Platform: PlayStation Vita

Developer: Game Arts/PonKotz Troops

Publisher: GungHo Online Entertainment

# of Players: 1

ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10+)

Official Site

Score: A (95%)

Combining a cool storybook visual style and a compelling mix of puzzle, platforming and combat elements, Dokuro comes to PS Vita owners at a crucial time for Sony’s handheld. The Vita absolutely needs some key titles to prop it up as it finds its user base and GungHo Online Entertainment’s first of two games for the system (both from veteran Japanese developer Game Arts) ends up as a must-by for fans of old-school gameplay (and new school game delivery systems). This PSN game manages to be compelling right from the start thanks to the likable (and very dead, but cute) “hero”, the solid controls and how the surprisingly emotional story unfolds as you play.

The game tackles the age old “free the kidnapped princess” tale, but in a nifty twist, the princess can’t see her bony rescuer at all until he gains the ability ti temporarily transform. Dokuro’s normal skeletal form is invisible to the princess, who moves forward through each level until she comes to an obstacle. Dokuro needs to “escort” the princess to safety by solving environmental puzzles that range from moving crates, flipping switches or even damaging the environment to create safe areas for the princess to cross while disabling or dispatching enemies along the way. Dokuro’s skills are limited at the beginning of the game, with his double jump coming in quite handy for getting to hard to reach platforms, but his combat skills aren’t much to speak of. He can only bonk enemies on the head, knocking them away (hopefully into bottomless pits or onto spikes).

Since it’s a Vita game, there’s also a bit of touch screen action in the form of using magic chalk to draw in ropes that attach to assorted devices to make them work, or slashing ropes to activate or deactivate others. These and other cleverly designed puzzle sections thankfully work quite well, although you may want to switch to using the front touch screen instead of the rear touch pad if you’re like me and have big hammy man-hands that muck up some otherwise smooth playing game experiences. That’s the one issue I have with every Vita game that uses the rear pad and I know I’m not the only one. Meh, maybe there’s a class I can take in properly handling the system, but I think it’s just something that can’t be unlearned by and old coot like me.

Levels are broken up into short areas and the game very wisely auto-saves after each, so you can play this on the bus or subway and not worry about losing progress. Interestingly enough, you can actually skip up to ten puzzles that give you grief, but if you try for eleven maps, you’re going to need to solve those puzzles you skipped in order to progress. This adds incentive to wrack your brain and you’ll often see that some solutions are complete head-slappers where you missed something along the line, needed to transform or not let the princess advance past certain points into harm’s way. While her AI does allow her to squeal and run a short distance away from enemies, she tends to get into trouble if you let baddies come from both sides or give here a straight line path to certain doom. If she or Dokuro lose a life, the puzzle is reset and you get to try again.

But you can’t save a princess these days without a handsome hero, so a bit of magic potion action comes in really handy. Once he finds that special elixir, Dokuro can step into the shoes of a sword-swinging prince that the princess can indeed see. He can pick up and carry her around (but can’t jump with her – the princess might want to cut down on the royal cookies), fight enemies and tough bosses, but is limited to a single jump. OK, so he’s no Errol Flynn, kids, but he gets the job done, especially against the whopping huge Guardians the game features at the end of each few stages. Some of these brutes are easy to take down once you get their patterns down and figure out when to transform into the prince to get in some sword work.

Keeping an eye on that potion meter is key, as you have a limited amount of time as the prince and although you can hop in and out of a transformation, it takes enough time for the potion to refill that you can lose a life if you zap back to weak little Dokuro at the wrong moment. The game delivers its gameplay hints completely through pictures, often placed right before areas where you need to use a particular move or skill, so there’s not a ton of talky tutorial business to sit through. Where the storytelling shines is in how things unfold as Dokuro and the princess get closer to escaping. I won’t reveal more other than to say the softies among you out there may shed a tear at one point (or not) and there’s a nice undercurrent of menace that’s part Tim Burton, part Disney and all well done.

The chalk line characters, simple but gorgeous backdrops, haunted carnival soundtrack and nice use of beautiful but muted colors all give Dokuro a very unique look that fit the familiar gameplay. That said, some will sell this short as a cheap and short “casual” style game based on the graphics alone, but the game is neither cheaply designed or short at all. The more well versed in the grand art of platform/puzzle games can probably get between 15 and 20 hours of play out of the game if they hunt down everything (which could take longer if you need to revisit levels). The game begs to be replayed because you’ll sometimes solve puzzles slightly outside of the “proper” solution or take a shorter time the second or third attempt through an area that you did the first time. This makes the game a “keeper” in that even when you move on to other games afterward, you’ll go back to Dokuro every now and then and grin because you remembered the first time you played it.

So far, GungHo has a winner with Dokuro, but how does its much bigger game, the eagerly awaited Ragnarok Odyssey stack up on the Vita? Well, drop back here tomorrow and find out (hint, have your wallet ready, folks)…