Contact (video game)

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Contact
Developer(s)	Grasshopper Manufacture
Publisher(s)	Marvelous Interactive (JPN) Atlus (NA) Rising Star Games (Europe, Australia)
Designer(s)	Akira Ueda
Release date(s)	JPN March 30, 2006 NA October 17, 2006[1] AU January 25, 2007[2] EUR February 02, 2007
Genre(s)	RPG
Mode(s)	Single player / Multiplayer game for up to 8 players.[3]
Platform(s)	Nintendo DS

Contact is a game published by Marvelous Entertainment in Japan on March 30, 2006 and by Atlus in North America on October 19, 2006. The game was developed by Grasshopper Manufacture, the group responsible for Killer 7.

[edit] Storyline

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. This article has been tagged since January 2007.

The story begins with the Professor flying through space, fleeing from a mysterious enemy known only as the Klaxon Army (CosmoNOTs in the US release). He ends up crash landing on a strange planet, scattering the "cells" that power his ship, preventing him from getting his ship off the ground. He enlists the help of Terry (can be renamed), a young boy who mistakenly came with him. Terry agrees to help the Professor and sets out with a mysterious set of "Decals" from the Professor. Helping the Professor is the only way that Terry will be able to get home. However, as the game progresses the Professor's intentions are slowly thrown deeper and deeper into question. One of the more remarkable things about the storyline is the inclusion of the player as a separate character from those appearing on screen (referred in other media as a Fourth Wall). Throughout the game, the Professor will talk directly to the player, to give hints on how to control Terry.

[edit] Gameplay

In Contact, the Professor knows about the existence of the player by talking directly to him in order for the player to execute actions to help Terry.^[3] The game also differs from ordinary RPGs in that experience gain is instantaneous, meaning that leveling up in the middle of a battle is required, complementing the real time combat system.^[3] Rather than the tradition in RPGs where a character "levels up" increasing multiple statistics at once and making the character stronger after fighting in battles and gaining experience points, in Contact's experience system Terry's over 30 statistics increase individually as he performs different actions.^[4] For instance, when Terry takes damage, his defense increases; as he damages an enemy, his strength increases. This system is similar to Final Fantasy II and the SaGa series of games.

Contact makes use of two main gameplay systems. Giving the game somewhat of a loose connection with Killer7 is a costume system^[5] through which the player makes Terry change into different costumes, earning new skills along the way. Up to eight^[6] costumes can be obtained throughout the adventure, turning Terry into such forms as a fisherman, a cook, and a pilot. With greater use, a costume will add extra powers to its associated skills and statistics, including elemental magic and magical properties. For instance, the AquaShot suit increases Terry's water magic power and defense.

Outside of the costume-based skills, Terry also has weapon-based skills. These weapons can be gathered as the player and Terry work through the game. There are many weapons including fist (gloves), blunt (clubs and staves), and slashing weapons (swords). Each skill can be upgraded by using each type of weapon throughout the game. Each enemy has its own weakness it is susceptible to, so some of Contact's strategy involves switching to the appropriate weapon to exploit an enemy's weakpoint. This system resembles a variant of Secret of Mana and Vagrant Story's weapon-strengthening system.

The last gameplay system centers on the "Decals" or stickers. The player can stick multiple "Decals" to Terry, resulting in added powers. "Decals" can also be used to attack enemies, heal the character's wounds, and other functions of combat.^[7]

There are other statistics that affect Terry's relationship with the game's non-playable characters (NPC), including fame, courage, and karma. As the character can attack any NPC at will, there is a level of freedom not found in other typical console RPGs.^{[citation needed]} As animosity towards Terry grows, townsfolk actually start to attack Terry on the street or run when they see him.

As indicated by the game's director,^[8] the main storyline provides a framework of diversions, or sidequests. While none of these are necessary to complete the game, certain costumes cannot be obtained without completing a particular sidequest, and the sidequests themselves add significant replay value to the game.

[edit] Online connectivity

The game makes a somewhat limited but unique use of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. During Contact Mode, the player can exchange friend codes with another player and make "contact" with one-another. In the single player adventure, upon reaching the WiFisland, all friends who have been contacted through friend codes appear as non-playable characters, sharing tips and items.^[9] Up to 8 players can be stored as NPCs in the WiFisland.^[10]

[edit] Visual style

Contact's dichotomy of art styles

The game has a simple, pixelated style on the top screen, reminiscent of the Commodore 64 and the Mother series of role-playing games (RPGs). The top screen is where the professor will observe and offer assistance to the main character, a boy named Terry (as well as the player controlling him), who moves around on the bottom screen. The bottom screen has a pre-rendered, lavishly detailed art style. When the professor goes onto the bottom screen, or vice versa, these styles clash in an interesting way.

This differentiation has been done purposely as it underlines how the player and the Professor are aliens to each other. They must make contact, communicate and co-operate to make it through the game,^[8] and to create feelings of nostalgia; just like the interplay between the "real" and "game" worlds.^[11]

According to Akira Ueda, Contact's director, the game uses the touchscreen in several ways through the game.

[edit] Reception

As of Oct 24, 2006, Contact has a metascore of 74 out of 100. Many of the reviews were quite polarized, however, with fans strongly supportive but critics highly critical. [1]

Gamebrink qualified the game with 9.0 points out of 10.0, comparing the statistics and level systems to games like Oblivion.^[12] The site praised the story, job system and, especially, the music, but defined the battles as "fairly shallow."^[13] On the other hand, the game received a 6.5 out of 10 by Steve Thomason in the November 2006 issue of Nintendo Power. His major complaints were that the game was "frustrating because your objectives are often obtuse and unintuitive and the game can be brutally difficult."

[edit] Trivia

• In an early promotion for Contact, the Professor was actually mistaken for Doctor Andonuts of the EarthBound series.^[14]
• During the save/sleep screen the Professor, while reading, comments about Murakami and his post-modern fever dreams. Here he is either referencing Haruki Murakami or, "the other Murakami", Ryu Murakami, both authors.
• In the first boss fight of the game, the professor tells the player to "Attack its weakpoint for massive damage!" This is a reference by the localization team to the presentation of Genji: Days of the Blade during Sony's infamous E3 2006 press conference. ^[15]
• In Habara, an NPC can be seen looking for a Collector's Edition DVD of "Snakes on a Boat", a nod to Snakes on a Plane.
• In Habara, another NPC makes a reference to net-phenomenon and community sites by talking about the invented online hype of the musical superstar "Mute" and her large following on the site "MySpot" (MySpace).
• While exploring the base in Ft. Eagle, the professor will occasionally comment "I wish a base like this belonged to us," a possible reference to "All your base are belong to us".
• The computer screen in the professor's ship can be shown playing PONG.
• The professor occasionally mentions receiving an "autoupdate" and hopes that he doesn't have to reboot. This is probably a reference to Windows XP's Microsoft Update.
• In Ft. Eagle, you meet a girl who explains how she was the victim of an illegal human cloning. She says that her parents ran off with her clone and left her by accident. This girls' name is Dolly which is also the name of the first sheep ever cloned.
• On Habara Island, one of the arcade machines Terry can enter is called "Dragon and Dragon," a spoof of Dungeons & Dragons or possibly even Double Dragon. The level design is reminiscent of classic games Ghosts and Goblins and Gauntlet.
• When you first reach Rizo Island, the professor informs you that "It's Rizo Island. Riiiiiizo Island!!!" This is a definite reference to Kaz Hirai's Ridge Racer line during the aforementionned E3 conference.
• The game cartridge Plumb Siblings (Received by killing enemies in Habara or a chest) is a reference to Mario and Luigi who are both plumbers and siblings.
• The game cartridge Jumping Man (also found in Habara), described with "Climb the girders. Save the girl!" is a reference to Donkey Kong (in which Mario was originally named "Jumpman".).
• There is a collectible CD called "Invader Him"; a possible reference to Invader Zim.
• After you give the fisherman at Ft. Eagle the Worm, he'll start fishing and the King, a gigantic fish, will bite, prompting him to say, "King get!", a reference to "Shine get!", the phrase that appears when Mario acquires a Shine Sprite in the Japanese version of the Gamecube game Super Mario Sunshine (in the U.S. and European releases, the phrase is simply "Shine!").

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Official sites

• Official US website
• Official Japanese website
• Contact at Nintendo.com

Unofficial sites

• Contact at GameSpot
• Contact at IGN
• Contact Developer Interview at Total Gamer Zone
• Contact Localization Interview at AllRPG