Introduction
Once again, we are going to delve into the past of Nintendo games. An elusive game that has never been released in the whole continent of America. Doshin the Giant, a game that was a great hit in Japan. Luckily, it did release in Europe. This is a god game where you help tribes build their village, or destroy them and hinder their progress.
What did I think before playing Doshin the Giant?
I remember playing this game when I was only nine years old. I was trying to think of some retro games to review, and I decided to look at some Gamecube games. This game stood out since it was never released in America, thus I wanted to review it by playing it again. I knew you needed to help the tribes build their village and make monuments for you. For more information, I went to the Nintendo Fandom page.
The Nintendo Fandom Page
https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Doshin_the_Giant
This page contains a lot of information, the gameplay is of course the most important but by reading this page, I also remembered that this game was originally released for the Nintendo 64 Double Deck. I thought it used CD-roms, or floppy disks, whatever the case, Doshin the Giant was ported to the Gamecube with an extra ending.
Rating
I rate Doshin the Giant with a 7.6 before playing.
Roaming around as a giant seems like fun, I had no idea what to expect since it has been so long since I played this game.
Story
The story of Doshin starts on a special island where the giant comes to help the tribe, but at the end of the day, he will die, and a new one will spawn. It is your goal to build all the monuments to reach the ending, and then maybe the secret ending. We have recorded the special ending, since it will take ages to reach it.
Rating
I rate the story of Doshin the Giant with a 5.0
The story is not very good, Doshin the giant is all about the gameplay.
Gameplay
The game starts with Doshin and four tribes that are scattered, it is your goal to help them build their village. If you help them enough, they will build a monument for you. You will need to build all monuments, however this also means that you need to establish more villages. To get all the monuments, you will also need to merge tribes.
Your giant will level up as you either help or kill the villagers. This is, however, an invisible stat that you cannot see. By growing bigger, you can travel faster, hold bigger houses, gain new skills and even jump higher. You might think awesome. But at the end of the day your giant will die and the next day you will need to level up again just like in rogue like games. However, the tribes will remain at the same state as the previous day.
When the monument is being build, you will need to bring them a flower or this monument will not register in your list. To make the flower, you need to let seven trees *hug* each other. This will spawn a flower, but there can only be one flower at the same time. If your village is not flat, you can terraform the island however you feel like but making it flat is hard, leveling up enough unlocks that ability. You will need to use the button to higher and lower the earth at the same time.
Rating
I rate the gameplay of Doshin the Giant with an 8.2.
While the gameplay is slow, like, it can be very slow. The game is still fun, but it does need to fit your taste.
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
With the graphics, we need to take two important things in mind. Foremost, this game is over twenty years old, and second, this game was originally for the Nintendo 64. Some graphics are horrible, I am looking at you wildlife! As well as when things are not rendered. But the giants looks great, as it can also transform into a hate giant. All in all, I would say the graphics are not bad but not good as well.
Sound
The soundtracks are horrible, it is mostly ambient sound, however there is also a character that talks to explain the game. When you step on villagers, they scream!
Rating
I rate the sound and graphics of Doshin the Giant with a 5.8.
The birds keep getting stuck in the trees, also they pick up the fishes from the sea and then get stuck in the trees.
What did I think after playing Doshin the Giant?
While the beginning of the game was fun and fast, once I hit the halfway mark, things started to slow down. And, I do mean extremely slow as in watching a monument getting build for over ten minutes. It will also get harder to make new villages, as the tribe builders that you might have selected want to return home. Either try a new spot or become evil and destroy a monument and merge some tribes or remove some members!
There are also natural disasters, they will also strike at the worst possible times, that is when they are building a monument for you. Tornados are evil as it will sweep away the monument to be. You can take measures to prevent villages from getting destroyed.
Rating
I rate Doshin the Giant with a 7.2 after playing.
While the game is fun, it moves very slow, as does your giant, I hope you slow casual games if you are going to play Doshin the Giant!
What are my personal thoughts about Doshin the Giant?
I enjoyed terraforming the earth a lot, thus, I leveled up each day with a new giant to gain the skill to flatten the earth. This skill was very useful to make the perfect island for a new village.
Rating
My personal Rating of Doshin the Giant with a 7.7
The most boring part of this game, is the slowness, as well as the ending.
Last Words
Pros
- Help or kill the villagers with your own personal giant.
- form the island however you want.
- Build monuments to gain the secret ending.
- Prevent disasters with your special skills.
- Level up by either getting loved or hated, however each new day you need to level up again.
- Use trees to make the ground fertile.
Cons
- Doshin the Giant plays very slowly
- The monument building is extremely slow.
- The villagers made me a turd.
I did enjoy the game very much, however it does get very slow at certain times. If you like god games, this might be a game for you, but if you are in America, you might need an emulator, emulators are slowly being released on Steam!
Final Rating
6.8
Let me know what you think of Doshin the Giant in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
If you liked reading this review, maybe you would like to share this review with your friends!
Aiden
Wow thanks for the reviews, really helps a lot
Radu
First time I hear about this game. "the villagers made me a turd" haha
krutarthxo
The game hasn't aged that well imo.. though it looks absolutely goofy and fun for a while
Undertaker
Wow such a weird game.. I don't think I'll ever play such a game
Jaromir Krzyszczak
interesting game, however, it doesn't look good now, the graphics aged badly...
supersven
It has indeed aged badly.
jett cameron
black and white: nintendo edition
Alex M
cool
Silentrets
What a weird giant 😀
Alamar
Never heard of it, thx. The first time i played such god game was Populous 1 on Amiga 500+ as a small kid, liked it very much 😉 😛
supersven
That is a long time ago!
fano23
Game doesn't look bad, but even if movement fits with character it seems too slow
long shade
This game is kind of weird...
supersven
kind off?
Mateusz
Can you speed the game up, with mods or a command?
supersven
Sadly, no, it is just very slow paced!
Riddler
Hmm, slow giant
Javier del Ríos
Looks terrible and the animations are really bad.
Good review though.
supersven
This game is ancient, for that time it was epic, sadly it has not aged well.
Valky
So this is a slow-paced game, strange that I've never heard of it before because I though I had some knowledge when it comes to Gamecube games
supersven
It is quite a hidden game!
Vercinger
Another console exclusive that never made it to PC. A shame, I like god games.
supersven
I also like god games.
fjorduna
Time passes while the game is closed?
supersven
Nope, you can save the game and leave, however, I like to finish a day before stopping.
jon doe
looks weird, like a giant banana