- Opoona
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Opoona 
North American box artDeveloper(s) ArtePiazza Publisher(s) Koei Director(s) Yukiko Sugimura Producer(s) Shintarou Mashima Composer(s) Hitoshi Sakimoto, Masaharu Iwata, Manabu Namiki, Noriyuki Kamikura, Kimihiro Abe, Mitsuhiro Kaneda Platform(s) Wii Release date(s) Genre(s) Role-playing Mode(s) Single-player Rating(s) Media/distribution Wii Optical Disc Opoona (オプーナ Opūna) is a role-playing video game developed by ArtePiazza and published by Koei for the Wii. The player follows the story of the titular Opoona as he attempts to find the location of his family from which he was separated after the occurrence of a mysterious accident during their travels. Former Dragon Quest art designer Shintaro Majima was the lead artist, with Sachiko Sugimura, who has also worked on Dragon Quest, as the planning director. Hitoshi Sakimoto, the composer for Final Fantasy XII, produced the soundtrack, which was composed by several Basiscape musicians.
Contents
Gameplay
To progress through the game, Opoona will acquire licenses for different jobs (e.g., rescuer, idol, detective), and players are able to choose what they would like to become. The game can be played one-handed using just the Wii's Nunchuk attachment, but the Classic Controller can also be used. In battles, flicking the Nunchuk's analog stick will fire a projectile, the trajectory of which can be changed. This style of play is named the Active Bon-Bon Battle System.
Plot
Opoona is a descendant of the brave Cosmo Guards. After being separated from his family during a visit to the planet Landroll, he finds himself injured in a hospital and unable to remember how he wound up there. It is the player's job as Opoona to earn a license to travel to other colonies and find out what exactly happened to his brother and sister.
Characters
- Opoona - The protagonist from the planet Tizia. He has an orange Energy Bon-Bon above his head that he can use as a projectile. He starts off in Tokione dome, where he is enlisted to join the Landroll rangers.
- Poleena - Opoona's younger sister. She has two yellow Energy Bon-Bons above her head that resemble pigtails. Her escape pod crashes on the Orcalphin coast, where she is rescued by Aizel's mother
- Copoona - Opoona's younger brother. His Energy Bon-Bon takes the place of his legs and is purple. He becomes a sage, who is accompanied in the beginning by Sage Sarit, one of Landroll's most respected elders.
Development
Opoona was developed by ArtePiazza, a Japanese game company responsible for creating and porting games in the Dragon Quest series for Enix. Artepiazza was asked by publisher Koei "to create fun and unique visuals that convey the enjoyment of an RPG in a simple fashion" in place of using state-of-the-art CG and hardware technology available at the time of the game's production.[4] Rather than utilize the traditional “single hero” or “chosen one” motif of RPGS, the staff members at Artepiazza emphasized the importance of relationships and family in Opoona. Planning director Sachiko Sugimura desired to "express that every single person means something and that the world grows and changes in accordance with the loving relationships among all people, instead of depicting the main character only as a special existence."[5] Artepiazza wanted Opoona to appeal to family members of all ages instead of just children.[5] The team designed the game so that it may be played with the Wii Remote Nunchuk attachment alone because of its limited control input that allows the player to casually play the game one-handed while relaxing or eating. The developers initially wanted to exclude any other control options, but decided to allow users to use the Remote or Classic Controller if they prefer.[4][5][6]
Art director Shintaro Majima stated that he was first inspired to create Opoona after waking from a nap, taking a bath, and drawing his first design on the bathroom mirror.[4][5] The main characters were meant to be simple enough that they could be easily redrawn by children; enemies were designed as non-living objects to make them distinct.[4] Majima's personal interest in modern architecture and industrial design were the driving force behind the visual style of Opoona and that the Wii's "clean" and "something new" style overlapped the game's image. Majima's brother Tatuso, a modern artist, planned the locations and landscapes using what he considered to be the most attractive blend of reality and imagination.[5] The musical score for Opoona was composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto and five fellow members of his Basiscape sound company.[7] Sakimoto arranged the score in an orthodox manner with "futuristic" sounds as he had done with many of his past compositions by combining orchestral music with a synthesizer. However, his work on Opoona involved composing the songs through the characters' prespective to somehow lend the player their sympathy.[7] The official soundtrack to Opoona was announced via Basiscape's Twitter account and was published over three years after the game's original Japanese launch.[8][9]
ArtePiazza began working on Opoona in the spring and summer of 2005.[10] The project had no publisher until Dragon Quest designer Yuji Horii sparked talks between ArtePiazza and Koei following the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2006.[11] Majima came up with the game's title and the main protagonist's name. By using an Energy Bon-Bon projectile as the letter "o" the title, the spelled out "Opoona" was meant to resemble a child firing an Energy Bon-Bon rapidly.[6] The three "o's" in the title was also meant to match Opoona's round shape.[4] Opoona was announced as an untitled RPG in a September 2006 issue of the Japanese Famitsu magazine and was unveiled with its finalized title at a Koei press event the following March.[11][12] Opoona was published in Japan on November 1, 2007 and in North America on March 25, 2008.[1][2] The game was for release in Europe on July 25, 2008, but was delayed until September of that year.[4][13]
Reception
Opoona suffered low sales upon its release in Japan. The game was released on the same day as Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy, a title that Artepiazza and Koei did not forsee as competition being in a different genre.[4] Opoona received a positive review from Japanese magazine Famitsu, which gave the game a score of 31/40.[14] The publication credited the characterisation, length, music, and difficulty level. In the US, Opoona received mixed reviews, with a Metacritic score of 65/100.[15] Eurogamer gave Opoona 6/10, praising the control system, pace and presentation, and said "it's charming, strange and often fun, but too shallow and stretched out".[16]
References
- ^ a b "『三國志DS2』の発売日決定、『オプーナ』は発売延期に" (in Japanese). Famitsu. August 9, 2007. http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/2007/08/09/103,1186629168,76531,0,0.html. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
- ^ a b "Koei Prepares North American Release of Opoona" (Press release). GameSpy. February 7, 2008. http://wii.gamespy.com/wii/koei-new-rpg/862205p1.html. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
- ^ "Opoona". Tecmo Koei. http://www.tecmokoei-europe.com/viewgame/?gid=54. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g Riley, Adam (May 26, 2008). "Interview | Artepiazza Talks Opoona, Wii Sequel". Cubed3. http://www.cubed3.com/news/10120/. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e Joscelyne, Svend (May 31, 2007). "Q&As// Opoona Developers". Spong. http://spong.com/feature/10109587/Q-A-Opoona-Developers. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
- ^ a b "Previews: Opoona". NGamer (Future plc): pp. 22–3. June 2007. ISSN 1751-3910.
- ^ a b Napolitano, Jayson (May 6, 2010). "Blast from the Past: Revisit Opoona with Hitoshi Sakimoto". Original Sound Version. http://www.originalsoundversion.com/a-blast-from-the-past-revisit-opoona-with-hitoshi-sakimoto/. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
- ^ Napolitano, Jayson (May 6, 2010). "Basiscape Makes Dreams Come True: Opoona Soundtrack Coming in 2010". Original Sound Version. http://www.originalsoundversion.com/basiscape-makes-dreams-come-true-opoona-soundtrack-coming-in-2010/. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
- ^ "オプーナ オリジナル・サウンドトラック [Opoona Original Soundtrack]" (in Japanese). Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0047WXZDG/. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
- ^ "その名も『オプーナ』！ コーエーがWii用新作RPG発表会を開催" (in Japanese). Famitsu. March 14, 2007. http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/2007/03/14/103,1173857487,68536,0,0.html. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
- ^ a b Gantayat, Anoop (March 14, 2007). "Koei Unveils New Wii RPG". IGN. http://wii.ign.com/articles/772/772659p1.html. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
- ^ IGN Staff (September 16, 2006). "Koei Brings New Titles to Wii". IGN. http://wii.ign.com/articles/772/772659p1.html. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
- ^ Hicks, Chris (June 18, 2008). "Opoona delayed until September". Computer and Video Games. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/191197/opoona-delayed-until-september/. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
- ^ Jones, Justin (October 24, 2007). "News - Latest Famitsu scores -- including Mario Galaxy". Games Are Fun. http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=8410. Retrieved December 31, 2008.
- ^ "Opoona for Wii". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/wii/opoona. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
- ^ Macdonald, Keza (September 9, 2008). "Opoona Review". Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=232791&page=1. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
External links
- Official website
- Official website (Japanese)
Categories:- 2007 video games
- Child superheroes
- Koei games
- Role-playing video games
- Video games developed in Japan
- Wii-only games
- Wii games
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