It's not for those who expect to know everything there is to know about the game's mechanics within the first two minutes.
It's not one of those games you will be able to finish with a simple 3-4 hour afternoon delight.
This is an RPG for the nerdiest of the RPG fans. It's almost a literal punch to the balls/ovaries. You will probably turn it off a few times, like I have. Remember to save it first!
And you will probably wipe a few times too. The stats are pretty abysmal at first. Casters can start with under 5 HP. WTF?
This game offers you a mind-numbing dungeon crawling RPG in the purest sense. You dont even get to see what your characters look like.
Today's review is:
Ten bucks at my local Gamestop. Yay!
The Dark Spire
You're probably sitting there going 'Decavolty, if this game is so hard, why should we play it?'.
I say you should play it because of that challenge. Far too many RPGs nowadays are simple. Mechanics and even storyline are generic and mediocre in exchange for pretty visuals. This game offers very few animations, and nothing I'd call 'pretty'. Hell, there's a graphics mode on this game that features a wireframe mode that only posts your coordinates, to give it a pen and paper feel.
vs
Spoilers: It's the same place.
As far as difficulty goes, think about this. The more I play the game, the more I learn about it. I didnt even know how to properly level up my character until yesterday, after a day of playing it. This game doesnt level you up automatically. It awards exp per kill, but you do the actual leveling up. There's no overabundance of healing potions, there arent even any potions that give you spell points back. At least none that I know of.
Hell, 9 out of 10 treasure chests are booby trapped. Not just a 'Oh it's just 3 damage I'll shrug it off' one either. The poison 'ogod my body' spikes. I get that more often than not.
There's ways around everything, though. With patience and a little (a lotta little) luck, you may just be able to conquer the challenge.
As you can see in my first picture, I posted what you'd consider the 'special edition'. It came with a music CD. Now, when you see a game come out with a music CD, you'd think the music must be top-notch.
You'd be right.
The major plus to this game is the musical score. I love every track that I've heard, as they all convey the message in the artwork, which I'd also give a thumbs up to. Oh, that's something too. The music changes as you go from pen and paper mode to DS mode. Not that that is a bad thing. It's an amazing transition.
Classic (Pen and Paper)
VS
DS Version
The difference is like night and day.
The story goes, the King's most trusted sorcerer steals the King's most prized treasure, and creates this giant structure (ahurr a dark spire maybe?). The player's objective is to climb to the top and retrieve the treasure. Along the way you do side quests, which obviously range in task. For example, I put a hat on a giant statue and laid him to rest or something like that.
You create your characters, but all you're doing is making a spreadsheet. You pick a race (The only thing this really does is determine what alignment you start [Order, Chaos, Neutral], and what the maximum is you can get on your stat rolls for certain stats [A dwarf can have 18 strength cap on the roll, where a human can only roll up to 14]. There's nothing cosmetic and you dont even choose a ******** gender), you roll your stats, pick one of four classes (more on those in a moment), and off you go!
There's only four classes at first. As you progress through the game you may pick up some others.
You've got your Basic Four.
1) Warrior. Hack this, slash that, look menacing while doing so.
2) Thief. The warrior is just a meatshield, I do the REAL damage.
3) Mage. Those fancy people with their armor and weapons. I do damage with my HANDS! *Tries to cast a spell but it fizzles*
4) Priest. They all talk a big game, but when they're hurt, who do they come to? Me. That's who.
Each of these classes are required in their own way. For example, the warrior is needed to tank through the game. The thief is needed to disarm the numerous booby traps, as well as pick the various locks. The mage is needed to do the real damage in the endgame (as well as use a spell that shows your current coordinates. That's right. You need a spell to tell you where you are on your map ) The priest is obviously needed to heal and perhaps do backup damage.
As you progress through the game you also get Advanced Classes. There's six of them. The Warrior-Thief (Ninja), Warrior-Mage (Samurai), The Warrior-Priest (Paladin), the Thief-Mage (Wizard [Yeah, I dunno either]), The Thief-Priest (Ranger), and finally the Mage-Priest (Druid).
The major advantage to any of this is that it lifts the restrictions of classes on spells and abilities. For example, if you were to wear plate mail on a Priest, you wouldnt be able to cast Priest spells. But if you became a Paladin, you can use Priest spells to your heart's content. The level of the Advanced Class is based off of the average of the two classes.
Obviously there's a ton more, but I cant be arsed to relay anymore information without spoiling the game.
This game is quite the throwback to when games were actually challenging and worth the challenge.
I give it a solid 7.
