Katamari Damacy
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We can't believe it. Is this possible? Is this allowed? Perfect. It is a perfect fit. A miracle? El Milagro? We are stunned up and down- The King of All Cosmos
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Katamari Damacy (lit. 'Clump Spirit') is a third-person puzzle-action game developed and published by Namco.
Plot
When the King of All Cosmos accidentally destroys all the stars in the sky, he orders a diminutive prince to put the twinkle back in the heavens above. How you ask? By rolling everything and anything on Earth into clumps so he can replace what's missing in space just by using a magical ball called the Katamari. There is also a side plot that talks about the Hoshino family. The father who happens to be an astronaut is unable to go to the moon after it is wiped out by the King. The daughter of the family, Michiru, "senses" the Prince's work just by feeling when each constellation returns to the sky
Why It Shall Become A Beautiful Shining Star
- The idea of being able to use an adhesive ball-like object as the main method of collecting various objects is so creative. While this may sound like a crazy idea at first, the game itself makes this concept work.
- The story is simple yet it's also has a creative charm to the plot. The story is mostly just about The King of All Cosmos who somehow destroys all of the objects in space in the sky so he ends up letting The Prince recreate the stars and the Moon.
- The side-plot is also simple and interesting as well as it not only focuses on The Prince and The King, but we get to learn about a family who faces such oddities like the Moon being gone
- The entire story here is used in a stylized surreal telling where it combines both celebrating and satire of Japanese culture.
- The graphics here have a simple yet colorful charm to the game. Reroll makes the graphics brighter compared to the original release.
- Even though the gameplay is pretty repetitive, the game itself still has enough charm to be fun without players being bored and instead enjoy what the game is like.
- When you have the Katamari in hand, you get to stick objects from various locations, the more objects you have, the bigger it will become. You get to collect MANY different objects regardless if it's a living thing or an inanimate thing. If your Kamatari is big enough, you get to collect bigger objects. It's really fun to see the Katamari grow big to the point of being a destructive force.
- There are different levels with different objectives. The most common one being "Make a Star" where you have a set amount of time to grow your Katamari to a specific size. You have other missions as well that involve specific collecting rules like collecting as many specific items as possible within a given time or simply just finding the largest item possible.
- Any level you pick can allow players to attempt a score attack mode. You have to make the largest Katamari possible in the time allotted.
- If you make an exceptionally large Katamari, you will get eternal mode. Players will explore the level with no time limit. Very nice to stroll around the level don't you think?
- There are secret items found on each level. The first is a present which is just an object that the Prince can wear. There's also a camera that allows you to take in-game screenshots. Another secret item would be a cousin of the Prince. If you roll up one of his cousins, that cousin can be used as a playable character in various multiplayer modes.
- Multiplayer is present in this game. You can play as The Prince or one of the cousins. The multiplayer is basically having to be placed in a small arena to collect the most objects in three minutes. The field is refreshed with new objects periodically and players get to ram into each other to knock other Katamaris. If you have a fair amount, you can roll up the opponent's Katamari
- Solid controls that are responsive yet take some time to learn.
- The Loading screen is unique every time you are about to go to the level. The loading screen consists of The King who talks during loading time. How brilliant!
- The tone of this game has a quirky, psychedelic, and humorous soul into it. Where it be the intro the gameplay, you will have a fun time with its feeling. The humor is good in this game all thanks to The King who is by far an entertaining character due to his speech and flamboyant personality. Before every level, The King ends up speaking to The Prince.
- Even the gameplay also has its funny moments like when you grab a living object inducing animals and humans. The king can also be seen speaking during gameplay.
- Catchy soundtrack. A lot of the songs can range from being legit bops to being peaceful. Kudos to Katamari on the Rocks, The Moon and the Prince, LONELY ROLLING STAR, A Crimson Rose and a Gin Tonic, Que Sera Sera, Katamaritaino, and the emotional ending theme Katamari Love. The music is themed around Shibuya-kei.
- The cutscenes have a choppy yet simple charm in the scenes. Most of the cutscenes involve the Hoshino family, but you do get the opening sequence and the cutscene that plays before the credits which do still look colorful.
- Good voice acting for cutscenes involving the Hoshino family. The Japanese version is the best example of this. The English version of the game does have a decent performance.
- During the credits sequence, you get to roll a Katamari moon where you will pick up different parts of the world. Interactive isn't it? If you want to aim for 100%, you have to get all of the countries.
- Has multiple different endings. The multiple endings consisted of the Hoshino family being placed on the moon. You can check them out right here in this video. This depends on how much you made on the moon level
- Good replay value. You get to aim for stuff like missing special items (the presents and the cousins) as well as making the constellations better than before. You can even make your Katamari a lot better than what you did the first time just to aim for a high score.
- Got a re-release called Katamari Damacy Reroll. It's an HD remaster and has support for gyro controls. It had a few changes while still keeping the charm of the original
- Certain levels have time limits changed which makes some levels easier than the original. Also, it's more possible to get 100% on the constellation levels.
- The infamous 4th Step item has been moved to an easier spot.
- The Prince is much more expressive this time around.
Bad Qualities
- Deepening on the object, collecting slender objects like pencils and poles will alter how the Katamari rolls which can be frustrating. The only way to prevent is that you need to get more objects.
- Some of your actions (like colliding on a wall or moving objects) may lose some objects that The Prince has gotten.
- During the Make the North Star level, you have to make your Katamari 10 meters without the starting diameter. The problem is that it can be confusing how you have to make the Katamari exactly like 10 meters.
- While the controls are good, it may take time to get used to due to how you have to control a round object. In fact, the game can get a little frustrating when having to control the Katamari.
- The gameplay while fun it's also repetitive.
- The original game had an item called the 4th Step item which is infamous because it wasn't put in an easier spot.
- Can be completed in under ten hours so it's short.
- While still a great character, The King goes WAY TOO FAR and overboard towards his son in the Game Over sequence, even in the Game Over screens in it's sequels.
- The English voice acting is decent enough, but Mutso Hoshino's English voice does sound really bland.
- Reroll is mostly unchanged.
- Speaking of Reroll, the cutscenes have the Hoshino Family only speak in Japanese, though subtitles do exist.
Reception
Katamari Damacy was well received in Japan and North America. The game was dubbed a sleeper hit and won several awards. The success of the game led to the creation of the Katamari franchise, and inspired the development of other video games. Some critics have called it one of the greatest games of all time. A high-definition remaster of the game, Katamari Damacy Reroll, was released on Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch in December 2018, and for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2020.
Trivia
- Was going to be called Action Drive. The concept is different from the final game where it would be a Crazy Taxi-like game with spy elements. The characters that were created were The King, The Queen, and The Prince who would all be central to Katamari Damacy. The story would have involved The Queen being kidnapped by agents on Earth which made The King send The Prince to rescue her. The Prince would use his head to stun humans. After that, The Prince would "drive" the humans around by putting a steering wheel on the back of the human's head. While Takahashi felt it was interesting, the project was rejected.
- It was inspired by the Sony Computer Entertainment game called Densen which had a young girl traverse floating islands of various homes connected by power lines despite Densen never being released. Another idea would be tamakorogashi which is played in undōkai or sports days in Japanese schools. In tamakorogashi, students attempt to push a giant ball into a goal.
- The prototype was developed for the GameCube despite the final game was for the PS2.
- The soundtrack was going to be interactive. It would start simple if the Katamari is small but will become complex as the Katamari gets larger. It was scrapped to the memory limitations.
- The soundtrack features vocals from popular J-pop singers like Yui Asaka from Sukeban Deka 3 and even anime voice actors like Nobue Matsubara and Ado Mizumori. One song was sung and written by Charlie Kosei who is the composer of the Lupin III soundtrack.
- The game was some influential that another number of games were inspired by it such as The Wonderful End of the World and Donut Country
- This game was not planned to be The Prince's first appearance. He was going to be in a racing game where The Prince would control a boy steering a go-cart. It was dropped by Namco.
- The game was shown in an exhibit at the New York Museum of Modern Art called "Century of the Child: Growing by Design". Here, the game was used to demonstrate the change in toys and "playthings" over the 20th century, specifically praising the game for its "quirky manipulations of scale" that makes it accessible for all ages.
- In the Museum of Modern Art, the game was included in the permanent collection of video games.
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