Sands of Destruction

Sands of Destruction (ワールド・デストラクション～導かれし意思～) is a role-playing game for the Nintendo DS that was developed by imageepoch and published by Sega on September 25, 2008 in Japan.

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.

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. Humans live as slaves, and a group dubbed the "World Annihilation Front" 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): The male protagonist of the series, a mild young man who is skilled with knives. He possesses a mysterious destructive power, which makes him a subject of interest to the World Destruction Committee/World Annihilation Front. He develops a romantic interest in Morte. Kyrie is the Greek word for 'Lord'., Evan Wood (English game)
 * Morte Asherah (モルテ・アーシェラ): The female protagonist with a troubled past, who wields an enormous blade as her weapon. She is a member of the World Destruction Committee/World Annihilation Front. Morte is the Italian word for 'death'., Deborah Eliazer (English game)


 * Agan Mardrus (アガン・マードル): A childhood friend of Morte who wields a whip in battle., Andre Ceglio (English game)


 * Taupy Toplan (トッピー・トプラン): A Feral resembling a teddy bear. He ends most of his sentences with "kuma" (クマ), which means "bear" in Japanese. He acts as a mentor to Kyrie., Erik Braa (English game)


 * Rhi'a Dragunel (リ・ア＝ドラグネール): 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. She is intrigued by Kyrie. Voiced by: Yui Ichikawa (game), Yū Kobayashi (anime), Trina Nishimura (English)


 * Naja Gref (ナジャ・グレフ): Half human and half wolf Feral who wields wind and fire wheels in battle. An intellectual, he always insists he is right, even when he is wrong. He is also extremely fond of his human mother. Naja is a member of the World Salvation Committee. Voiced by: Hiro Mizushima (game), Daisuke Ono (anime), Anthony Bowling (English),

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
Famitsu gave the Japanese version of Sands of Destruction a 31 out of 40. The game sold 56,000 copies in Japan in its debut week. Nintendo Power gave the game a 7.0 out of 10, praising the game's battle system and dungeon design but criticizing the story and characters as being generic. RPGLand gave it an overall rating of "Good," praising 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 also ranked it "Good" with a score of 3.5/5, saying that its quality story and presentation were held back by enemies "abusing" the battle system and weak voice acting. The review concludes, "Unfortunately, its many irritations in combat cause the game to fall short of the lofty status it wanted to achieve."

Anime
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～) is an anime adaptation of the game. It was produced by Production I.G and began airing on July 8, 2008 in Japan. 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〜) sung by Aimmy. The series features only a single season of 13 episodes. It will be distributed in North America by Funimation Entertainment in the spring of 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～), began serialization in July 2008 in the Japanese seinen magazine Dengeki Maoh.