Two hearts beat as one. Review

Two hearts beat as one.

Dreams are a window to the soul, a doorway to the subconscious, a bus ticket

to Weirdsville. Once, while working on a programming assignment, I had a dream

completely in code. It was like one big Matrix screensaver. Another time I was

watching an eBay auction while reading through “Armies of the Night.” Later,

I dreamt that Norman Mailer was trying to sell me a DVD.

And

like every single person reading this, I have plenty of video game dreams. While

reviewing Kingdom Hearts, I dreamt I was arguing

with Scrooge McDuck, demanding that he let me swim in his money bin. The obstinate

old fart wouldn’t give in, so I woke up. Poor, no less.

But in the world of Dual Hearts, dreams are more than just a way to

process your waking events. Dreams are portals to other planes of existence,

particularly for Rumble, an accomplished treasure hunter focused on uncovering

the mystical Dream Stone while visiting tropical Sonno Island. Tumble, hailing

from the Dream realm, is a wacky amalgam of a cow, dog, pig, and rabbit; his

overarching classification is a Baku, a “dream animal.” Together, this odd couple

must combine forces to save humanity from the Nightmare that seeks to devour

existence.

So the story is a little obtuse. Still, Dual Hearts delivers enough

concrete gameplay to justify its ethereal backstory.

While on Sonno Island, day and night intermittently pass by and NPCs run through

simple schedules. During the day, you might catch a character lounging by the

beach, while at night you’ll find him nursing a drink at the bar. When you’ve

finally found a sleeping villager at the right time in the game, you can jump

into their dreams and mucky-muck about in their inner psyche. These play out

as linear platform levels, taking you through the dreamer’s inner woes and dilemmas

manifested as enemies and puzzles to overcome. And at the end of it all is a

boss villain ready to take you on.

Apparently psychiatrists have had it all wrong this whole time. The best way to fix an unfettered mind is to jump in through their ear and defeat the madness by jumping around. Who would have thunk it?

The bulk of the gameplay is real-time action similar to Zelda.

Throughout his adventures, Rumble gains multiple weapons that can be slowly

powered up to inflict more damage. The weapons lead to some clever gameplay

ideas as they can be used both for attacking and puzzle-solving. A charged sword

can act like a bat to break down certain obstacles. A charged spear can be spun

to whisk objects skywards.

This tends to be used too simply, though. Often, it just requires a standard retread of past levels to unlock the mysterious object that can now be interacted with thanks to your trusty new weapon. It’s a little too obvious and linear.

Rumble

also has Tumble on hand for support. Tumble can refill lost health segments

and offer encouraging hints and advice when asked. When Rumble hops on Tumble’s

back, he has access to such Baku moves as a higher jump, a running jaunt, and

the always-cursory butt bounce.

Boss characters often require repetitive actions. After you’ve figured out

the basic pattern, you must repeat an often-tiring number of times.

The camera is somewhat poor. There is an automatic lock as well as a controllable lock that can be utilized in the heat of battle, but the normal camera controls are limiting in their range of motion and distance.

The visual quality of Dual Hearts is inconsistent. Diving into the

game, you’ll start in a gaudy golden world, where the flashy colors are a step

backwards to PSX days. But beautiful sunrises and sunsets happen as each day

passes; the orange glow gives the game a classic bedtime book feel. Dual

Hearts tends to overuse graphic filters such as blurring and a colored pencil

effect. Unfortunately, the latter leads to a pretty noticeable framerate loss.

Also, the game uses a very slow screen melt as new sections of the game are

loaded up. It’s better than a bland loading screen, but even better would be

none at all.

There are a few standout melodies, but the music is generally fair and fitting

to the world of Dual Hearts. There are no voices besides an opening narration

that is a little on the serious side for what turns out to be a breezy adventure.

Dual Hearts will likely be lost in the tide of major recent releases

like Kingdom Hearts, but its varied attacks and dreamy underpinnings

could prove as a bridge for the younger gamer looking to one day embroil himself

in harder, more difficult quests. It is indeed like an earnest daydream – simple,

happy and light.