LostWinds (WiiWare) Review
LostWinds is an odd game. It’s not odd in the way that many would say though. On one hand, it’s a brilliantly crafted and amazingly unique platformer, but on the other, it’s insanely limited by the medium that it’s been delivered on. Coupling a rich developer history with original ideas, LostWinds is a credit to the WiiWare system and a must buy for everyone.
LostWinds is a largely narrative driven experience. Taking place in Mistralis, a mythical world created by the elemental spirits, LostWinds tells the story of Toku, a young boy who unknowingly stumbles upon a reawakened deity and must stop a plot for another evil deity to take over the world. You see, the Sun & Moon God, known as Balsaar, wanted the people of Mistralia to worship him and only him, creating a large disagreement between Balsaar and the other Elemental Spirits. In order to suppress Balsaar and his outlandish ideals, the Elemental Gods created a spirit stone to contain the evil deity, but failed. Although too powerful, Balsaar was trapped in a whirlwind by the wind spirit, Enril, and sucked into the spirit stone along with Balsaar. Skip a few scenes and we have Toku, a young boy who has stumbled upon a piece of Enril, let out of the Spirit Stone when Balsaar escaped. Thus starts an uncommon relationship between a young boy and an all powerful deity and a long journey to defeat an evil god.
LostWinds is without a doubt one of the better looking titles available on the WiiWare system, and even embarrassingly much better looking than some third party retail titles available on the Wii too. Frontier Developments, the firm behind the title, have created a competent art style that manages to capture a charm and a certain art direction not seen in many games today. Similar to Professor Layton & The Curious Village and Zack & Wiki, the environments and characters found within LostWinds are bought to life by their personality and vibrance. LostWinds is just a brilliant example of how some amazing art direction can completely bypass a lack in technical prowess.
The gameplay in LostWinds is interesting. Players essentially control two different characters. The first being the young child who discovers Enril, Toku. The second is the Wind Deity herself, Enril. Toku is controlled by the Nunchuck’s control stick, while the actions of Enril and subsequent control of the wind is controlled via actions of the Wii Remote. The interaction between the Wind God herself and the environment is without a doubt the most noticeable element of LostWinds. Moving the Wii Remote across a patch of grass, for example, will move the grass just as if the wind were moving through it. It’s definitely a nice touch that makes the player feel immersed within the flawless world Frontier has created. Holding certain buttons while inputting certain movements allows players to control the wind to move Toku up to areas that were previously unreachable, as well as carry elements to areas where they are needed. Elements such as fire can be utilised and carried across the wind to burn down organic barriers, and progressing further in the game. Enril eventually will become seriously powerful towards the end of the game in this manner.
The aural delights that LostWinds serve up are just that. Although there is no extensive soundtrack, the audio included within the LostWinds package is more than ample. A majority of the music heard in Mistralis is essentially ambient music, which is extremely relaxing in the most stressful of situations. The sound effects of the wind rustling grass, trees and even people are spot on and encourages players to manipulate their environment to see what kind of response will be garnered. When a full tune does kick in, it’s usually due to some heightened situation such as an enemy encounter, and it usually consists of traditional Japanese Taiko drums. LostWinds is an effective blend of Japanese style music and relaxing ambience.
LostWinds really falls down with two key components. The first is the game’s length. It simply doesn’t feel long at all. Although a lot of time and effort has clearly gone into the creation of a vibrant world and some pretty damn fun gameplay, LostWinds just doesn’t live up to it’s potential, ending when it really shouldn’t and making some people question why the invested such a relative large amount of money to a small amount of total gameplay time. The second and probably most telling concern this reviewer has with LostWinds, is the medium it’s delivered on. Although the storyline is brilliantly crafted, the atmosphere of LostWinds really falls short. There’s no voice acting, hardly any cutscenes and a sufficient lack of depth. The biggest question is why Frontier felt the need to include such a low amount of content – although the biggest concern is found within the nature of the WiiWare system and the Wii itself. There’s simply not enough memory on the Wii system to create a large enough game that everyone could play. Regardless, LostWinds is still a joy to play while it lasts.
LostWinds is a brilliant addition to the WiiWare service, offering some engaging single player gameplay coupled with a well established Mythos. It’s definitely interesting to see what Frontier Development will do with the second instalment which is pretty much confirmed with the game’s ending. It would be nice to recommend to rent LostWinds and give it a try before purchase, but unfortunately that’s not able to be done. Still, it’s probably worth it in terms of quality, just don’t expect a whole lot of quantity.
