Doraemon 2: SOS! Otogi no Kuni

Doraemon 2: SOS! Otogi no Kuni
When Doraemon go into a fairytales adventure book.
Genre(s): Platform Action Platform(s): PlayStation Release: February 21, 1997 Developer(s): Pre Stage Publisher(s): Epoch Predecessor: Doraemon: Nobita to Fukkatsu no Hoshi Successor: Doraemon 3: Makai no Dungeon

Doraemon 2 - SOS! Otogi no Kuni is an Action game based on the Doraemon series. It was developed by Pre Stage and published by Epoch. A reprint followed on November 2, 1999.

Plot

Doraemon's new secret tool is a super-huge 3D TV. It is the TV of the future, and is the latest model that allows you to watch all kinds of programs. Nobita and Doraemon immediately decide to watch the fairy tale channel Momotaro. However, what was shown was Momotaro, who had been captured by a demon. The main characters of other fairy tales are also captured, and if this continues, fairy tales all over the world will be in turmoil! At the suggestion of Suneo and his friends who have been called, Nobita and his friends decide to replace the main characters who have been captured and decides to become the protagonist of a fairy tale and investigate the strange situation.

Why This Game Had a Good Tale

1. Each character has different roles, which is a nice touch.
   • Doraemon becomes Taro Urashima.
   • Nobita becomes Momotaro.
   • Shizuka-chan becomes Little Red Hood.
   • Suneo becomes Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk.
   • And Gian becomes Issunboshi. They all changed their appearance using the dress-up camera and set off on their own fairy tales.
2. Like the first game on PS1, the soundtrack is nice and is one of the best parts of the game; it's as good, if not better than the soundtrack of the first PS1 game (despite being good); the rendition of the Doraemon theme song is also decent as always (with unfortunately some exception), despite the rendition being not as close as in the first game.
   • And due to how high quality the soundtrack is, it's very good for its time, even if it's on PS1, due to having CD quality sound compared to some PS1 games, a CD with all the musics of this game would eventually come out.
3. The game is a huge improvement over the first game in almost, if not, every way, such as but not limited to:
   • The graphics are much better and more detailled (that will be explained in another pointer).
   • The controls are less slippery and tighter than in the first PS1 game, but you still have to press the run button to run, which is a bit of a problem.
   • The fact that there's more variation in the gameplay is a huge improvement over the first game, where there's only platforming levels and nothing else, while here it's still mostly platforming levels. It feels more varied and fresh than the first game overall.
4. The graphics are pretty nice for a 1997 PS1 game, with better graphics than the first game on PS1, as said in WTGHAGT#3. It's also got some quite good background for the times as well as nice-looking character sprites, especially for Doraemon and Shizuka.
   • The backgrounds in particular is very detailled and probably the best part of the graphics of this game, as they all are detailled, colorful, and lively, they also are a huge improvement over the one in the first game on the PS1, which had awful backgrounds and graphics.
   • The characters sprites are also much better than in the first game, as they all are more detailled than the first game and we can see their face much easier, thank to how much of an improvement this game is compared to it's predecessor.
5. The gameplay is very fun, being more fun than the first game (despite that game play like the four Doraemon games on SNES but unfortunately much worse), and it's also got an interesting take on the Doraemon games as it's more like a run and gun mixed with a simple platformer that makes the gameplay unique.
6. Plenty of power ups to use, such as a shield and an invincibility power up (which are some of, if not the best power ups of the game itself).
7. You can select the chapter you want to play at any moment, which is a nice considering that some levels are very hard (due to you getting killed in only 1 hit). It's also a very cool system that is not common in the Doraemon games that were made at the time (and even now). This system is also very similar to the Mega Man series as in the Mega Man games, you can also choose the stage you want to play.
8. There are also bonus stages, secret tool collection, a clear rate, and other challenging elements, making this game having decent number of replay values and being much more replayable than Doraemon: Nobita to Fukkatsu no Hoshi, which was bad.
   • Even if you clear a stage once, you will have to try again and again to find the bonus stage or the secret tool you missed, if you missed them of course.
     • However, the display of the completion rate is not so great and does not tell you where or what you are missing. Basically, it will be a total hit. The action stages themselves are highly difficult (as long as you're careful about moving up and down), but there aren't many unreasonable first-look kills, and if you do them enough times, you'll be able to feel the improvement in your player skills.
9. The plot is decent; most of the fairytale characters are kidnapped, and Nobita and Doraemon decide to rescue them. Nobita tells his friends to help them, but the intro cutscene is a bit too short to explain that.
   • It's also a very nice improvement over the awful story from Nobita to Fukkatsu no Hoshi, which had ton of plot holes, is very basic for a Doraemon game and also make no senses, Doraemon 2: SOS! no Kuni howewer had neither of these flaws, sure the story is a bit basic and not as amazing as the SNES games but it's much better than in the first game.
10. Nice voice acting that sounds good, even for a PS1 game, as all the actors reprise their roles at them and they still do a great job at voicing them, especially the main characters.
11. There's more levels and gameplay than cutscenes, unlike the first game, where there's only 45% of gameplay and 55% of cutscenes. This is also one of the main reasons why this game is much better as it's had more contents and is overral more fun.
12. The cutscenes are well animated for the time, though they are poorly aged at times due to the uncanny 3D models of the characters, and sometime the animation can be clunky.
13. The levels are challenging (in a good way most of the time) and rewarding to complete, howewer some of the levels can be incredibly frustrating or being extremely poorly designed at times.
14. The production matches the story and worldview well, even for a Doraemon game.
    • The atmosphere is brighter because the enemies have been unified in an anime style. Coupled with the elaborateness of the background, the worldview is well expressed.
    • The comically animated enemies perfectly match the worldview of ``adventuring in a fairy tale world. This would have been perfect if it had an anime style for its own aircraft.
    • The enemy's attack actions and motions of being defeated are smooth, and you can see the attention to detail. It's interesting to see how the attack animation changes depending on the weapon used. By the way, this change in hit motion is also applied to some bosses.
    • The background also shows some ingenuity. The beauty of the sea stage and the ominousness of the mastermind stage are both spectacular.
    • Although Doraemon and his friends are pre-rendered, the adventure is played in cosplay costumes using a dress-up camera, so you can enjoy the five different characters.
    • Although some of the stage structures are unreasonable, the story generally follows the story of a real fairy tale. In particular, the reproducibility of Suneo's chapter is quite high.

Bad Qualities

1. There is a flaw in the remaining life system.
   • Specifically, if you pick up a minidora, you will get 1UP, and a minidora will also appear by collecting 100 bells that have fallen on the stage.
     • This part of "If you collect the bells and pick up the mini-dragons that appear, you get a 1-up" is very troublesome, and conversely, if you collect 100 bells but fail to get the mini-dragons, you will be unable to get the mini-dragons that appear. The bell turns into water bubbles. Regardless of whether it's an underwater stage or a vertical scroll, the minidora is affected by gravity, so it can easily fall into a hole and become impossible to retrieve.
     • This kind of thing is unlikely to happen in the early stages, but as the forced scrolling in the second half and stages with unstable footing increase, it can often happen that the mini-dragon is sent out in the air and the mini-dragon falls straight down.
     • Especially in the bonus stage, there are many places where the footing is unstable, and if you touch the hoop that goes through when returning to the normal stage, the character's hit detection disappears, so when you try to take the minidora that appears, you touch the hoop first, and the minidora passes through. There are many accidents that occur. In this case, it is no longer a bonus stage.
     • You can save at the end of each stage, and the penalty for game over is light (*1) , so it's not unreasonable. However, it can't be helped that this game was made with the premise that the game would be over again and again.
     • Perhaps because we put too much effort into the production, the Michibiki Angel, who tells us how much time is left, appears at various times. Sometimes you make a mistake, but it doesn't appear.
       • You can check how many lives you have left by applying the select pose on the normal screen and going to the weapon selection screen, but if you keep making mistakes, it's easy to lose track of how many people are left.
2. The loading times can be long sometime, almost on par with Mega Man X7 and Sonic '06.
3. Like in the previous game, the camera is bad.
   • Spring and falling accidents are one of the causes of death. It is especially vulnerable to vertical movements.
   • Specifically, unlike left and right, the camera scrolls up and down only when the character being controlled moves to the edge of the screen. For example, when falling, the screen will only begin to move once the character is at the bottom of the screen, and the character will fall with the character. With this, there is no way you can see where you will land.
   • Moreover, the speed of the character when jumping or falling is fast. These two things combined make it difficult to be quick and resourceful.
   • Because players are forced to move up, down, left, and right during maze stages, accidents often occur. As a result, the difficulty level increases.
4. The game is still a bit too short, even if there are more levels than the predecessor, as you can beat the game in less than two hours.
5. Some of the levels are way too hard and badly designed; these include, but are not limited to:
   • Doraemon's Urashima Taro has a wide underwater surface, and apart from being easy to get lost, there is no particular place to get stuck. The footing inside Ryugujo is also relatively stable, making the level of difficulty suitable for the first episode.
     • However, the boss structure feels forced. This is probably the only time we see Urashima Taro beating up turtles. The final boss is also a giant dragon, and of course there is no boss like this in the original work.
   • The Suneo chapter is the worst offender, as you have to go up in the first level, for example, but the problem is that there's a lot of enemies that are poorly placed, and keep in mind that you die in one hit. The rest of the levels are also very hard, not that much in a good way.
   • The stage with Nobita is also one of the worst offenders.
     • Stage 2 is also a forced scrolling surface, and the operability is poor, perhaps due to the waves. Then strong enemies, such as crows, attack the fish, jumping on the water surface from the air.
       • There's also a huge lack of checkpoints at that level.
   • There's no explanation in the game, but it seems like animals that would normally be companions are being manipulated. All you need are Momotaro-branded millet dumplings.
   • Stage 3 is one of the most difficult parts of the game. A demon battleship will welcome you. Of course, there is no such development in the original work.
     • The battleship must be destroyed piece by piece, forcing a long battle. The enemies are endless, and Nobita's maneuverability on the ship isn't very good either. Naturally, they will be subjected to merciless shelling and bombing from the enemy, and it seems that many players are stuck here.
   • Stage 4's footing is unstable, but it's somewhat better than the previous stages. And the final boss demon is weak. Players who have broken through the demon battleship are no match for them.
   • Shizuka's Little Red Riding Hood ends up flying through the air, which can lead to many falls and crashes. It's not as difficult as Nobita's stage, but it is highly difficult.
   • The level 4 of the chapter with Shizuka is also a bit poorly designed, with platforms and walls everywhere and a lot of pits that you will probably not see until you fall in them. It's also the least good level of her chapter.
     • Gian Issunboshi's stage is generally large, perhaps because it is set small. In particular, Chapter 4 is so vast that you will get lost.
       • The length of the level leads to accidents and the hassle of starting over, and it increases the difficulty level in a way that players don't want.
6. The disadvantages of being able to freely choose the stage
   • As mentioned above, although the superiority of weapons and help items is clear, the locations where they can be obtained are fixed, so the difficulty level of later stages will change depending on the stage you pass first.
     • In particular, the ``Pencil Missile is located in the fourth chapter of the Doraemon stage, which is relatively easy to get, so just getting it will drastically reduce the difficulty of the next Nobita stage.
     • Obtaining ``Toy Soldiers and ``Arabin's Lamp in advance will greatly reduce the difficulty level later on.
   • One of the selling points of this game is that anyone can complete the games in any order they like, but that backfires. In fact, if you want to conquer the stages easily, you will be forced to prioritize the stages where you can get these items.
     • However, these secret collectible items are not found in obvious places and are often found at the end of maze stages, through hidden passages, or across complicated scaffolding. It's not impossible to find it on your own, but it may be difficult to find it at first glance.
     • And if you miss out on those items, you'll have to fight until the end without a full list of weapons or helpful tools. Fighting as Nobita against a demon battleship with just a tantrum paper is now the realm of bondage play.
       • From that perspective, the reason there are multiple weapons with similar performance may be because if you can get one of them, you can use it as a substitute.
7. While good, the cutscenes have aged poorly due to the characters models being uncanny and sometimes being weird at worst.
8. The help tools are very overpowered.
   • Aside from the "Disaster Trainer" and "Monster Ball" that wipe out all enemies on the screen, the "Toy Soldier" is a safety cover that can be used virtually anywhere, and the "Arabin's Lamp" that allows you to be invincible at any time is a must-have difficulty level. changes greatly.
   • Basically, these help items can only be used once in each stage, but they can be used again if you pass the absolute safety barrier or make a mistake.
     • In particular, these can only be used once during boss battles. The benefits of increasing your life during boss battles and being able to activate invincibility for a certain period of time are huge.
9. The balance of secret weapon tools is poor.
   • First of all, perhaps because it incorporates a collection element, the only weapon that can be used from the beginning is "Tantrum Paper. However, it has a wide attack range, is highly versatile, and boasts enough performance to be able to use it until the end. It is particularly effective in destroying blocks.
   • On the other hand, the ``Demon wa Soto Beans and ``Sinking Balls that you can get halfway through follow the same trajectory as the tantrum paper, but they have noticeable deterioration points such as not exploding and not being able to break blocks. The same goes for the "soap bubble pistol" as opposed to the "air cannon."
     • However, while things like tantrum paper cause the attacked enemy to be blown away in front of the screen and exit the screen, things like soap bubble pistols disappear on the spot. It can be said that the game was designed to differentiate itself by assuming that defeated enemies would block the screen and create an opening for the player, but in the end, it didn't really differentiate the game.
     • If anything, it feels more like an extra volume that was forcibly added to add a collectible element.
   • Unlike tantrum paper, ``air cannon is not affected by gravity, so it may be easier to use in some cases.
   • ``Koke Otoshi Grenade cannot attack or destroy blocks, but it can stop the enemy's movement for a certain period of time. It is an ultra-stopwatch that can fire continuously.
     • What's frightening is that even enemies one screen away will freeze, so if you move while firing continuously, you can completely shut out surprise attacks and projectile attacks from airborne enemies. When using a moving aerial enemy as a stepping stone, you can also fix the stepping stone. If you switch between holding the tantrum paper and proceeding, the stability of the normal side will be unparalleled.
   • And the ``Pencil Missile, which corresponds to the ``Atar Gun position in the previous game, was still too strong.
     • Although the concept of lines has disappeared, the ability to track enemies off-screen is still intact, so most bosses can be defeated simply by running away from the screen and shooting pencil missiles from there.
     • However, in the normal mode, where a large number of small enemies appear, the targets are scattered, so it often does not defeat the enemy you are aiming for and can be difficult to use. However, since it is not affected by gravity, there is no problem in the air or underwater.
     • His "stretching hand", which allows him to throw punches with a long range, is also excellent. You can also take items from far away or through walls and break blocks, and you can also use it for close-range combat because you can hit repeatedly. Overall, it has high versatility on the normal side.
     • On the other hand, weapons other than these have become collector's items.

Reception

Unlike the first Doraemon game on PS1, this game receives mostly mixed to positive reviews by critics and positive reviews by Japanese players. Famitsu gave it a 22/40.

Trivia

1. A well-known feature of this game that was discovered later on is that the final boss battle can become more brutal due to a bug. If you want to enjoy the game as a proper game, we recommend playing it on PS1, even if it's a hassle.
   • Specifically, when playing on PS2 or PS3, a bug occurs where character images cannot be loaded, resulting in bosses being displayed as transparent or black mosaics. In the end, the final boss becomes invisible.
     • Not only the boss, but also the bullets fired by the boss and the bullets fired by your own aircraft can no longer be seen, so you no longer know what is going on. This problem could be avoided by using the PS1, so it wasn't a problem at all at the time. However, most people who are currently trying to play this software again are expected to play it on PS2 or PS3, and in that case, the difficulty of the final boss will become unreasonable in an unexpected way.
       • As a result, the game was rated as extremely difficult until the very end.
       • However, if you are lucky, the judgment may become visible due to the black mosaic, and your own aircraft will be displayed without any problems (I decided to pre-render only my own aircraft, which caused me to live in such an inconsequential part). Pencil missiles will automatically hit invisible bosses, so if you are confident in your skills, you can defeat them.

Comments

Loading comments...