Last week I got the chance to see if El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron plays as well as it looks. Long story short: yes.
For those who are in the dark, El Shaddai is another melee-focused platformer that immediately stood out from the pack and turn heads via its genuinely unique art style (which we’ll get to in a minute, but just scroll up and down this post to see what I mean). On the surface, it’s somewhat in the vein of Devil May Cry and God of War; the connection with the former is the most apt since the game is the brainchild of Takeyasu Sawaki, who was involved with part 1, along with Okami.
You assume the role of Enoch, sent by God, to bring back seven angels that have decided to make Earth their turf and offer themselves to humans as a better alternative than the Almighty. You must infiltrate the tower that they’ve constructed as a paradise for mortals/home base for themselves in order to have them face the guy upstairs. Lending some assistance along the way is the devil himself, Lucifer, though this is before he tries to do things his own way as well. Yet it’s also quite clear that he follows the beat of his own drum since, despite it being super ancient times, he sports contemporary threads and chats with God himself via his cell phone.
If any of the above sounds remotely familiar, congratulations, you obviously went to Catholic school! The tale itself is loosely based upon Book of Enoch, with some liberal… and very Japanese… flourishes here and there. Aside from being one of the very few titles to be backed by a major publisher that dares to dip directly into the Holy Bible as source material (something that’s been mostly assumed by game creators on the fringe… like The You Testament or any of the other detailed here), it’s basic design philosophies are very much a back to basics, old school, Eastern approach.
Sawaki has stated in various interviews that he wanted to a game that’s unmistakably Japanese. Even by looking at the screenshots and hearing the plot alone, it’s a mission that’s been clearly accomplished. But the real key is the controls, which he feels has become too complicated in similar titles. God of War might be the primary guilty party; make no mistake, QTE dealing with large swarms of enemies at once, and juggling multiple weapons and abilities are fun and all… provided you’re a hardcore player. Whereas for everyone else, what should be simple is actually an exercise in frustration.
The real name of the game is focus: El Shaddai has an attack button and a jump button, that’s it. Oh, the weapon you chose to wield will also influence how you approach the enemy, as well as move around the environment in general. Otherwise, it’s very much bare bare bones; you can only hold one weapon at a time, and to change your mode of offense, one must steal the enemy’s. The end result are weapons that actually means something, a tool that needs to be considered for a specific scenario, since different enemies react differently to different kinds of arms. Gone is the ridiculous convention of just sticking with one kind of armament and repeatedly hitting the slice button, to “level” it up, like it was some role playing game, which leads to balance issues, along with tedium (it’s amazing the tricks some games will try to pull to convince you that mindlessly hitting a button ad nauseam has a grand purpose on the end).
Back to the enemy: you won’t find your screen filled to the brim with idiotic grunts, just standing there and waiting to get punched in the face. Now, stripping away all the fat might seem dreadfully boring, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. With a lower character count… at most I saw only three enemies at a time… you get greater graphic fidelity and smarter AI, which in turn led towards a far more intimate and intense action experience.
Though it’s the visuals that deserve the spotlight, which are like nothing you’ve ever seen, and the notion that you’re in some otherworldly paradise is actually convincing. One will find that it’s mostly barren, with holes in the ground being the prime thing to worry about. Again, it’s all meant to allow one to fully absorb the landscape (there’s no HUD btw, but those who must have their silly little combo meters can unlock the thing once beating the game), and it should be noted that there’s two approaches to the level: a traditional, 3D/behind the back view, and an old school, 2D/ to the side perspective.
The game came out in Japan a few weeks ago to rave reviews, and it’s definitely something that’s more than welcome when it comes later this summer in the States for the Xbox 360 and PS3 (sorry, no PC version, and obviously none for the Wii either). At the very least, dorks into anime and tangentially related games (specifically fans of the Megaten series) will eat it up like cotton candy. Though it’s hoped that when it does land, it gets all the attention across the board that it deserves. Publisher Ignition Entertainment is holding most of its card close to its chest, with no solid release date revealed as of yet. Hopefully they’ll be able to generate the amount of buzz the game really deserves. Expect a full review upon its release.