Eco-Creatures: Save the Forest, known as Ecolis in Japan and Ecolis: Save the Forest in Europe, is a real-time strategy game for the Nintendo DS. It was developed by LightWeight and Headlock Corporation and released in Japan on August 23, 2007 by Interchannel, in North America on March 4, 2008 by Majesco Entertainment, and in Europe on June 13, 2008 by Rising Star Games.
The Mana Woods have been an idyllic paradise for as long as they’ve existed… up until recently. Recently, the nearby Kingdom, hungry for power, has been using Mechas to cut down trees so it can expand its territory. Now, it’s up to Dorian, a large durian-like creature, to save the forest with the help of the Master, Dorian’s father and mentor, and the Wood Spirits.
The gameplay is quite similar to the Pikmin series in that you control an army of Wood Spirits that are weak individually, but strong in numbers, and have their own strengths and weaknesses, and use them to fight enemies and solve puzzles. There are three types of Wood Spirits: the pink squirrel Ecolis, which can only walk on land but has the ability to make trees grow by doing the sacred Taisai Dance, the blue flying squirrel Ecomon, which can fly and has the ability to pick up objects, and the yellow beaver Ecoby, which can swim and build bridges out of twigs that it somehow conjures out of thin air. Dorian can also use magic to damage enemies and buff himself and his spirits, though most of it is useless.
The game later got a Japan-only sequel titled Ecolis: Aoi Umi to Ugoku Shima on May 28, 2009.
Tropes:
- A Child Shall Lead Them: The King and Queen of the Kingdom are both clearly children, and younger than their own Minister. This is also deconstructed, as it makes it easy for their Minister to manipulate them.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": Dorian the durian.
- American Kirby Is Hardcore: The Japanese box art is an image of Dorian beholding a sprout with his hands, while the American box art has Dorian and the Wood Spirits fighting against the Kingdom’s robots (and Odoro).
- Anthropomorphic Food: Dorian and the Master are living durians.
- Badass Adorable: All the Wood Spirits are this. They may be adorable little critters, but they're strong enough to destroy robots and even incapacitate and seal away a Physical God.
- Big Bad: The Minister. He’s the one responsible for manipulating the King and Queen into destroying the Mana Woods and unknowingly angering Daydalabotch.
- Bonus Boss: In the postgame, you can fight upgraded versions of bosses you’ve previously defeated. Unlike their weaker counterparts, you can challenge these bosses as much as you like.
- Boss Rush: Level 16, “Revenge of the Bosses.” It can only be accessed after beating the Final Boss, and has you fighting the first 3 bosses sequentially. You also get a lot of Mana Drops for beating the first two bosses, so it's good for Level Grinding.
- Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": The “Wizard” species that Dorian and the Master are members of is a race of sentient durians with arms, faces, and feet.
- Climate Change Allegory: Inevitable for a game like this. The Final Boss, Daydalabotch, will cause the world to continually heat up if he remains angry.
- Climax Boss: The brainwashed Master. All the bosses beforehand were just Monsters of the Week who were either destroyed outright (Dalos, Odoro) or brought back to their senses (Gepyo, Big Soya). The Master, however, is your mentor, and seeing the Minister kidnap and brainwash him marks a drastic change in tone for the rest of the game.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Done with your spirits. If you increase their numbers, you’ll lower their levels. Additionally, the more spirits are in a group, the less of an effect Mana Drops will have on them.
- Cool, but Inefficient: Dorian’s first spell, Bolt, is much weaker than it looks and is only barely useful against the first boss, Dalos.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Downplayed with Daydalabotch. While brute force is needed to beat him, it only renders him temporarily unconscious. As such, rather than defeating him with brute force exclusively, you place one of each of your wood spirits on sacred shrines that, when all three are activated, will seal Daydalabotch away.
- Ecocidal Antagonist: The Kingdom that’s ravaging the Mana Woods. More specifically, the Minister, who’s the real Big Bad of the game.
- Egg-Laying Male: Gepyo is male, but his flunkies in his Boss Battle are tadpoles. It’s never explained whether or not it’s just a side effect of the pollution in the river.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Master, the King, the Queen, and the Minister are all only referred to by their titles.
- Expy:
- Dorian seems to be based on the Lorax, being a fuzzy orange creature who strongly objects to the Kingdom’s wanton destruction of the Mana Woods.
- Certain bosses are clear expies of Godzilla characters. Odoro is one of Hedorah, and Big Soya is one of Biollante.
- Foreshadowing: The Master says that if the Mana Woods are not protected, then the God of Mana Mountain will cast his anger down upon everyone.
- Gaia's Vengeance: The mountain god Daydalabotch attacks the Kingdom in a rage for polluting the Mana Woods. However, he only winds up making things worse, as his presence turns the ground into molten lava and his meteor showers turn the ground molten as well.
- Giant Mook: The Mastermind Cows are the largest non-boss enemies in the game, and have appropriately massive health pools. However, they’re just as vulnerable to being Zerg Rushed as any other enemy, and are actually rather weak.
- Green Aesop: I mean, come on, have you read the game’s title?
- I Have Many Names: The second boss has a possibly unintentional case of this. The stage for his Boss Battle is named “O’Sludge”, but his Boss Subtitle refers to him as Garbage Monster Sludge, and in the level’s victory conditions, he’s named Odoro.
- The Man in Front of the Man: The Minister, despite being subservient to the King and Queen, manipulates them into destroying more of the Mana Woods by saying it’s in the kingdom’s best interests, even though he makes it clear it’s really for his own personal gain.
- Muck Monster: The second boss, O’Sludge/Sludge/Odoro, is a giant monster made of sludge.
- Nature Hero: Dorian is a wizard who fights to protect the Mana Woods from destruction.
- Non-Indicative Name: The Mastermind Cows are no smarter than any other enemy.
- Primary-Color Champion: How the spirits are initially color-coded. The Ecolis are pink, the Ecomon are blue, and the Ecoby are yellow. Inverted with Dorian and the Master, who are orange and purple respectively.
- Running Gag: The "play" events with your Wood Spirits often have using Bolt as an option, which usually results in a negative outcome and increases your Spirit's Timid stat, causing them to be more likely to run from enemies.
- Sequel Hook: In the good ending: "And so, Dorian succeeded the master and became the protector of the woods. What adventures did the wizard Dorian have with the king and queen? Well, that's another story..." We do eventually get to see that story... but
only in Japan. - Silent Antagonist: A non-Big Bad example. Daydalabotch doesn’t say a word in his introduction cutscene or while he’s being sealed away.
- Sinister Schnoz: The Minister has a long, pointy nose that would make Waluigi jealous.
- Smurfette Principle: The Queen is the only female character in the entire game, and unfortunately, her personality is the exact same as the King’s.
- Sprite/Polygon Mix: The Wood Spirits and smaller enemies are sprites, while Dorian and the larger enemies (including the bosses) are 3D models.
- Super Drowning Skills: Ecolis will drown within 5 seconds if they're in a body of water for too long.
- Tactical Suicide Boss:
- Dalos can only be attacked when it lowers its body, which it does after using its jumping attack and sporadically throughout the battle against it.
- Odoro could stay undersludge for its entire battle and never be attacked, but it chooses to resurface after going undersludge for whatever reason.
- Big Soya would be invulnerable if it didn't attack with its sensitive white tentacle, which renders it vulnerable to damage.
- The Unfought: You never fight the King, Queen, or Minister, despite the fact they’re the main antagonists of the game until Daydalabotch shows up.
- Timed Mission: There are certain levels where you have to defeat the Mechas before they chop down all the seed trees in the level, fill their trash machines with too much garbage, or build too many buildings. Additionally, all the levels become this if you’re trying to beat their bonus times.