30 Minutes With... LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias

Welcome to the first edition of 30 Minutes With… In this edition we’re going to look at the first 30 minutes of LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias by Frontier Developments and published on WiiWare. The game is a sequel to last year’s WiiWare launch title LostWinds and takes place very soon after the events of the first game. Spoiler Alert! If you’re not into spoilers be warned that this may contain some story spoilers for both this game and the last.

0:00 Don’t forget to tighten your wrist straps folks. Don’t want any messy incidents. In full disclosure, I am not wearing a wrist strap right now. The game is rated E due to Mild Fantasy Violence.

0:35 This is not Toku I’m looking at. The character asleep on screen is apparently named Riveren and looks a bit like a Martian chicken. He should not be sleeping, he’s supposed to be at the palace gardens.

1:26 I’ve come to an elevator and it runs on song. A quick press of the Z button and away we go.

1:47 Someone very important is returning to the village today. I should keep running to the right until I reach the palace gardens.

2:37 There are more elevators that need the power of my voice. This is a very interesting way to power the systems in the village.

3:36 The king is coming back. He’s the only person the villagers have hope that could find Enril. She’s been missing for a long time. (Toku found her in the last game, if you remember.)

4:34 I’ve seen the first enemy of the game. I’ve watched across a bridge. The glorbs are back. They don’t like singing and they all die.

5:06 Returning to that same bridge it falls beneath me and I fall into a huge pit.

5:40 There is a very strange object that I can pick up at the bottom of this pit. It’s very dark and has a purple mist surrounding it. When I pick it up Riveren hears a strange voice, “At last I’ve found you.”

5:40 Cut to Toku. He’s asleep in a tree. Something stirs him, he rolls over and falls to the ground.

5:51 A man named Notea runs in from the right. He has some troubling news for me. He was exploring the area of northern Mistralis and found a page from Magdi’s journal. (Magdi is Toku’s mom.) He agrees to show us where he found the journal page but it’s a twelve day walk on foot.

7:02 Magmok agrees to help up. It’s the least he can do for us saving his life. Nodea gives us a map that will help us locate the spot. Magmok tosses us on his back and starts up the mountain.

8:05 I’ve come to a ledge that’s too high to climb. Flash to an explanation of how to use gust. This is the first power we have in this game. (I had already used it once before this so I know Toku already had it. It’s just a reminder.)

8:35 Now there’s a very high cliff we have to jump off of. Cue explanation of how to slow your fall. (Another power Toku already had, just a reminder.)

9:01 I come to a place that Toku can’t gust up to. Luckily there’s a plant next to a little pond. A quick splash of some of the water and voila! A spitting plant grows that will spit us up high enough. Magmok tosses a boulder out of the way so we can continue.

9:16 Quick reminder of how to use the vortex to launch rocks and enemies at walls.

9:53 We’re continuing up the mountain. There are some mushrooms to bounce off of that will get us up even higher. After bouncing off one of the mushrooms Magmok grabs Toku in mid air and sets him down on a ledge. Toku continues up the mountain. I notice in the background this whole time that Magmok is doing an amazing impression of Spider-man and he has very short legs. Toku comes to a bridge that has fallen so Magmok tosses him up to the top of the mountain.

10:32 It’s winter up there. Toku is shivering because he’s not dressed properly.

10:44 I’m taught how to open the map to find my way to different places. This is going to be one handy feature.

11:00 Enril informs Toku that he must stay close to fire or he’ll freeze. There is a cold meter at the top of the screen that will be depleted the longer you stay away from a fire.

11:19 I can save for the first time. The save statues from the first game are back.

11:48 There is a large group of icicles blocking the way and snow falling in front of them. Tutorial time. How to make a snowball that can be used to destroy obstacles.

12:19 I’ve found my first hidden statue. These served no purpose in the first game will they be more useful in this sequel? There are apparently 48 of these scattered around the world.

12:31 Toku has arrived at Summerfall Village. A very oddly named town for a place covered in snow.

13:11 There is a house that Toku can go in. It’s inhabited by a blacksmith and he’s not too happy there’s an uninvited guest in his house. He tells us that winter came and it just never left. It’s also dangerous and we should just go home, but we’re not the first person from our village to show up in Summerfall. There was a woman and she was going north to Melodia City.

15:48 He shows Toku on the map where to find Melodia City. There are snow monsters that appeared at the beginning of the Long Winter and they’ve gotten the villagers frightened. His name is Smith, by the way, and he shows us how to light the beacons that Toku will come across. They provide both a source of fire as well as warmth.

16:20 Toku comes across a journal page. It tells of how Magdi’s balloon crashed and how she came to Summerfall Village.

16:42 There’s a creepy Yeti creature in the distance. It doesn’t stay long and runs off when we move closer.

18:14 Toku comes to a very steep, slippery slope that he can’t get up. There must be an alternate route somewhere.

19:50 I’ve found another secret statue.

20:25 Toku stumbles across journal page 3. I don’t know where journal page two is yet. This page tells of creatures in the snow and it’s located at the site of Magdi’s balloon crash. Toku sees the Yeti creature and a mysterious floating woman who has an eerie purple mist around her.

21:05 I’ve found my third secret statue.

21:20 There are fire glorbs in this game. Toku gains a new power, Cold Chill. It can freeze the glorbs and remove the fire from them and then they can be killed.

21:52 Journal page number four talks about Magdi finding the entrance to Melodia City.

22:29 Toku has found the entrance to the city but it has flooded and the water is frozen. There’s no getting in now. So I’m going to head back down the mountain.

23:00 Toku gets attacked by the creepy purple lady. When he wakes up he discovers he’s in the den of the Yeti creature and there is a very familiar face in there…

Well there you go. The first 23:00 minutes of play time with LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias. You’re going to get a good handle on the controls if you’ve never played the game before. If you have you’ll very quickly remember everything that you can do in the world and try out some things that you could do, but can’t yet in this game. The new powers aren’t really new they’re just variations on old powers that now have a different effect during the winter and snow.

The game has improved some graphically. There appears to be more going on in the background. The music is just a low key and melodic as the previous game and you’ll feel right at home the minute you boot the game up. I’ve played through about 2 hours of the game at this point and I can tell you there are some really cool things to look forward to.

I’m going to finish the game tonight and the review for LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias should be up on Friday.