Bandango
04-27-2009, 10:15 AM
The Dark Spire Review
Title: The Dark Spirehttp://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=7900
Platform: DS
Developer: Success
Publisher: Atlus
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
MSRP: $29.99 (http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Spire-Nintendo-DS/dp/B001OALQIA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1240458814&sr=8-1)
Editor: Mike ‘Bandango’ Bellmore
What’s hot: Unadulterated old school RPG gameplay; clever writing; class hybrid system; loot!
What’s not: Clunky interface; a Berlin wall of a learning curve; unforgiving quest system; takes a while to get goingI have heard strange tales about the ancient days of PC gaming. I do not know if these tales are true or simply legend, but it is said that a powerful force once dominated the ASCII landscape of RPGs. Though I have not seen the evidence myself, these ‘Gold Box’ games of yore set the industry standard for the dungeon crawl. Bearing the Dungeons and Dragons name, SSI produced nearly half a decade’s worth of adventuring and set the stage for the more graphically intensive Western RPGs that we all know and love today.
The Dark Spire is an homage to these long forgotten games and if you don’t already know what AC means than you probably want nothing to do with it. However, if you miss the days of doing everything in your power to reduce AC, than perhaps The Dark Spire is exactly what you’ve been waiting for. This game is nothing if not a balls to the wall dungeon crawler, and if you enjoy having your balls kicked repeatedly by goblins into the mossy stone of a dungeon wall, then this game was made just for you, you freak.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/darkspire/shot1.jpg
I’m not kidding about the masochism stuff. This game will kick your ass. In fact, allow me to say that again in all caps: THIS GAME WILL KICK YOUR ASS. It took me a solid five hours of play before my party was self-sufficient. By that I mean it took five hours before I could wander the dungeon without returning to town for heals after every five battles. It took another five hours on top of that before my party was competent enough to explore the second floor. Let me give you a hint now: you can save anywhere, anytime. Simply press start and don’t be shy about it. You’ll need to. No one likes lost experience points.
The game begins with an inexplicable explanation of the adventure ahead and immediately thereafter the guild master addresses the player on how to go about organizing a party. There are four main classes and four races to choose from with the promise of creating hybrid classes as the game progresses. In another nod to the old days, character stats are literally rolled. If you’re unsatisfied by the result, roll again. After struggling through the clumsy menu your party is sent to the training grounds for a tutorial, but don’t expect anyone to hold your hand. The basics of movement and combat are covered, and afterwards you’re dumped into the dungeon itself.
When I began playing I knew nothing about this breed of RPG. Shocked by the lack of a mana bar, I soon discovered that spells have a set number of uses per ‘day.’ The alien concept of AC (armor class) took some getting used to, and I’m still shaken by the fact that weapons and armor are without explicit stat explanation. Soon, though, everything began to make sense. I discovered a simple elegance in the game mechanics that I rarely see in modern RPGs. My thief disarms traps and snipes away with his bow, my warrior holds the front line, and my priest and mage play support in the back, just like they should. Eventually, everything just seemed to work. The learning curve here is more of a sheer wall than a curve, but once I scaled it I found myself having a lot of fun. It was repetitive fun, mostly had by repeatedly tapping the A button, but it was fun nonetheless.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/darkspire/shot2.jpg
Graphically this game is rather bland. Each floor of the dungeon has a different wall texture and color palette, but every room, hallway and door look the same as the last. Atmosphere is communicated solely through flavor text. If you want the dungeon to be dank and gloomy, you’re expected to read so and imagine it for yourself. If you need to flip a switch to open a door, don’t expect to find a lever sticking out of the wall. Everything you interact with is text based as well. When you walk into an otherwise empty space, a text bar will appear describing what there is to work with. This means that the bumbling knight, the distressed maiden, and the switch that opens the gate aren’t there visually to add to the atmosphere; they exist only in the text. Not that there is anything wrong with that! On the contrary, I found it to be a refreshing change from the usual RPG fare. Developer Success also saw fit to include a ‘classic’ mode. I actually found myself playing it as often as I did the ‘modern’ mode. This ‘classic’ mode replaces the dungeon graphics with simple wire frames. It also uses a completely different set of retro looking enemy models and replaces the soundtrack with some nifty 8-bit tunes. It’s kind of kitschy, but a nice touch.
Clever writing also helps this game. A vein of self-conscious humor runs throughout its dialogue and description. The Dark Spire knows that it's a dungeon crawler and recognizes the ridiculousness of crawling through a dungeon. The game pokes fun at itself as it goes along, but not to the point of self-deprecation.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/darkspire/shot3.jpg
This levity also shows itself in the quests and the different tasks demanded of you by the dungeon. At one point there is a broken elevator that must be reactivated. How is this accomplished? Logically, of course. You have to find food, water, and a squirrel to run in the hamster wheel that powers the elevator. This may sound like a barrel of laughs, but like I said before, the game is hard. The quests assigned at the guild hall are given with only a few paragraphs of vague directions. After that it’s up to you. One of these quests asked me to win back a priceless heirloom from a gambler at the thieves’ guild. Simple enough. I won back the prize and returned to the guild master to turn it in, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Turns out I had to deliver the heirloom to the nobleman who lost it. Where was this nobleman, you ask? Good question. I had given up on him and was wandering the dungeon when I eventually came across the guy. He was on the second floor, behind a secret door—unmarked of course—down a dark, unlit hallway. Your party literally bumps into him, this nobleman. You know, just hanging out, in the dark, behind a secret door.
This would be my main complaint with the game. The Dark Spire leaves everything up to you. Success built a nasty dungeon for you to conquer, not a fun game for you to play. Don’t get me wrong, it is fun--so long as you’re into that sort of game. I wanted to avoid making this comparison, but I’m going to anyway. Publisher Atlus also made Etrian Odyssey, a similar dungeon crawler renowned for being hard as hell. Well, this game makes that game look like Sunday school. Fans of Etrian Odyssey should definitely give The Dark Spire a shot, but beware. Even hardened veterans may find the extreme difficulty and bare bones presentation a little off putting. This game is about as old school as it gets on the DS. Only the bravest of warriors or the crankiest of codgers need apply.
Score: 3 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG3.png
Mike says, “The Dark Spire is a no frills throw back to the good old days of PC roleplaying. For what it is, it’s pretty great. Minor clumsiness with the interface aside, if you’ve been looking for a good dungeon crawl, here it is.”
Title: The Dark Spirehttp://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=7900
Platform: DS
Developer: Success
Publisher: Atlus
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
MSRP: $29.99 (http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Spire-Nintendo-DS/dp/B001OALQIA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1240458814&sr=8-1)
Editor: Mike ‘Bandango’ Bellmore
What’s hot: Unadulterated old school RPG gameplay; clever writing; class hybrid system; loot!
What’s not: Clunky interface; a Berlin wall of a learning curve; unforgiving quest system; takes a while to get goingI have heard strange tales about the ancient days of PC gaming. I do not know if these tales are true or simply legend, but it is said that a powerful force once dominated the ASCII landscape of RPGs. Though I have not seen the evidence myself, these ‘Gold Box’ games of yore set the industry standard for the dungeon crawl. Bearing the Dungeons and Dragons name, SSI produced nearly half a decade’s worth of adventuring and set the stage for the more graphically intensive Western RPGs that we all know and love today.
The Dark Spire is an homage to these long forgotten games and if you don’t already know what AC means than you probably want nothing to do with it. However, if you miss the days of doing everything in your power to reduce AC, than perhaps The Dark Spire is exactly what you’ve been waiting for. This game is nothing if not a balls to the wall dungeon crawler, and if you enjoy having your balls kicked repeatedly by goblins into the mossy stone of a dungeon wall, then this game was made just for you, you freak.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/darkspire/shot1.jpg
I’m not kidding about the masochism stuff. This game will kick your ass. In fact, allow me to say that again in all caps: THIS GAME WILL KICK YOUR ASS. It took me a solid five hours of play before my party was self-sufficient. By that I mean it took five hours before I could wander the dungeon without returning to town for heals after every five battles. It took another five hours on top of that before my party was competent enough to explore the second floor. Let me give you a hint now: you can save anywhere, anytime. Simply press start and don’t be shy about it. You’ll need to. No one likes lost experience points.
The game begins with an inexplicable explanation of the adventure ahead and immediately thereafter the guild master addresses the player on how to go about organizing a party. There are four main classes and four races to choose from with the promise of creating hybrid classes as the game progresses. In another nod to the old days, character stats are literally rolled. If you’re unsatisfied by the result, roll again. After struggling through the clumsy menu your party is sent to the training grounds for a tutorial, but don’t expect anyone to hold your hand. The basics of movement and combat are covered, and afterwards you’re dumped into the dungeon itself.
When I began playing I knew nothing about this breed of RPG. Shocked by the lack of a mana bar, I soon discovered that spells have a set number of uses per ‘day.’ The alien concept of AC (armor class) took some getting used to, and I’m still shaken by the fact that weapons and armor are without explicit stat explanation. Soon, though, everything began to make sense. I discovered a simple elegance in the game mechanics that I rarely see in modern RPGs. My thief disarms traps and snipes away with his bow, my warrior holds the front line, and my priest and mage play support in the back, just like they should. Eventually, everything just seemed to work. The learning curve here is more of a sheer wall than a curve, but once I scaled it I found myself having a lot of fun. It was repetitive fun, mostly had by repeatedly tapping the A button, but it was fun nonetheless.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/darkspire/shot2.jpg
Graphically this game is rather bland. Each floor of the dungeon has a different wall texture and color palette, but every room, hallway and door look the same as the last. Atmosphere is communicated solely through flavor text. If you want the dungeon to be dank and gloomy, you’re expected to read so and imagine it for yourself. If you need to flip a switch to open a door, don’t expect to find a lever sticking out of the wall. Everything you interact with is text based as well. When you walk into an otherwise empty space, a text bar will appear describing what there is to work with. This means that the bumbling knight, the distressed maiden, and the switch that opens the gate aren’t there visually to add to the atmosphere; they exist only in the text. Not that there is anything wrong with that! On the contrary, I found it to be a refreshing change from the usual RPG fare. Developer Success also saw fit to include a ‘classic’ mode. I actually found myself playing it as often as I did the ‘modern’ mode. This ‘classic’ mode replaces the dungeon graphics with simple wire frames. It also uses a completely different set of retro looking enemy models and replaces the soundtrack with some nifty 8-bit tunes. It’s kind of kitschy, but a nice touch.
Clever writing also helps this game. A vein of self-conscious humor runs throughout its dialogue and description. The Dark Spire knows that it's a dungeon crawler and recognizes the ridiculousness of crawling through a dungeon. The game pokes fun at itself as it goes along, but not to the point of self-deprecation.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/darkspire/shot3.jpg
This levity also shows itself in the quests and the different tasks demanded of you by the dungeon. At one point there is a broken elevator that must be reactivated. How is this accomplished? Logically, of course. You have to find food, water, and a squirrel to run in the hamster wheel that powers the elevator. This may sound like a barrel of laughs, but like I said before, the game is hard. The quests assigned at the guild hall are given with only a few paragraphs of vague directions. After that it’s up to you. One of these quests asked me to win back a priceless heirloom from a gambler at the thieves’ guild. Simple enough. I won back the prize and returned to the guild master to turn it in, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Turns out I had to deliver the heirloom to the nobleman who lost it. Where was this nobleman, you ask? Good question. I had given up on him and was wandering the dungeon when I eventually came across the guy. He was on the second floor, behind a secret door—unmarked of course—down a dark, unlit hallway. Your party literally bumps into him, this nobleman. You know, just hanging out, in the dark, behind a secret door.
This would be my main complaint with the game. The Dark Spire leaves everything up to you. Success built a nasty dungeon for you to conquer, not a fun game for you to play. Don’t get me wrong, it is fun--so long as you’re into that sort of game. I wanted to avoid making this comparison, but I’m going to anyway. Publisher Atlus also made Etrian Odyssey, a similar dungeon crawler renowned for being hard as hell. Well, this game makes that game look like Sunday school. Fans of Etrian Odyssey should definitely give The Dark Spire a shot, but beware. Even hardened veterans may find the extreme difficulty and bare bones presentation a little off putting. This game is about as old school as it gets on the DS. Only the bravest of warriors or the crankiest of codgers need apply.
Score: 3 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG3.png
Mike says, “The Dark Spire is a no frills throw back to the good old days of PC roleplaying. For what it is, it’s pretty great. Minor clumsiness with the interface aside, if you’ve been looking for a good dungeon crawl, here it is.”