Genre: Role-Playing (RPG)
Perspective: Behind view, Bird's-eye view
Gameplay: Japanese-style RPG (JRPG)
Interface: Direct Control, Menu Structures
Setting: Fantasy
Published by: Imagineer Co.
Developed by: Pandora Box
Released: 1999
Platform: Nintendo 64 (N64)
Mockery, and on N64 there is also a place for a rather peculiar interpretation of Pokémon not from Nintendo. No, Robopon (Robot Ponkottsu) 64, mentioned in the previous paragraph in vain, we will not touch. About what I was talking about? That's right, about the Zulus. The alternative name of this thing is Zulu, although officially the game is missing is not such an unknown game of the 16-bit era. Only that Zool was an arcade about, hmm, peculiar and certainly not Zulu ninja, and was done in the West. The same "Zul" was riveted one of the few companies that supported their role-playing games nintendovskuyu 64-bit - Imagieneer. It can not be said that the experience was so successful - the first RPG released under their pen, Quest 64 in the West, was very much zapinan, although the thing, in principle, is not so lousy (see the review if you really want it). But Imagineer proved to all the optimists left behind after a flurry of criticism (and even just wanting to see at least some RPG on the N64) that the shortcomings of Quest 64 are mere trifles, we are more abruptly able. How did the company manage to harness their next thing to the boys from Pandora Box - mostly the developer of not the most hit, but very worthy RPGs (for example, Oni (GB, SNES, PS one), Arabian Nights, Traverse: Starlight & Prairie (both for SNES)) is a big mystery, but no one knows how the product turned out, which does not smell of chocolate at all. If you want, you do not want to, but you still have to put the nose into the "chocolate" ...
I do not think you are shocked by this fact, but there is not a single Zulu in the game (maybe it was badly searched?). Instead, there is another useless bisenen Leo ... fortunately, not having a leitmotif "gotta catch`em all", but just wanting to be "adventurer" ... well, take care of the miracle of the blue wolf-like pet that has fallen on him. The emigrants from the Pandorian box wove in this same emotional Greenpeace note: the animals are not hunting for pokemon, but banal poachers under the guidance of the "poorest mucachos" (see portrait on one of the screenshots). Loud applause from the rostrum of the greens. You know, these prospects entice as much as the fish oil of a naughty child. Especially if you understand how they embodied it. The fact is that 70% of the gameplay Zool - text. Yes, yes, this is when you see a static picture with neat square portraits on the sides, and below it all is framed with hieroglyphics. Press the B button to skip the text, and let patience and moral health abide with you. Probably, the experience of the Pandora Box over the PlayStation's Dragon Knights Glorious and Rubbish Blazon, which were based on a similar principle, was there, but there the above percentage was not off scale. Oh gentlemen, until you are blue, adoring the inseparable sisters Kanu and Kanji, receive from us this generous gift! By the way, moving around the cities and the world as a whole here is sustained in the same style - instead of free walks, the deformed movement of the figure (or rather, its head) of the protagonist through the buildings back and forth.
Half of the gameplay basis, I already touched a floor above. The second half, of course, is Pokemon. Fortunately, this is not overdone, and in the Zool can play and fans of the classic RPG. Breeding 'new subtleties here, of course, there are, but hang somehow poboku. Weapons for monsters (Leo can charge eight in all, on the battlefield at the same time, four can be mistaken), in principle, no, but there is an odd system of items that can be hung on a monster. A system that can be ignored in view of not too much of a high level of complexity. And here, unexpectedly, the main advantage of Zool follows, pulling it to the shore from the swamp. The combat system is made in a surprisingly original way, without being over-complicated: in the rhythm of ATB, the living creatures on both sides of the barricades exchange attacks without the participation of the player, we are simply offered to help the allies. Arrows to switch control to a specific monster, four yellow buttons for attack, magic, defense or escape. Everything would have been completely artless, had it not been for the restrictions on the interference hanging below. Yes, the parameter PL, denoted in addition and notes. Blue and green notes - well, yellow and red - not very, and when their number tends to zero, either postpone control, or buy a coffin. However, I seriously took charge of managing the ward for five hours of the game only one and a half times, and then with reluctance.
But now go berries, which I warned in the beginning. I, of course, understand that if here we had a text adventure game, then poorly implemented dungeons could become the main part. But this is not the case. Apparently, gentlemen from Pandora BOX saw the gamepad for the N64 once, and then in the picture, and therefore did not understand much of its configuration, nor that, so all this their child will be managed. As a result - disgusting control of the hero in the labyrinths (albeit not very numerous). Instead of simple 2D, we have here 3D graphics, which the game needs, that goat bayan. But it's not in her as such, but in the fact that the camera was strapped tightly to the flat figure of the hero, and he himself was taught to walk "a la member". This is when the hero slowly and clumsily steps forward only (about YES, back in any way!), And sometimes even with a cod turns. Walk sideways - no way. Unfasten the camera - no way. That's turn it around its axis at a cosmic speed (affects the sensitivity of the gamepad) - as many as you like. About such trifles as the lack of transparent walls and the lack of the concept of running, I will not say anything. A small plus in all this ugliness are rare, and sometimes simply missing random occurrences. Well, what can I say ... The implementation of walking through the dungeons is worse than here (well, maybe with the exception of RPG from the first person), I just can not remember ...
Will there be a graphic execution after this? Can not hope. There are rare sane cutscenes, there are tolerable portraits of characters and well-designed despite of everything the interface. There is even detail in those very dungeons. The question is how this Leo looks at the background of all this. No, of course. Science is not aware of experiments on the cultivation of silicone on the cartridge platform, but it would not hurt. Music at first is pretty tolerable, and some good melodies are here and there. Only here the facelessness and lack of talent take their toll. And what kind of crap in battle sometimes we hear ...
Fresh pancakes to us today did not bring, sorry. Sorry Zool (which, oddly enough, though somehow you can still play) is not very desirable. To regret it is necessary only Nintendo 64 on which and so RPG is not enough, and among those cripples it is a lot of. But is not that why PS one then became the most notable RPG platform? And also congratulate Pandora Box, which made the worst game in its developer career.