Sands of Destruction

Sands of Destruction
Developer(s) imageepoch
Publisher(s) Sega
Artist(s) Kunihiko Tanaka
Writer(s) Masato Kato
Composer(s) Yasunori Mitsuda
Shunsuke Tsuchiya
Kazumi Mitome
Platform(s) Nintendo DS
Release date(s)
Genre(s) Role-playing video game
Mode(s) Single-player

Sands of Destruction (ワールド・デストラクション~導かれし意思~ Wārudo Desutorakushon ~Michibikareshi Ishi~, lit. "World Destruction: Guided Wills") is a hand-held role-playing video game developed by imageepoch and published by Sega for the Nintendo DS. It was released in 2008.

The story revolves around a young man, Kyrie, who possesses the power to destroy the world, though he does not know why. The female lead is Morte, a member of a group that is trying to destroy the world.

Gameplay

A screenshot of the field

The game plays in a 3D environment with a rotatable camera.

The battle system is turn based, but has timing and fighting game influences, and utilizes both of the DS's screens.[3][4]

Plot

Setting

The game takes place in a fictional world ruled by anthropomorphic beings known as Ferals (Beasts in English dub of anime). Humans live as slaves, and a group dubbed the "World Annihilation Front" (World Destruction Committee in English dub of anime) intends to destroy the world in rebellion. They are opposed by the Feral's "World Salvation Committee".

Characters

Development

The development team of the game comprised over fifty people and includes key designers who previously worked on Xenogears, as well as former staff from Grandia, Drakengard and Etrian Odyssey. The game was directed by Kyoki Mikage of imageepoch and produced by Yoichi Shimosato of Sega.[7]

The score of the game was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, Shunsuke Tsuchiya, and Kazumi Mitome. The opening theme was performed by the Czech Philharmonic. A promotional album titled World Destruction Premium Soundtrack was offered with pre-orders of the game in Japan.[8]

The original story draft for the game written by Masato Kato was allegedly much darker in tone and more violent than the final product. In it, humans were food for the Ferals, rather than merely subservient, and there were several scenes of human characters being killed and eaten. Fearing a restrictive rating from Japan's CERO and wanting to market the game to younger audiences, the game's producers had the story altered to appeal to a mainstream Japanese audience. Yoichi Shimosato, the game's producer at Sega, later expressed in an interview that while he felt the developers had made the right decision in regards to marketing the game in Japan, the original concept would have been "more fun and compelling".[9]

North American version

At the Tokyo Gameshow, Ryoei Mikage, the president of imageepoch confirmed that his team is working to localize World Destruction, to be published by Sega USA. A new/rewritten musical score will be created by Yasunori Mitsuda, and the difficulty may be tweaked for the North American release.[10] On December 10, 2008, Sega officially announced its plans to release the title in America under the title "Sands of Destruction". The game was released on January 12, 2010.[2]

Reception

Famitsu gave the Japanese version of Sands of Destruction a 31 out of 40.[11] The game sold 56,000 copies in Japan in its debut week.[12] Nintendo Power gave the game a 7.0 out of 10, praising the game's battle system and dungeon design but criticizing the story and characters as being generic.[13] RPGLand gave it an overall rating of "Good," praising the character development while being critical of town exploration and low replay value, ultimately concluding, "Sands of Destruction ends up being good, but not great."[14] RPGamer also ranked it "Good" with a score of 3.5/5, saying that its quality story and presentation were held back by enemies "abusing" the battle system. The review concludes, "Unfortunately, its many irritations in combat cause the game to fall short of the lofty status it wanted to achieve."[15]

Derived products

World Destruction
ワールド・デストラクション
Genre Adventure
Anime television series
World Destruction: Sekai Bokumetsu no Rokunin
Directed by Shunsuke Tada
Produced by Akira Uchida
Toyokazu Hattori
Written by Masahiro Yokotani
Music by Yoshihiro Ike
Studio Production I.G
Licensed by
Network TV Tokyo
Original run July 7, 2008 September 30, 2008
Episodes 13
Manga
World Destruction: Futari no Tenshi
Written by Murao Minoru
Published by ASCII Media Works
Demographic Seinen
Magazine Dengeki Maoh
Original run July 26, 2008 – present

Anime

An anime adaptation, also titled Sands of Destruction (known in Japan as World Destruction: Sekai Bokumetsu no Rokunin (ワールド・デストラクション~世界撲滅の六人~ Wārudo Desutorakushon ~Sekai Bokumetsu no Rokunin~, lit. "World Destruction: The Six People That Will Destroy the World")) was produced by Production I.G and directed by Shunsuke Tada. It began broadcasting on TV Tokyo on July 7, 2008 and ended on September 30, 2008, spawning 13 episodes. It features an opening theme titled "ZERØ" and sung by AAA, and an ending theme titled "Kaze no Kioku: To the End of the World" (風の記憶 〜to the end of the world〜, lit. "Memory of Wind 〜to the end of the world〜") sung by Aimmy. The series features only a single season of 13 episodes. It was licensed by Funimation Entertainment for a North American release, and the DVD set was released in 2010.[2]

Manga

A manga adaptation entitled World Destruction: Futari no Tenshi (ワールド・デストラクション~ふたりの天使~ Wārudo Desutorakushon ~Futari no Tenshi~, lit. "World Destruction: The Two Angels"), began serialization in July 2008[16][17] in the Japanese seinen magazine Dengeki Maoh.[18]

References

  1. World Destruction -ワールド・デストラクション-
  2. 1 2 3 "Sands of Destruction Preview". IGN.com. November 29, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-29.
  3. Winkler, Chris (2008-04-23). "RPGFan News - Sega Announces Original DS RPG". RPGFan.com.
  4. "GoNintendo » Blog Archive » Famitsu news - World Destruction for DS- What are you waiting for? (magazine pictures)". GoNintendo.com.
  5. 1 2 3 4 http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/contents/world-d/chara/index.html
  6. Sands of Destruction anime episode 11
  7. John Tanaka (2008-04-23). "IGN: Xenosaga Developers Deliver New RPG". IGN. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  8. "Square Enix Music Online :: World Destruction Premium Soundtrack :: Album Information". SquareEnixMusic.com. Retrieved 2011-12-23.
  9. Sheffield, Brandon (2009-11-11). "Q&A: Sands of Destruction Team Talks Battle System, Story Creation". GamaSutra. UBM TechWeb.
  10. "World Destruction (That DS RPG From The Xenogears Staff) Shattering North America In The Future". SiliconEra.com. 2008-10-14.
  11. "Famitsu - review scores". GoNintendo.com. September 17, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-15.
  12. Jenkins, David (October 2, 2008). "Japanese Charts: Robot Wars Z Does Super Business". Gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2009-04-15.
  13. "Sands of Destruction - The World is Under Attack - by you". Nintendo Power. 238. February 2009.
  14. "Sands of Destruction review". rpgland.com. January 29, 2010. Retrieved 2010-01-29.
  15. "Sands of Destruction RPGamer review". RPGamer. February 19, 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-19.
  16. "Manga, Anime Planned for Sega's World Destruction RPG". Anime News Network. 2008-04-24. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  17. "Official promotion video for World Destruction" (in Japanese). GameSpot Japan. May 30, 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
  18. 「ワールド・デストラクション ~ふたりの天使~」第1話立ち読み
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