur hour to say the least folks.
I can understand how in its day, "Shadow of Destiny" may have been impressive. I mean impressive from a graphics standpoint (set designs are ace), and from a cinematic standpoint. Back in 2001 people were still impressed by games pretending to be movies. Well this game is full of long verbose cutscenes, usually doused in melodrama. But even in 2001, I'd have been hard pressed to enjoy this game's bland gameplay, dirt simple puzzles, and agonizing writing. Well at least the controls are simple, and the camera is fairly agreeable, impressive given this is an ancient third person experience.
Thankfully a playthrough of "Shadow of Destiny" is mercifully short, hence the variety of endings to encourage replays. The developers did attempt to artificially inflate the initial playthrough, by occasionally giving the player zero direction. Instead they expected the player to wander a large empty town, that exists in multiple time periods, hoping to trigger the next plot point. Don't worry, if you go the wrong way, large angry dogs will wall you off. Numerous times! No really, that's the best idea Junko Kawano could come up with. If the player fails to solve the current chapter's death by a particular time, Eike just dies. Again. Despite the time travel... eh, don't even think about it, the lack of logic will hurt your brain.
"Shadow of Destiny" has its fans. I'm not one of them. If I could go back in time, I would warn myself not to bother playing this mess.
Ex's time to beat: 1 hour 59 minutes 14 seconds
Ex's rating: 4/10