Solatorobo: Red the Hunter is headed to America, thanks to XSEED, and I was excited to get a chance to play the action/RPG hybrid at a meeting prior to the start of E3. Since the game was first announced, it has been high on my most-wanted list and I'm happy to say that I came away impressed.

Developed by CyberConnect2, Solatorobo is a spiritual successor to their highly-regarded PlayStation title Tail Concerto. It takes place on the floating islands of the Shepherd Republic, which are inhabited by races of anthropomorphic cats and dogs, some of whom pilot advanced mechs.  The game stars the titular Red Savarin, a dog, who pilots a mech that is capable of lifting heavy objects and transforming into various forms.

The demo featured an early mission of the game, where Red is tasked with infiltrating a airship, in order to steal documents. While Red can move in three dimensions, the level shown was mostly linear with Red moving from hall to hall, occasionally being forced to solve a puzzle, engage in combat, or perform some minor platforming.

Red's mech has no weapons, so it engages enemies by grappling them. Pressing A will allow Red to grab his foes, at which point he has to hammer the A button until the throwing gauge fills up. Once it is full he will throw his enemy. The difficulty of executing the throw is based on where Red grabs his opponent and the opponent's current status. It is possible to chain the throwing in order to inflict additional damage and to throw enemies at each other to damage both. A later battle added additional complexity, with a large battleship firing shells at Red that he had to catch and throw back. The combat in the demo seemed pretty simplistic, but smashing enemies into one another is satisfying and the battle with the ship indicated the possibility for some creative uses of the grappling mechanic.

Victories will allow Red to gain experience. Our host for the demo said that he will be able to gain new attacks and increase the stats of his mech.

When Red is on his mech he can move heavy crates around, which the game uses in standard adventure game block-on-switch style puzzles. The game also asks Red to get off his mech in order to access areas that are too tight to get to otherwise. While off of his mech, he can go through small doors, and flip switches, and activate platforms but his ability to defend himself against enemies is greatly constrained. Without the use of his mech, all Red was able to do is stun enemies and run away.

Visually, the game looks impressive. The backgrounds are highly detailed and often feature moving components. The character models are attractive and the static art is bright and colorful. The demo ended with a fantastic hand-animated cinematic that showed off the basic elements of the game's plot (included at the end of the attached video).

The demo featured solid music and sound effects, and even some (although still Japanese) voice acting.

The demo also showed two mini-games. The first was a strange fishing game, where Red launches a harpoon into the clouds and then has to reel in his catch, a large airship. The second mini-game was a flying kart-style racing game, which took place inside of a tube. They seemed like nice diversions, but not fully fleshed out gameplay modes.

Solatorobo seems like it will be a nice mix of action, adventure, and RPG elements. Its presentation might be among the best on the DS. I'm excited that XSEED decided to bring this game to North America, and based on this demo, I am looking forward to its release.