I have been pretty much dying to play Petpet Adventures for quite a while now. Months, in fact, since both Neopets titles had been announced respectively for the PS2 and PSP. Neopets: Petpet Adventures – The Wand of Wishing takes you further into the world of Neopia by exploring the land of Petaria, where all the petpets reside.
If all the repetition of the word “pet” is confusing you, let me either try to explain or confuse you some more. A Neopet is the basic pet creature in Neopia. A Neopet can have pets of its own, which are called Petpets. Petpets on their turn, can also have little pets, which are called Petpetpets. Get it? I know, it’s weird. Fortunately, we Neopets players tend to refer to each of them by the species names, which makes everything a lot easier. But back to Petpet Adventures!
After a very cool intro sequence with great graphics and very good voice acting, we get to know the story behind The Wand of Wishing. A Gypsy Aisha and her Doglefox petpet are being pursued by an evil Skeith, who is trying to take control of a powerful wand. As the Aisha seizes the wand from its hiding place, the villain’s petpet grabs it and escapes through a portal. The Gypsy’s brave petpet follows him in. Now all of Neopia is in danger, especially Petaria, where a new villain has seized the wand and prepares to take over the world. Your job is to find the legendary Founder of Petaria, gather all six elemental guardians and with their help, return the wand to a safe place.
You get to pick a petpet to play from the four available species (Doglefox, Krawk, Meowclops, Mazzew) each with their own particular build: some are stronger, some are weaker but more magically inclined, they all are prone to certain types of magic, one is pretty much a jack of all trades but master of none. Since you can alter your attributes later, basically you can just pick whichever you prefer as a starting point.
You then name your pet, and I must say, I didn’t particularly like the way you type in the name. The characters are set in a sort of a pie chart divided in segments, and it was a bit difficult to hit the right letters (especially in the diagonal positions) by using the analog stick, since it was really sensitive.
The game’s interface is fairly simple. On the top left you have your hit points and magic meters, on the top right there’s a partial map of the area showing your current position, and on the bottom right there’s your utility belt (quick items). The controls are simple as well: move with the analog, rotate camera with the trigger buttons, triangle uses the currently selected quick item, down on the D-pad changes weapon.
The menus are also easy to navigate, by use of the triggers and both the analog and D-pad. The menus will show you inventory (with separate categories for armor, weapons, food, magic and quest items), the full zone map as you have uncovered it, your petpet’s stats and a quest log.
The game mechanics can be summed into a questing hack-and-slash. There are a lot of quests to do, so make sure you talk to everyone, or you might be missing out on some great items such as weapons or things that you use to complete other quests. Look closely at your surroundings as well, or you might miss little things like chests, breakable items and secret passages.
While in The Darkest Faerie your pet could have a petpet, The Wand of Wishing lets your petpet hero have a petpetpet of his own! Occasionally you will find certain bits of strange food that are actually quest items. Petpetpets can be found sneaking in and out of their hiding places, so take note of where you see them. Once you have spotted one, try dropping one of the quest foods on the ground. If it’s the right food, you will be able to pick up the little critter and take it with you. When you use it from your inventory, the petpetpet will follow you around and will give you certain stats and/or magic boosts. Experiment with the different petpetpets to see what each one does.
You can customize your petpet some more by stepping into one of the color puddles. A bit like the Neopets’ site Rainbow Fountain, stepping in the color puddles lets you change your petpet’s color. Here’s a tip: after you leave the mines, make sure you explore everything near the water. There is a passage towards a waterfall where you can find a blue puddle. And a bit later, you can pick from grey, orange, purple or green in Miamecca.
But the petpet customization doesn’t stop there, and I’m not even counting the tons of weapons and equipment! There are special orbs that you can use to raise your magical attributes, although they will raise one and lower another, so it’s a painful process to try to balance them out. They also cost a pretty penny at certain magical shops. Other orbs will permanently raise one of your attributes, depending on the type of orb.
To raise your attributes some more, you have to fight in the Battledome. As you progress through the game and clear the different areas, a creature will be available for each stage in the Battledome. Each fight costs you a certain amount of neopoints, and if you win the two rounds, you are rewarded with a token. Tokens are used to train your petpet by raising its stats, and there are different types of tokens that you use according to the level of your stats. Some of the fights get a bit nasty and the different “bosses” have different abilities and weaknesses. Losing over and over will only cost you a pretty penny, so save before each fight.
The Battledome also offers a two player wireless mode where instead of challenging a creature, you can challenge someone else.
Graphically, the game is absolutely gorgeous. This Petpet Adventure will take you through forests, jungles, fiery caves, bright deserts, dark mines, cities and temples, even spooky catacombs. Each area has a particular look and color scheme, and there are many little details in pretty much every object. It’s a delight to see how a vase shatters when you break it, how an old archway crumbles as you come close, the spell effects for pretty much everything magical, even the grenades some monsters throw in your direction are worth looking at (but from a safe distance). The loading screens show beautiful cartoon-like watercolors depicting the area you are in, and the animated sequences, although a bit slow in progression (I assume for young gamers to have the time to read everything), are very fluid. In fact, I didn’t experience any choppiness during the game at all. The loading times are a bit slow, but once an area loads, it’s smooth sailing everywhere.
The music is nicely done and it does a wonderful job at creating the mood for any zone or situation. Even my cat was instantly taken in by the birds chirping. I would have enjoyed seeing more voice acting though. Again, just like in The Darkest Faerie, petpets speak in a series of grunts, snorts and other funny noises.
If you’re a Neopets website user, you will easily recognize characters, food, weapons and armor, but will be surprised with the new locales, as this takes place on a different part of the world. If you’re a stranger to the Neopian terminology, you might find everything a bit too weird, but you will still be able to enjoy a good game.
The Wand of Wishing managed to surprise me quite a bit in several positive ways. Basically, it was like they took what they learned from creating Neopets: The Darkest Faerie and made it better. A whole lot better. This is the first Neopets game for the PSP, and I sincerely hope there will be more Petpet Adventures in the future.
Special thanks to Kate Leeper, Paul Murphy and SCEA for providing a copy of this title.