The second 64DD launch title was Doshin the Giant, a game that got a bit more attention when the GameCube version came out (and made it outside of Japan). The various Doshin projects are the works of developer Param, who made nothing else.

The purpose of Doshin the Giant seems to be to show how the 64DD could enable a game’s world to change over time, allowing you to manipulate it and watch it grow without needing a memory card.

You start Doshin the Giant as fairly small yellow giant. The tribes on the various islands you discover will request you to do things for them (usually bring plants over, or create more land for them), which will generate hearts, allowing you to grow. As you help the tribes out, they’ll start to develop buildings and eventually build a monument to you.

Controls are simple, as you can grab objects to move them (keeping A held down, or else you’ll throw it straight away), as well as holding onto land and pull it up, providing it’s lower, and stop to lower land.

At the end of each day, Doshin will die (I think) and you’ll get some stats before being booted to the main menu. Start a new game, and you’ll be a new Doshin at the starting size, however, the world will be the same as how you left it at the end of the previous game. The game is quite freeform in what you can do, however, I found that it got more and more difficult to impress villagers, so I was unable to achieve the size I got in the first day.

Although it’s not all about being good – it’s entirely up to you. While you can cause some damage (such as accidentally squishing villagers once you’re a certain size) as regular Doshin, you can switch to an evil version of him, which gives you a different set of powers. You can send out shockwaves and demolish land, and causing terror will make you grow just as hearts do.

Interestingly, evil Doshin also has better powers at manipulating land, as you can easily lower and raise vast amounts of land at ease, but it can be difficult to use this to help out, as the villagers fear you (note: after playing the expansion and GameCube version, I now know that good Doshin can do the same thing).

There’s a checklist of different monuments to get the villagers to build, but I could only get them to build the same one over and over. I’m probably missing something, as the text is quite fast and hard to use Google Translate for, so I’m looking forward to discovering more when I play the GameCube version.

Overall, Doshin the Giant does come across as more of a tech demo to show off what the 64DD can do, but it’s still a wonderfully unique and charming game.

Fun

Of all the 64DD games that have been publicised, (aside from the F-Zero X Expansion Kit, of course), it was this that always looked the most promising. Ostensibly a ‘God game’, you control a mysterious giant that wakes up on an inhabited island.

N64 Magazine #40

Remake or remaster?

I’d love to see a new Doshin game.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Doshin the Giant.