Uo: The Seven Seas and the Tale of the Nushi
- February 04, 2004 18:15 PM PST
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SCE introduces a aquatic new third-person action game pitting players in the role of a fish.
SCE Japan has announced a new third-person 3D action game called Uo: The Seven Seas and the Tale of the Nushi. Developed by SEGA WOW, the game will be released this summer in Japan.The game puts you in the role of Uo (literally means fish), a fish chosen by a Kappa elder to gather "Nezuke" statues from the "Nushi" (means owner or lord). The Kappa (turtle-looking humanoids in Japanese fables) elder has prophesized a grave catastrophe, and it is up to you to save the day. The Nushi won't just give you the statues however, requiring you to take on quests like finding an herb to cure a child, or rescuing a Nushi caught by fishermen.
Seemingly taking cues from the movie Finding Nemo, Uo brings you into an expansive 3D aquatic world. It's a fish-eat-fish world, and you need to eat weaker fish to stay alive while avoiding bigger stronger fish and fishermen lures. The game boasts over 100 types of fish, amphibians, bugs and reptiles that you can "collect" by eating. The player will adventure across varied environments, encountering swift currents, traversing upstream in rivers, and avoiding falling boulders. Actions are not only limited to eating, as players can also target objects in the surroundings, enabling them to bite off ropes and obtain items.
Not a simple button-mashing endeavor, the game makes heavy use of both analog controls -- for instance requiring you to rotate both analog sticks when chewing on a strong fish or breaking free from the jaws of another. Enemies are targeted and locked on with the L1 button, and attacks are launched by hitting the circle button. When getting caught on a fishing line, you either have the option of pulling against the line and breaking it by hitting circle button at the right time, or jumping out of the water and wringing the lure free.
The game also has RPG elements, with players having to gather different colored scales to build up hit points, stomach capacity, lock-on range and attack power. Catering to Japanese RPG fans, you can also collect lures and fishes by eating them.
SCE has not announced a U.S. release, but it is almost certain that the game will be released stateside.
