Doshin the Giant – Review

Expect the unexpected, this is going to be quite possibly the oddest game you have ever played. The premise of a giant yellow god named Doshin not strange enough for you? Trust me it will only get weirder. This is a God game with a difference.

You play Doshin the Giant, servant and God of the natives of Barudo Island. On the island there are four different villagers which are differentiated by colour/dress. These villagers each build their own settlements with Doshin’s help. The overall aim of the game is to get the villagers to build monuments to you. There are 18 required monuments to obtain and these can be gained through playing well and imaginatively. The monuments will be built by different villagers and in order to see final construction of all 16, you must start new villages, mix cultural groups and more.

Throughout all of this, Doshin will grow and he must keep the villagers happy by doing what they wish, be it planting trees, levelling land or whatever. For his help, Doshin receives love hearts and when he has gained a full circle of hearts he grows. This growth will afford him better strength and power but it should be said can make safe movement amongst the villagers rather less so and you may find yourself thinking ‘oops I accidentally squashed another villager!’. It’s not all bright and cheery however, because along with Doshin there is Jashin the evil red devil like giant, he gets his jollies out of destroying villagers and stomping them into the earth.

After playing this game for many hours I can honestly say I’m not that sure what the purpose of Jashin is. Unless you just want to be really cruel and collect skulls and hate for the fun of it, the only other circumstances where Jashin was brought into play was to demolish monuments when they had been made ‘unofficially’. What this means in terms of the game is that if a monument is built without a flower which is provided by Doshin, the monument becomes unofficial and won’t count towards the end number of monuments built. All sounds confusing but is totally straight forward in the game.

Graphically speaking Doshin the Giant really depends on how you look at it. On the surface it appears to be a pretty bland affair, there’s not much to the islands short of mountains, trees and a few birds. Water effects aren’t too bad, however, not overly receptive to Doshin’s large bulk wading through it. Underneath the visual sheath of Doshin however, if the graphics are examined with a slightly more technical eye you can’t help but be impressed with the real time environmental changes that come into play as you change the actual Islands geographical features, lowering mountains, sinking new lakes, flattening areas for buildings, unearthing and replanting trees, it’s all very clever stuff. Along with this there are some cute little touches such as birds diving into the water and catching fish before flying off. At times you’ll walk through solid objects or simply not see certain items, all of which could have been avoided and detracts from the overall graphical feel of the game.

Sound leaves a lot to be desired, but what’s there does the job it’s intended for. Birds squawk, villagers sing, animals squeal. To me however it all just seemed a little too 70’s children’s TV, specifically the narrator/helper. This said though it could be that this just adds to the games overall quirk factor.

Doshin is presented in a way that whilst it could look better aesthetically it does leave you feeling you want to keep playing. Infact if you’re really sad you may find yourself thinking about the best plan for your blossoming island whilst you’re no where near your gamecube! It’s very different to anything else on the gamecube, in fact on most platforms. Yes it really is that strange and odd.

Female Gamer Angle is the usual no choice of a female character, or is there, Doshin does appear to be fairly genderless, anyway it’s cute so perhaps that will lend itself to the girly market? Okay perhaps not, but its quirky nature means it’s fun regardless of the players gender.

Overall feelings of Doshin sway from pure weird brilliance to slow meandering boredom, it’s actually quite difficult to score. I think it’s a game you most definitely have to try for yourself. That said this is a review and is therefore here to help you make up your mind with regard to hiring or purchasing this title.

Doshin the Giant is a must hire and a definitely think of buyer. If you’re after something completely different then you can’t go wrong with this. Don’t expect to be wowed with the graphics or the sound, but do expect to be drawn into the bizarre little world of Barudo Island. Word of warning, you may find yourself randomly stating throughout the game to nobody in particular ‘but it’s just so weird!’.

Review by Angela

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