“Natural Doctrine” is a unique tactical role-playing video game that thrusts players into exploring dungeons to fight dangerous monsters, humanoids, and find treasures. This was developed by Kadokawa Shoten and was launched on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and the PlayStation Vita. Here is my full video Game Review of this challenging, but flawed game.
A happy go lucky start with a sudden gory and tragic follow up
This video game starts with two friends that are training under a veteran warrior and killing off some goblins, which was an easy and a normal way to start a fantasy story.
They would go into this journey where they would have to get more experience and explore other dungeons in order to check out a mysterious incident that made the authorities curious. When they were deep enough in that particular dungeon, tragedy strikes and the main protagonist is left scarred for the rest of his life.
While this introduction was kind of unique and would keep the audience a bit interested on what happens next, it was too tragic for the general audience. Only hardcore fans of specific stories that would know what to expect next would able to endure this type of twist and even then, they would still be disturbed in how the developers showed it. The next parts of the game would be too dark to continue and most of the players would have quit halfway.
The game looks like it was made for the late era PS2
Honestly, the graphics of this video game are so low that it is comparable to a PlayStation 2 game made in its late era. The environment is totally static, the designs of the 3D models are not sharp and detailed, so that player would not be able to know if the character is displaying an expression, it also looks a bit stiff when it is animated, the particles are not that refined, and so forth.
The graphics are a total mess so it is a mystery why the game developers did not make full use of the power of the PS3.
However, to compensate for the lack of facial animations and expressions, they added in dialogue that had the anime looks of the characters. They also made sure that each character would have some body language in order to express one dialogue like a joke.
It is still awful to look at, honestly.
The game’s music also from the PS2 era
The music from “Natural Doctrine” also sounds like from the PS2 era where it is not that refined and sometimes wonky to listen to. Some of the sound effects check out though, but some sound like from those MIDI files in the past. The English voice acting surprisingly is not that bad, though it could have been delivered properly if there was more effort exerted.
Gameplay is quite unique and complex to play
Players can control a whole party in this video game where they have different objectives when they enter a dungeon. Usually it is all about defeating all of the monsters inside and the cool part is that they can connect those attacks and unleash stronger ones.
If one enemy is within their line of sights, those characters targeting will be able to connect their attacks and maybe unleash a stronger attack to finish it off.
The gameplay is quite complex because they will have to factor in different things in battle like height, range, visibility, and more. One wrong move or miscalculation from the players would cost them dearly and it could even wipe out the whole party.
Good grinding system, no reason for new game plus
Players will be able to grind for experience, weapons, armor, and money with this video game, which gives it a good value for replayability. The bad news is its new game plus feature, which lets them play the game again and have another ending, and that is it.
They will not have their items back, their levels reset back to zero, and they only get one item that is essential in the game.
“Natural Doctrine” had so much potential to become a unique game to play, but it has so many flaws that it could not even get an average score. While it has some unique and complex gameplay, the flaws still overtake everything. My final verdict for this game is a low 3 out of 10 points.
Check out the "Natural Doctrine" Gameplay video here:
