Record of Lodoss War

"Two words: great game"

Diablo 2 on dreamcast? I don’t know because I never played it. This game LOOKS very simple, it looks like just a normal hack an’ slash, BUT there’s more about this game than meets the eye, believe me. Are you curious? Yes? So read the review =)

Gameplay:

Let’s see… In this game you go thru a lot of areas and kill lots of monsters, it looks simple uh? Wait! This game have one of the best weapon systems I ever saw, it is called the “ancient inscriptions”. You select a weapon and you can put whatever you want on it. I explain: You have a Sword, and you want to make it better, so just select it and put how many ancient inscriptions you want! Well, it’s not like that, I mean they cost mithril. The ancient inscriptions are like “upgrades” you can put on your equipment (swords, armours, shield, etc…), for example: you have the ancient inscription “damage+2”, you highlight it and you put it on your sword, then your sword will have more two points of damage! If you want to put the ancient again, no problem! Just make sure you have sufficient mithril. And when you run out of mithril, the only thing you have to do is… catch more (c’mon LAZYBONES, just kill some monsters)! There are different kinds of ancient inscriptions, for example: HP+2 (increases two points to your HP), Goblin buster (your weapon will do more damage to goblins), etc… Your character has stats like INT (intelligence), STR (strength), MAG (magic), DEX (dexterity), etc… You can max them with the ancient inscriptions. As you see its very simple and FUN! The areas where you have to go are very well designed and they don’t get boring (except that underground canyon). Also there’s some sidequests to do like the medallions dungeons, the Ice caves, the battles with the two dragons, the dragon equipments, etc… Have fun!

Storyline:

Not too much to say here (I don’t want to include spoilers). You are a red haired hero resurrected from the past to save the future (Uh I’m sooo unoriginal). You are resurrected by Wart, a powerful magician. Your main task is to destroy the goddess of destruction Kardice (or-how-do-you-spell-it) and bring peace to the Marmo Island. Who are you it’s a mystery (I ain’t gonna reveal it) but it’s a good surprise for the fans of ROLW series (never watched them).

Sound:

Well… The sound could be better. The character voices are good, and the special effects sounds are good too. The music could be better, but it matches the style of the game. But it all depends on the tastes…

Graphics:

Ok this game graphics (I must admit it) are BAD! There’s no problem with the magics effects, but the graphics scenery are bad, it looks like a Playstation game. But don’t worry… You will forget the graphics in no time when you begin to play this game, trust me. The light effects are good… In overall the graphics are just average (what does that matters when you have an excellent gameplay).

Replayability:

The good part is: there are lots of sidequests, weapons to catch, dragons to kill, and you will be putting more than 50 hrs on this game! The bad part is: Once you have completed it at 100% you will not play it from the beginning again.

Buy or Rent:

Buy of course. But you can rent it, if you don’t have a life and like to play 24 hrs per day (the good part for doing this is: you will have everything in four days or three, but the bad thing is: you die if you don’t eat or drink anything, and your brain will suffer bad injuries if you don’t sleep anything four days in a row!)

Gameplay: 10/10
Storyline: 9/10
Sound: 8/10
Graphics: 7/10
Replayability: 10/10 (since you will be wasting more than 50hrs on the game)
Overall score: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/03/02, Updated 03/03/02