Doki-Doki Universe review: A Robots Journey To Being Human

Doki-Doki Universe review: A Robots Quest To Humanity

December 11th, 2013 By Maya Mayfield

Doki-Doki Universe Review - A robots journey to being human | PS4.sx from PS4.sx

Doki-Doki universe is like a breath of fresh air when compared to a lot of games in todays genre that only solve problems through violence. It's not that I don't thoroughly enjoy those sort of games, but I often wonder if developers have gotten lazier when it comes to creating deep meaningful story plots, and smarter out of the box games that can achieve the same results with a hug and a hand shake than a knife or a gun. In Doki-Doki Universe, developer HumaNature gets the non-conflict resolution recipe just right as the main character a robot by the name of QT3 must solve the various problems it comes across peacefully.

You star as a Robot called QT3 who has spent 32 years all alone on an asteroid after being abandoned by your entire family. QT3 soon learns that its model has been recalled for the scrap yard because of its limitations to understand what it is to be human. On a quest for understanding QT3 sets out on a journey to discover the universe, learn about humanity, and hopefully find his family.

Each planet you visit in the weird wonderful world (www) of Doki-Doki Universe is in some sort of turmoil or the other and it is up to QT3 to make it all happy-happy-joy-joy once again. As you navigate around the various Universe you will meet all kinds of people, aliens, and freakazoids that will require your assistance with something or another. It is by helping these random strangers overcome all their various issues that will enable QT3 to discover what it is to be human.

What I really loved about Doki-Doki universe is the ability to solve problems creatively and thinking outside the box. To resolve a conflict, QT3 can pull up hundreds of items from its inventory, selecting the specific object it needs to deal with the issue at hand. As an example if a Citizen of a planet calls for something yellow, you could solve the puzzle by pulling out a yellow banana. The inventory mechanics in Doki-Doki Universe's is presented in the form of randomly selected item bubbles that pop up on your display. When this occurs you can choose from the choices on offer, or call another random assortment of items, or choose a specific item and ask to see more objects in the same category.

Doki-Doki Universe reminds me of a  fun, puzzle storybook adventure. One the entire family can play and enjoy, and the games visuals captures that concept perfectly. Although there are fundamental lessons to learn as you deal with serious issues like bullying, and abandonment the process towards that resolution through conversations is well thought out, cleverly written, added with hints of humour.

I found the story to be uplifting despite its initial opening, which in a way was supposed to be dull and gloomy as a backdrop to the journey ahead. As you progress through the game you will be able to see how well you are doing on your mission to humanity by psychological analyses.  This is achieved by stopping off at nearby asteroids to complete personality tests.
These tests come in the shape of visual prompts, requiring you to choose a favourite among a collection of characters, or to devise a scenario that best suits the given scene. Your choices are then evaluated and presented as psychological assessments as to what you may have been thinking subconsciously while taking the quiz.

As you fulfil these personality tests, the game begins to develop a psychological profile that can be accessed via your home world complete with a psycho analyst and a couch for QT3 to reflect on all its recent crazy adventures.
Doki-Doki Universe isn't really that difficult as far as the games puzzles are concerned, you will be able to solve a request by either searching your inventory or talking to the planets citizens to get some much needed intel.  If you ever do get stuck on a particular puzzle, you can move unto another as doing that may just help you get the answer you are look for on the previous. I like the fact that there really is no right or wrong way of completing Doki-Doki universe and that you can complete each mission at your own pace.

Doki-Doki universe is part of the Cross-Buy packages on Playstation Store, so once you pick it up on the PS4, you can also download it on Playstation 3 and PS Vita at no additional cost.

Conclusion

As mentioned at the beginning of this review, Doki-Doki Universe is a breath of fresh air when it comes to originality. It uniquely stands out in the midst of other platforms out there, proudly
un-afraid to be different and that's where it finds its own appeal.
Not everyone will agree with my opinion and review on Doki-Doki Universe, but that's okay.
You see that's the point I discovered while playing the game. I felt like I was also on a mission of self discovery as I navigated QT3 towards his journey to being human. It was on that journey I found out not everyone will agree, not all humans, aliens weirdos and freakazoids will want the same thing and that's okay. It is in those fundamental difference that we define what it is to be human.

Thumbs Up

• Originality
• Creatve, lateral thinking puzzles
• Uplifting gameplay for all the family to enjoy

Thumbs Down

• Puzzles are not very difficult to complete
• Psycho analysis test results ins't always accurate 
• Simple graphics may not appeal to most visually stimulated gamers

Score: 4/5