It's not every day you come across a dog wizard... with a sword.   This game is trying very hard to be cute. It's working.   My World My Way certainly has an interesting color pallet.   Why didn't I get a flower on my birthday?

First Look Preview 01/25/09 Damian Thomas

My World My Way (originally titled The World Revolves Around Me, and re-translated by Atlus to avoid any confusion with The World Ends With You), is at first glance a traditional, turn-based RPG for the Nintendo DS. However, its seemingly conventional skin hides more than players might expect.

My World My Way is the story of a selfish, pampered princess who is slighted by a hunky hero whose only interest is adventure and questing. Having never been rejected, and eager to prove herself to her itinerant love, she lights out on a journey to become an adventurer herself despite having absolutely no experience with it. Knowing that his daughter is clueless about anything in the real world, the Princess's father hires a master adventurer, Nero, to watch over her. Nero arranges enemies, quests, and dungeon explorations to help her become the heroine she desires to be.

However, the game's heroine is not completely without her own tools; running with the spoiled princess motif, she can use “Pout Points” to change things in the world to her advantage. “Pouting” can cause the princess to go first in battle, change what items shopkeepers sell, and even alter the terrain itself.

In addition, the game is frequently self-referential. Characters openly discuss RPG tropes such as gaining experience for beating enemies and turn-based combat, resulting in a story that keeps tongue firmly in cheek.

While the story and premise are a diversion from the norm, the graphics in My World My Way don't tax the DS's abilities. Enemies and terrain are composed primarily of fairly low polygon-count models and texture maps, while character portraits and backdrops are sprite-based.

Similarly, the music quality is low, even for the DS's sound chip, and compositions are mainly lighthearted RPG fare, with most tracks being up-tempo, be they for dungeon exploration or traipsing about the countryside.

The gameplay mostly sticks to traditional RPG elements; players engage in turn-based combat, buy items and weapons with gold, earn experience by fighting monsters, and improve stats by gaining levels. There are a few added tweaks to this, though. For example, instead of a contiguous overworld map, the map is split up into separate areas based around a different town, and the princess explores by moving from square to square, terrain to terrain. Also, each terrain has different enemy types to encounter and treasure to search for.

Spell acquisition, meanwhile, takes a page from the “Blue Magic” school of sorcery; you learn new spells by having them cast on you enough times by enemies. And while your only companion is a pink slime, it improves its abilities by mimicking the body parts of defeated enemies.

So, although My World My Way appears to be the same-old same-old on the outside, the novel gameplay features and a very self-referential story with lots of humor seem to promise something a little out of the ordinary.

My World My Way was developed by Global A entertainment, and is being published by Atlus in the US. It is scheduled for a February 3rd release and will retail for $29.99.