"Not Azure Dreams DS, but still a decent dungeon-crawler"

Back in the PS1 days when it came out, Azure Dreams was seen as quite an original RPG that brought fresh new ideas in a genre that kept on recycling overused concepts. Of course, all those ideas, from the town management to the monster raising, aren't anything new anymore, seeing as how they've been used over and over these past few years. Although not a direct sequel to Azure Dreams, Tao's Adventure, still part of the series, follows a similar formula, adding in the DS exclusive functions, but doesn't feature all those elements that made Azure Dreams so original. So we end up with a game halfway between Azure Dreams and something completely new. Does it still work? Partially.

This time around, the hero is a young boy by the name of Tao, who peacefully lives in a remote village of magic users. Cliche obliges, the village gets attacked by monsters and everyone gets turned into stone. All, except Tao, who coincidentally is the son of a once powerful wizard. Thus, our hero departs on a journey to save his village. His search for the legendary monster egg that will break the curse upon his village leads him to Mondominio, where the Demon Tower lies. This tower crawls with monsters and this is exactly where Tao can expect to find the egg he is looking for.

Although you actually get to explore Tao's exotic island a bit at the beginning of the game, as soon as you get tossed into Mondominio, you can't leave. The town, although fairly large, feels empty. It consists of only a few houses and shops, the tower and a graveyard, set in a desert area with almost no vegetation whatsoever, feeling like you are stuck in a boring oasis village in the middle of nowhere. This wouldn't be a problem in a game with many different towns, but when you think this is the only town in the whole game, and that you are in the impossibility of leaving it, it definitely gives the feeling that there should have been more to it.

The only other place you can explore besides the wasteland town is the Demon Tower, where the whole game takes place. As Tao sets foot into Mondominio, he is informed about the broken seal that used to held the monsters in the tower, which resulted in the attack of his village. Needless to say, Tao volunteers to climb up the tower and fix the seal, along with his search for the legendary egg. Climbing the tower is however no easy task, as he still a beginner magic user and doesn't have a clue about what awaits him up there.

The tower, consisting of 40 floors of dungeon-crawling, might or might not be your cup of tea. Each floor is fairly simplistic in design; a few paths leading here and there, treasure chests, monsters roaming around and once in a while an easy puzzle to solve. Some might find it tedious, others will crave it. Either way, the design of the tower in itself is very monotonous, even if each floor is different from the other. You'll find yourself continuously battling monsters, opening treasure chests, picking up items and just wandering around in search of monster eggs (which can be hatched to get monsters). This is not a problem for dungeon-crawling RPG fans, but others will most likely give up on the game after only a few floors.

Being myself somewhat of a fan of this particular genre of RPGs, I found it to be pretty enjoyable the whole way through, although the flaws can't be overlooked. The game doesn't pull off any new tricks, but there are some quite likable elements, namely the magic system and something that is recently becoming very trendy in many games, the monster collecting. The latter, although not as developed as in other games, still adds a little something to the game, but makes you wish there was more to it. Out of about 40 monsters you can obtain throughout your play-through, it's quite disappointing to find out you can only keep a mere 16 monsters and that only a few of them actually evolve. No monster breeding or raising this time around, there's nothing to do with these monsters outside of battling, as you can't fuse them like in Azure Dreams. Pretty weak monster system, but hey, at least it's there.

The other interesting idea, the magic system, is probably what might get most people attracted to the game. Similar to Lost Magic's spell casting system, you draw spells with the stylus, which are then cast in all their greatness. There are 42 spells to be learned in total, so this provides plenty of spell drawing fun. It's indeed very appealing, but since the game lets you use swords aside from rods and staffs, it's tempting to opt for a sword instead, since it's a way quicker method of defeating enemies rather than going through the slow spell casting process. It's rather ironic how the magic system is supposed to be the central point of the game, whilst you can still play through it without really using any magic.

Whether you choose to go with the sword or the magic, the combat system still stays the same, so it only is a matter of preference. Although in appearance it reminds the likes of real-time strategy, it really is turn-based. While the action takes place on the top screen, commands are displayed on the bottom in the form of a menu from which you can either decide to attack, defend, cast magic or use an item. That's a good layout if you opt for magic, but using a sword, the design feels very unstrategic as all you'll find yourself doing is continuously tapping “Strike” on the touchscreen, then waiting for your monster partner to take his turn, and so on until the enemy is defeated, which is to be honest a tad irksome. And then again, if you decide to use magic instead, the battles tend to drag on for an unnecessarily long time, as spells take a while to cast.

Another attracting aspect is indubitably the 3D graphics, since so far, few DS games have actually make use of full 3D graphics in a an open environment where you are free to move wherever you wish. They are indeed very appealing, in the sense that they are technically up to what you'd expect the DS to be capable of handling, but some areas are a bit of a mixed bag. While the town itself feels a bit bald, the houses (and especially their interior) are rich with little details and what little vegetation there is in the game is quite gorgeous. However, it falls a bit downhill inside the Demon Tower, where everything, including the moving background, is bland, making the tower look and feel more boring than it actually is (the spells you cast are pretty much the only impressive graphical effect in the tower). Then there's a mix of good looking characters and bad ones, like how Tao and other main characters have incredible well made 3D models whilst one of the NPC shopkeepers, who is supposed to be a very classy lady according to her dialogue box picture, looks like some kind of frightening pirate (or maybe that's just me).

Another mixed bag with the game's presentation is the music, which sometimes can sound as dull as it can be great. The problem is that the only great tracks are most of the time heard in shops you'll spend 3 minutes in, or in buildings you'll just never enter, while the dull tracks are heard inside the Demon Tower, where you'll spend all your time. It's by no means unfit, but you'll just end up not really caring for it, which is not any worse, in the end.

If I made it sound so far as if the game wasn't any good, it's simply that there lurks too many flaws within the game's design to pretend that the developers couldn't have put more efforts into it; they could, and should have. There are a lot of things that were overlooked, like the poor controls, the inventory management and some useless (and missing) features, that could have been better, which results in a game that feels incomplete. It tries to toss in many concepts, but doesn't go in-depth or expand any of them, thus ends up as a very generic game. Not a bad one, but one that could have have been better crafted.

If you are just looking for an easy to pick-up and play game though, and are a fan of dungeon-crawlers, then Tao's Adventure can be a lot of fun, as long as you don't expect it to blow you away and are willing to be indulgent towards it. However, if you are looking for a long full-fledged RPG with tons of sidequests, Tao's Adventure might not be what you need. It's not Azure Dreams, but it tries, and it doesn't quite fail at it.

Breakdown

Presentation Weak storyline, horrendous controls, poor menus and management system. 5/10
Gameplay Decent dungeon-crawling, up to 40 floors and doesn't feel too monotonous. Not a lot to do outside the Tower, but some stuff to collect. Spell system is great but not really used. Not enough content overall. 7/10
Graphics Great graphics inside houses, but lack texture. The Tower is far from impressive. Still a decent job. 7/10
Music/Sounds Too few good tracks, too many dull ones, but fits the game's slow pace. 7/10
Replay Value Not much to come back to except the Tower's 40 floors, but you can collect eggs, items and spells. 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/06, Updated 07/23/07