Azure Dreams

"At first glance, trash. At second glance, pretty rockin'."

This game, if you give it a chance, is pretty good. It's just a matter of making it through the dungeon that first time... Which can be difficult. If you don't learn how to play (the instructions don't help much) then you're dead in the water. Learning how to play is pretty hard to do by yourself, using FAQ's is heavily recommended. Once you get past the frustration of failure the first few times in the dungeon, this game gets pretty neat.

Graphics (6/10)
Ho-hum. Nothing great, nothing bad. The actual character sprites aren't anything great, but some of the portraits are cool.

Story (8/10)
Not that the story is great, but getting girlfriends is a lot of fun sometimes. Ya see, what guy wouldn't enjoy the idea of getting about seven or eight girls AT THE SAME TIME? I mean, it's a dream. You get to run around with monsters and get a bunch of hot chicks. Maybe not the most insightful and emotional story out there, but a pretty fun one for all the red blooded guys out there.

Difficulty (9/10)
Be careful, this isn't the easiest game out there. It's live action turn based combat. You better be ready to learn the fighting system in this game. Once mastered, it's not all that hard to advance in the tower. Just be sure you don't get too daring until you get a pretty tough familiar. And make sure you level up until earthquakes happen and try to make it as far up WITHOUT using your familiar (once you get decent weapons i.e. gold sword with some power ups and diamond/mirror shield with some power ups).

Pros:
One of the first (that I've seen, at least) games where you raise monsters to help you. Get lots of girls. Fun.
A fun challange.

Cons:
Learning curve almost made me ditch this game. I didn't start to like it until I picked it up off the shelf it was sitting on for about ten months.
Very easy to die and lose everything.

The down-low:
If you're patient and you like the idea of a cross between Pokemon (I'm guessing, I never played Pokemon but you DO raise monsters and stuff) and Secret Of Mana (sort of) then try it. Just be ready to get frustrated a lot before you get far. Don't be too proud to read some FAQ's (check out the ones on this page).

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99