There just aren't many old school Japanese style RPGs being released in the US now, but Solatorobo: Red the Hunter fills that void perfectly. Even though it manages to fit on a DS cartridge, Solatorobo is a full-fledged RPG complete with and in-depth storyline, side quests, racing, robot battling, and more.

The first thing you'll notice is that the game does not start with the intro. Instead, you will go through a bit of learning first. After you get off of the ship in the first area, you finally get to see the opening intro, which is simply beautiful. It's almost like you're watching an anime on the DS screen because the graphics are so clear and crisp. I didn't realize that you could get DS graphics to look that good. The characters are all animals, cats and dogs. They're so unique and detailed that you have no trouble telling who is who, which makes it easy to keep track of the good guys and remember who you need to talk to and where they are, as the different islands are unique as well.

The music in Solatorobo is quite amazing as well, enough so that you can even find it with a bonus CD of music selections. In the areas, the characters do speak but in very short phrases in French, like "Salut" and "Bon jour." There are also the nice little details like the background noises and sound effects that round out the game so well.

When you first start Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, you'll need to take a picture just to identify your save file. Since I wasn't prepared for a picture, my dog was my save pic. It doesn't change anything in the game, though; it is solely to identify your game save. Red is the fighter that you will be playing as and his sister, Chocolat, is the pilot and money manager (since Red is a bit reckless).Your first job as Red is to get a file off of a Hindenburg, which means that you start off making enemies of the Kurvaz guild, as it is their ship. Red fails to get the file because it burned up, but he does save a mystery kid named Elh that he finds passed out on the ship. He also saved a mysterious medallion. The next day, Elh tells Red that he must have activated the medallion, so Elh is going to have to stay with him. Elh wants to pay Red 1 billion credits after completion to help seal the evil Lares away before he destroys the world.

Since Red doesn't get paid for the first job because the file burned up, he has to go to the quest broker to find some jobs that will pay him enough to at least get fuel. Flo is the quest broker. You can see all the quests available in all locations and it will show you which location you need to go to for another quest, which is really handy! At the end of every level, you'll usually unlock new quests on the previous locations. You have to complete a quest after you take it. They aren't things that you take and complete at your leisure, but since the quests really don't take that long, there's no reason to put them off. The red dots on the right of the quests are how many hunter experience points you get. The rank you need to be to take the quest is on the left under the quest title. You might be wondering how Red can take on some of these tasks, but Dahak makes a lot of it possible. Dahak is the robot that you can customize. Customizations are not permanent. You can move pieces around at any time and buy more area to add pieces with the P Crystals that you collect around the areas. Dahak can even fly when it is called for! You can't search areas for P Crystals or other items on Dahak though, so you'll have to get off of it to search places.

This search for the pieces to seal Lares away is going to include continually fighting to try and keep things out of the hands of the Kurvaz, earning money to keep on going, and saving people as well. Red will meet various people along the way like Princess Theria and her bodyguard, Cyan, at the battle arena. Cyan wants Red to be his apprentice. In Spinion, Amelia steals the Crystal Stone Key from her grandfather, the Mayor, to keep it out of the hands of the hands of the Kurvaz Guild. The leader of the Kurvaz guild, Bruno, shows up and demands it or else. Lady Opera is his right hand man. She and her underlings are going to make life difficult for Red and company. Quyene hires Red to find a memory book for him, but then gives the book to Red. You can access it in the Cabin under Library. There's lots of useful information in there. Red is going to need some of it to complete the task at hand!

Overall, I found Solatorobo: Red the Hunter a bit easy. I found that I didn't need to even upgrade Dahak for quite a while and still had no trouble. Some of the enemies could be difficult at times, but it won't take long for you to figure out the trick to beating them. Honestly though, this is nice. Solatorobo is more about the story than the difficulty of the game. They make it so that things are easy to find so that you really can finish the game and the real trick to it is just finding all the items and completing the quests. The map makes it easy for you to find where you need to go and to make sure you don't miss rooms, which I really love. I hate it when games don't have a map for the geographically-challenged like me.

Solatorobo is not linear in that you can just go straight through if you want, but if you truly want to complete everything, you will need to continually go back to previous places and complete more and more side quests. When you're at the "Go To" screen, you'll see all the previous planets that you can get to and what's really nice is that you can also see how many quests are available there and what level you need to be to take on those quests. There are on-going quests as well, like taking back the pieces of photos from the gang and collecting music tunes. Some of these things can be very difficult to find, so you'll have to really work if you want to find all of these things.

Overall, I found the controls in Solatorobo: Red the Hunter to be quite easy to use. I really like that you can choose to use the D-pad or control stick to move, whichever you prefer. You use (X) to open Game Menu, and choose "What Next..?" when you forget what you're trying to do. (B) is used to jump, and (A) for grabbing things and dialogue. (Y) is used to get on and off of the robot. You will have to leave the robot to search places, but Solatorobo does a very good job of giving you the tutorials as you need to know things. The game gives you the option to save after the end of each quest, as well as at a save point and on the bridge of the Asmodeus (your ship). Save points also heal you to full. The one thing that I did find difficult to control was the Dahak when it is flying. It took me quite a bit of time to get the hang of flying. The Dahak cannot fly forever. It basically boosts from place to place, so you have to land to refill that boost before it runs out. If you miss land, you will be moved back to where you starting flying from. Once you get the hang of it though, it's not too bad.

I have really enjoyed Solatorobo: Red the Hunter. It has provided me many hours of entertainment so far and I've still got a lot left to do in the game. It is a great game to play for just a few minutes or a few hours straight. If you're looking for a great RPG, check out Solatorobo: Red the Hunter today!