Gaming Giftpia

[Turkey]

(Thanks to IGN for the info and screenshots)

About a year ago, a little game was announced for the GC. It was pretty much ignored by the press, and few gamers even heard of it. Now, only 2 months before it's Japanese release, details are released about:
[IMG]http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/giftpialatestgcn1.jpg[/IMG]

Giftpia is the first project of Skip, a Nintendo first-party directed by the creators of Chrono Trigger. That already sparked my interest. Skip refers to this game as an "Alternative RPG", since it's supossed to be different to the usual FF-esque adventure. Now, wasn't Earthbound called a similar name?

The story starts out with Pokkuru, a boy who's about to become a man. To do so, he must attend a ceremony called "The Coming of Age Day". Unfortunately, he fails to attend it, and that gets him in some serius trouble. In this world, that ceremony is the only way for a person to grow up.
So, what is he gonna do? Redo the ceremony, of course! The catch is: It costs 5,000,000 mane (local currency). That's all that they are revealing about the story.

As you can see, the game utilizes Cel-Shading almost completely; and a visual style that's similar to Animal Crossing.

[IMG]http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/gifpia_10803_6.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/gifpia_10803_5.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/gifpia_10803_4.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/gifpia_10803_1.jpg[/IMG]

Well, seems like I'm losing another $50 from my wallet this year...;)

[Sniglefager]

this game looks really weird....but then again, that's how I like my games. It does remind me a bit of Earthbound with a bit of Animal Crossing mixed in. I'll probably buy this game as well, considering I've been buying some weird games lately.

[Semjaza]

Hmm. IGN is late on the info yet again heh. There is a guy at Gaming-Age that told us about most of this a couple months ago from some Japanese magazine or site. Even so, I'm glad they seem to be putting effort into talking about this game at IGN, no one else seems to be bothering.

Earthbound was called an alternative RPG really because it's subject matter was nothing like RPGs at the time, but it still had standard RPG gameplay... That was more of a Nintendo of America buzzword than anything, although I can't even think of another RPG like Earthbound story and theme wise, come to think of it. I'm under the impression this is being called an alternative RPG mostly because it's played totally different from most. Something like Harvest Moon crossed with Animal Crossing from the sounds of it. Who knows yet.

Anyway, the guy at Gaming-Age that gave the info is surprisingly excited about this game (he's from Japan)... And from his past writings I'd say I generally agree with his views. So obviously, I'm more excited about this now than I was in the past... Although the video PGC had of it always looked pretty cool heh.

I do hope it comes here, and while NoA is at it... They should bring Magical Vacation for GBA too!

[Guest Musahi]

The game sounds pretty weird if you ask me. It looks alright, but the content sounds questionable. The gameplay already seems as if it's going to be stale. Mainly because I don't know what you would be doing [i]to[/i] earn the money.

But the cel-shaded graphics look quite impressive. I really, really like the graphic style. I'll have to wait untill more information is released to make my final decision though.

[Charles]

I noticed how similar it looked to Animal Crossing right away. I think it's really original how they allow us to play as a young boy in a coming-of-age story. [I]That's[/i] never been done before. :sigh:

Perhaps we'll even see some super cool slime monsters...if we're lucky.

I shouldn't insult the game that much, lol. It looks interesting. I haven't read anything on it, so it's hard to say if it'll be anything special or not.

[Samgee Gamwise]

Alternative-RPG is right, you'll notice that his health, represented by hearts, is shown in the upper right hand courner in two of the Pics. Though there is no evidence as to whether he is doing "battle" in those and not the others. ('cept maybe that last Pic, LOL);-)

[NorykoAngelcry]

[COLOR=darkred][SIZE=1]I really have to agree with you Smoky Joe - being directed from the creators of Chrono Trigger is definitely enough to stir up some interest for me! ^_^ The game looks pretty wierd, but then again, so do a lot of games that I really enjoy. It will really be nice to see yet another RPG coming to the GAMECUBE. I will just have to wait and see. Thanks for the heads up. [/SIZE][/COLOR]

[The Vampire: Ed]

Well, I pretty much don't know squat about the games plot, nor how it's going to play. I'm honestly not interested in it enough to spend the time getting to know more about it. But this game shares the same problem as that new cel shaded Legend of Zelda game. Decent looking environments, but with very poor character designs.

Well, it's just an opinion. Anyone who know me, knows that I am not a fan of cel shading.

Anyway, I don't know why I bother comparing this to Legend of Zelda: The Wind Walker. All though I dislike Link's character model that game not only has decent looking environments, I'll go as far as saying they look gorgeous. Now, that's a first for me. The lighting effects, and such are also great in that game. So all of that, with it the control set up supposedly being similar to that of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I know that I'll like that game for those simple reason, even if I dislike the cel shaded characters.

But this game only seems to have decent looking environments, and the cel shaded models definitely don't impress me a bit. So this game has a lot to make up for in my case, and I highly doubt it'll be possible for me to take an interest in this title. But to each their own.

[Desbreko]

[color=indigo]It's "The Wind Waker," not "The Wind Walker." ^_^

Ooo...weird RPG... If there's lots of bad puns and stupid humor (and maybe some slapstick, too, heehee), I'll probably love this game, lol.

Actually, I like the look of the characters. They seem to fit in with the weird story and the cartoonish environments. I also find cartoony, cel shaded graphics a nice change from all the super-realistic graphics in most games anymore. (I love his expression in that first screen shot, lol).[/color]