Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom – Review (Xbox 360) : Gametactics.com

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom – Review (Xbox 360)

Demitrius Berkley-Thomas On December 21, 2010 at 1:49 pm

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is an action adventure platformer released by Bandai Namco games. It follows the story of an unlikely alliance of a loner thief named Tepeu and a monster, who is the guardian of the kingdom named Majin. Tepeu can talk to animals, sneak into a castles with the help of his animal companions in search of the legendary Majin so they can save the kingdom from an evil darkness. Eventually Tepeu finds and frees the Majin and they quickly become friends. From there they embark on a journey to defeat an enemy called The Darkness that destroyed an advanced empire 100 years ago. Along the way you’ll be solving puzzles and regaining the Majin’s powers and memories.

Tepeu is a thief that grew up by himself with animals and he could speak to in the forest outside of the ruins of the fallen kingdom. With no humans in the ruins of the kingdom Tepeu relies on the information from the animals he comes across. This same ability to talk to animals also allows him to talk to the Majin, who is a very simple but friendly soul. When I first heard the Majin speak I was a little off put but then I grew to like the voice and Majin. The many animals you come across in the game have very weird voices and I couldn’t tell if it was bad voice acting or done on purpose but it adds to the charm of the game.

In Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom you control Tepeu and are followed around by the computer controlled Majin. It is similar to Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and ICO but instead of protecting your computer controlled ally the Majin protects you. Since Tepeu is a thief he can sneak around enemies, get into small places and jump around to spots the Majin can’t get to. While Tepeu is weak at fighting against enemies by himself he can take them down quickly by sneaking up behind them. The stealth is pretty straight forward but can be a little frustrating at times when an enemy you didn’t see ends up seeing you and you have to run away and wait until they forget about you. The Majin is pretty simple to control with commands to follow, attack, wait and feed. Feed is used to give him a fruit so he can refill his health and Tepeu’s health is refilled by the Majin consuming the darkness from him. When fighting alongside the Majin Tepeu is a lot stronger and together they can use team attacks for increased damage. Some of the team attacks end up looking pretty cool especially when one is combined with one of the Majin’s special powers.

There is an upgrade system in the game that lets the players increase Tepeu’s strength and health, the Majin’s strength and health, their team attacks and the Majin’s powers. Tepeu’s strength and stamina are increased by finding blue life shards that are found in treasure chests throughout the game and from defeating enemies. Team attacks can be upgraded by collecting blue friendship shards which are acquired from defeated enemies. Throughout the game there are different kinds of fruit either hidden or tucked away behind a puzzle you have to solve which upgrade different aspects of the Majin like his health, strength and his different abilities.

Puzzle solving is a big part of the gameplay in Majin and is actually pretty diverse and clever. Some of the more simple ones will just require some platforming and lever pulling to unlock doors or find some secret. There are some puzzles which require using some of the Majin’s powers, for instance, blowing on a barrel suspended by a chain so Tepeu can jump on it and then swing to the other side or using fire to light a bomb then using the bomb to demolish a pile of rocks. My favorite puzzles involved using a catapult to launch rocks through walls and Tepeu up to out of reach ledges.

I ended up liking the world Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom took place in. The game drops Tepeu and the Majin off in a ruined kingdom that is pretty open but you must unlock new areas with abilities acquired later on. This causes some backtracking and normally I find that annoying but it’s not too bad after you unlock a fast travel room. The environments in the game range from being inside a castle to being on an old ship in the middle of the desert to being in a cave that’s walls are lined with crystals. The game also makes it easy to keep track of treasure and upgrades they’ve acquired because they are shown on the area map and whether it’s been collected, the only thing it doesn’t show you is the actual location. My only issue with the level design is I found myself having a hard time sometimes figuring out where I needed to go next but eventually I’d find the exit or next level.

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom overall ended up being a charming game. Even with some issues with loose controls and easy combat the characters and puzzles end up evening it out. If you are the type of person that needs absolute precision when platforming and do not like childlike dialogue in a video game, then this game is probably not for you. If on the other hand you enjoy precision jumping and some challenging puzzles then this is definitely worth checking out.

Gameplay

While the puzzle solving is fun the combat gets sort of easy and the controls while jumping around can be too loose causing a lot of frustration.

Graphics

This game doesn’t have the best looking graphics but they do a good job designing the environments.

Sound

While the music was pretty so so I couldn’t get enough of the weird dialogue from the animals.

Overall

The combination of the likable characters, good story, good puzzles and some of the issues like loose controls, easy combat and issues with stealth even out to make the game pretty average.