Azure Dreams

"Oh my, its four in the morning..."

Azure Dreams (Other Life: Azure Dreams in Japan) is a fairly unique game. You play a young man, who just turned 15 (adult-status), and enter the randomly-created tower in hopes of finding monsters to sell or raise. You can then use the money you find to purchase new buildings in town.

I found this game at a near-by Funcoland. I needed an RPG ''quick-fix'' until the Arc the Lad Collection comes out. I remembered reading about it a few years ago, and it seemed interesting. Plus, the $13 used price tag made it easily within my budget.

I found the plot summary of the opening movie interesting and it made me anxious to get into the game and start playing. Upon seeing the in-game graphics, I almost got up to take it back for a refund.

Now, before you say, ''CT4EVER, I don’t mind bad graphics, as long as the game’s good,'' you must realize that I believe the same thing.

Graphics are not more important then gameplay; they’re just an added bonus.

I decided to give the game a chance, even though I had some serious reservations about it.

When I got into the tower I was able to see the battle system. The best way to describe it would be a turn-based action RPG system (if you’ve played Chocobo’s Dungeon 2, it’s the same thing). Despite the bad choice of a battle system I continued to play.

And what happened? I died. A lot.

And every time I died, I lost all of my items (including the ''starter'' items on Floor 1 in the beginning of a New Game). This wasn’t my only problem; I couldn’t seem to find an exit to the tower. You can only go up the tower not down. Plus, if you’re on one floor too long, earthquakes occur, until the floor is destroyed and you’re booted up to the next one (BRAHMA Force flashbacks... *shudder*).

Eventually, I found the way to exit the tower and save my items/game (you can save between floors, I just didn’t). But there’s another problem, every time you re-enter the tower, you’re level is reset to 1. Thankfully, your monster’s levels aren’t.

After a few trips through the tower, I realized that this wasn’t a bad game at all. I got so into it that I played until 4 in the morning, without knowing it. I don’t find many games that have this effect on me. So, needless to say, I was impressed.

I’d recommend purchasing this game if you can find it (try to find it at place where you can get a refund if you don’t like it). It’s fun and addictive, but it may not before everybody.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/23/01, Updated 10/23/01