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 in Japan, and in 2010 in North America.
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.
Sands of destruction review
Gameplay
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.
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
Kyrie Illunis(キリエ・イルニス,Kirie Irunisu, Kirie in the Japanese version ) is the male protagonist of the series, a mild young man who is skilled with knives and cooking. He possesses a mysterious destructive power, which makes him a subject of interest to the World Destruction Committee/World Annihilation Front. Kyrie is the Greek word for 'Lord'. He has a crush on Morte; his love for her is his main drive for joining the Front. He confessed to Morte that he loves her when Naja kills him, and the latter returns his feelings when she resurrected Kyrie from the dead. The two share a kiss in one of the final scenes of the game. In the anime, he is a rather cowardly young man, but is occasionally pushed to be brave. He enjoys cooking and had worked at a local restaurant disguised as a Feral before Morte showed up. He is later revealed to be the Destruct Code and has ever since existed when the world came to be. Kyrie's power activates when he detects someone with a very strong desire to destroy the world (i.e. Morte). Similar to the game, he also has feelings for Morte, but not as apparent as his game counterpart. Voiced by: Mamoru Miyano (Japanese); Todd Haberkorn (English), Evan Wood (English game)
Morte Asherah(モルテ・アーシェラ,Morute Āshera, Morte Urshela in the anime and Morute in the Japanese version ) is the female protagonist with a troubled past. Morte wields an enormous blade as her weapon. She is a member of the World Destruction Committee/World Annihilation Front, and is bent in destroying the world for the most part in both the game and anime. Morte is the Latin word for 'death'. Although Morte only sees Kyrie as her tool in destroying the world at the beginning, she realizes how important he really is to her after Kyrie's apparent death. Upon receiving information that Kyrie could be resurrected, she became dedicated in bringing him back, and when she accomplished the task, she returns Kyrie's feelings to him. In the anime, she possesses a black sphere from her deceased brother, Reve Ursehla. The sphere is thought to be the Destruct Code, an artifact that is capable of destroying the world and reducing everything to sand, but in fact it is only a medium for the real memories of the Destruct Code. She is gruff and hard to deal with by others, and at multiple times, has tried to persuade Kyrie and Taupy to leave her. Although Morte was the one who proposed to end the world, she begged Kyrie to seal his powers when she activated him. She is shown to have some affection for Kyrie in that particular scene. Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto (Japanese); Luci Christian (English), Deborah Eliazer (English game)
Taupy Toplan(トッピー・トプラン,Toppī Topuran, Toppy Toplan in the anime and in the Japanese version ) is a Feral bounty hunter resembling a teddy bear. He ends most of his sentences with "kuma" (クマ) (Although present in the English dub of the anime, it is not present in the English game), which means "bear" in Japanese, but resents being called a bear or a teddy bear, preferring the more proper "dwarf bear." He acts as a mentor to Kyrie, whose unique personality intrigues him enough to join the World Destruction Committee. His beloved Muffy is a much larger bear that he calls in for his special attack, but he keeps a terrible secret from her. In the anime, he is a skilled combatant. His goal is to become a hero in his own mind even if the rest of the world doesn't know it. Unlike most Ferals, he seems to get along with humans and joins the main party. Voiced by: Tōru Furuya (Japanese); Robert McCollum (English), Erik Braa (English game)
Rhi'a Dragunel(リ・ア＝ドラグネール,Ri a-Doragunēru, Lia Dragunel in the anime and Ria in the Japanese version ) is a female dragon Feral who looks young, but has actually lived for over 300 years. As the last survivor of the dragon race, she believes she must live to see the end of world, because dragons must witness the beginning and the end. She wields a pair of handguns and is able to grow wings, tail, and horns when she is enraged/in battle. She is intrigued by Kyrie, and as a result she decides to join the Front. All her magic and attack names are music themed, but they show no signs of being musically inclined. She has precognitive abilities, but the traditions of the Dragons won't allow her to do anything to change the future she sees. She does not belong to the World Salvation Committee and has a calm personality in the game. In the anime, she has a very short temper that is only kept in check by her respect for Naja as opposed to the game. She is quick to use brute force over words on both ferals and humans. Unlike the game, she is a member of the World Salvation Committee, a group whose goal is to keep the world from being destroyed. She has strong feelings for Kyrie as he helped comfort her when she was sad 100 years prior to the start of the anime. Voiced by: Yui Ichikawa (Japanese game), Yū Kobayashi (anime), Trina Nishimura (English), Michelle Johnston (English game)
Naja Gref(ナジャ・グレフ,Naja Gurefu, Nadja Grev in the anime) is a half human half silverwolf Feral who wields wind and fire wheels in battle. An intellectual, he always insists he is right, even when he clearly isn't. He is also extremely fond of his human mother. Naja is a member of the World Salvation Committee, but faces considerable prejudice and discrimination because of his half-human heritage. He also displayed the ability to transform for his special attack. In the anime, he is not a fighter but is good at anticipating where the World Destruction Committee is at. He is also shown to be much calmer than his game counterpart. Voiced by: Hiro Mizushima (Japanese game), Daisuke Ono (anime), Anthony Bowling (English), Awwab Bukhari (English)
Agan Mardrus(アガン・マードル,Agan Mādoru, Agan Madoru in the anime) is a childhood friend of Morte who wields a whip in battle. He's a member of the Sand Tribe, and the chief's son. He used to be second in command of the Golden Lions, a human resistance group fighting the ferals, but abandoned the group after a member betrayed him. It was revealed in his backstory that he was motivated to join the Golden Lions because a Feral friend from his childhood treated him cruelly when they met as adults. Agan's mother is the Chief of the Sand Tribe, and he is next in line for the role of leader. His father Ganza Mardus assumed the role before his mother. His special attack has him call in ten members of the Sand Tribe to shoot his enemy, indicating that he already has the respect and obedience of some members of the Sand Tribe. In the anime, he's a smuggler with no prior connection to Morte, and continues to run into the World Destruction Committee by chance. Voiced by: Hiroyuki Yoshino (Japanese); Eric Vale (English), Andre Ceglio (English game)
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
Reception
In Japan, Famitsu gave Sands of Destruction a score of three eights and one seven for a total of 31 out of 40. The game sold 56,000 copies in Japan in its debut week.
Elsewhere, the game received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Nintendo Power praised the game's battle system and dungeon design but criticized the story and characters as being generic. RPGLand praised 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." RPGamer said 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."
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.
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 in the Japanese seinen magazine Dengeki Maoh.
