PlayExclusive: The Dark Spire

Console: DS
Genre: 1st Person RPG
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E 10+
Developer: Success




Story
In a land shrouded by mist, a town surrounds an ominous, dark spire, home to criminals and monsters of all kind. A traitor to the throne, Tyrhung, steals a valuable artifact from the queen, and disappears into the tower.

 

You assemble 4 brave warriors, and start off in search of the villain, braving whatever lies within The Dark Spire.

Gameplay
In a style that will bring back much nostalgia to old-school fans of similar RPG's like Eye of the Beholder or the more recent Etrian Odyssey series for DS, players will trudge through dungeons in first person view.

 
Players explore the tower, uncovering each part of the map with every step they take. Pressing X reveals what they've explored so far, but sadly doesn't reveal your current location and facing, making for some “Dangit, I'm not stopping for directions!” moments. With secret passages, hidden traps, and locked doors, players will have to use all of their party's skills to effectively survive their forays.

 
Players can choose what their team needs, between Warriors, Mages, Thieves and Priests, each with their own set of skills, in a team of up to 4. While such is standard fare for any RPG, players can also “multi-class” their characters, by teaching them the skills of other classes, to make a Mage that can pick locks, or Warrior that can heal allies in battle.



Battles are fought out in turn based combat, and to fans of Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition, THAC0 makes a return, with only the d-pad to select the usual combat options like Attack, Defend, and Magic. To change things up, certain characters can change the style of their attack by pressing right while hovering over the option, to select different moves, like a “Precision attack” to use on hard-to-hit enemies, or “Cast Quickly” to fire off spells before your enemies move, at the expense of the spells success rate.

 

Even with all the skills of your warriors combined, the game is almost overwhelmingly difficult, forcing constant saves, and forcing players into a save-happy mode, as sudden death from traps or disgruntled monsters become highly frequent to the unwary, and HIGHLY annoying to those who are more accustomed to more mainstream RPG's.

Graphics & Sound
The Classic and Normal game modes have distinctly different feels, with dramatic changes in both graphics and music. While players have Normal set as their default, with it's higher quality music, and well drawn sprites to add feel, Classic mode is a pleasantly simple, with simple 8-bit lines to illustrate your surroundings, and sprites for your enemies in battle.

 

Overall
The Dark Spire proves itself to be an excellent dungeon crawler with a tough, but (usually) fair difficulty, and doesn't hold your hand like most other RPG's tend to do. With a perfectly designed aesthetic in it's normal mode, and a beautifully simplistic classic mode, fans of old school RPG's will find themselves immersed in this simple yet challenging game.

 
 
 
 

For those that need an extra hand, though, a Wiki is currently being made at http://thedarkspire.wikidot.com/, by other players. Any extra contribution to the site would be welcomed.


Review by Johar Aston, TheLAG

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Copyright 2009 Johar Aston, TheLAG