"A nice lil' dungeon crawler, but a decade too late"

My gosh, Atlus seems to be quite a publisher for all things DS recently! This latest ‘odd' game comes in the form of a reworked version of what was originally a Japanese cellphone game. Once again, this is another top translation job in what would have otherwise been a Jap-only import. This review is based mostly on my view of the first of the 2 quests featured in this first-person dungeon crawler. First impressions are that this is a highly dumbed-down version of the acclaimed Elder Scrolls IV, but even then, surprisingly this is quite an addictive old-school kind of game.

GRAPHICS 7/10
Pretty good-looking polygons are pushed along at a steady framerate for the most part. Corridors do all look the same though, but this is a hallmark of this kind of game anyway. Different locations do show a good contrast though, and overall there's a nice use of the palette to imbue a dreamlike quality into the world (which reminds me of Narnia coincidentally). A couple of glitches are present, with lots of clipping, pop-up and instant viewpoint switches (when mounting stairs), but nothing game-breaking at least. Spell effects are a disappointment though.

The use of dual screen presentation for the cutscenes may look lame, but they have impact. Some parts where camera rotations or quick zooms were used to show the enemy boss characters admittedly freaked me out lol!

SOUND 8/10
The sound effects are alright, but the music really stands out. Though the tunes are few, and they do repeat a lot, most are well composed, of good quality sampling and very memorable. Some of them do grate (especially The Shrine of Memories), but the majority are beautiful/haunting and very characteristic of Yasunori Mitsuda's style (of Xenosaga fame).

GAMEPLAY 6/10
There are a couple of control issues, what would normally not be found in a 3rd-person dungeon crawler, but they do affect enjoyment in this first-person point of view. Forwards and backwards movement is responsive enough, but moving laterally has a slight delay (to allow for a useless sidestep manouevre). Having movement totally controlled by the d-pad further makes roaming a very rigid experience. When fighting enemies the game adopts a Zelda 64-esque targeting system (done automatically). The problem here is that you have to manually touch an onscreen button to disengage the lock if you are looking to run away. Having fully touchscreen activated actions limits freedom; the shoulder buttons are left mysteriously unused...

Adding to the rigidness of the controls, you can't look up or down, and so most of the game feels like you are playing in the pre-Doom era. It takes some getting used to, but the controls do work alright. It's just that we've come to expect so much more this generation right?

Controls aside though, the game is strangely addictive. Its roots are firmly established, with lots of fighting, leveling and exploring. The spell system is similar to that seen in Konami's Lost Magic (also for the DS) and works pretty well; deeper into the labyrinth you go, some of the stylus stuff you'll do is pretty hardcore. However, it could've had a greater amount of spells and as it is, the selection pales to the aforementioned Lost Magic.

There are a couple of bosses at key points, but the tactics are usually the same for the most part: charge up your sword, hack & slash, back-up a bit, hack and slash... ‘til they drop. Again the controls make the whole combat aspect too robot-like, and slashing sure is slowww. As for the normal fiends, some of the later ones are cheap as heck and can just paralyse and kill you in 3 well aimed shots wtf?! Save often though (as there are more than enough save spots around) and you should be able to get through with your sanity intact.

The game clocks in around 7-8 hours after repeat (instant) deaths in the later parts of the chapter. It's good it's short though, since it would've got too boring soon enough. For those into this sub-genre of ‘RPGs', there's good value here, as there are some secret areas to find. More importantly though, is that there is a whole new quest also featured (of which is based on the cellphone game) so the game isn't quite over if you don't want it to be...

OVERALL 6/10
Depending on what kind of gamer you are you'll either love or hate the repetitive nature. I found myself drawn into the game, compelled to see it through (and the story looks to get interesting, but blows towards the end). But I am glad it's over, and I'm not gonna want to replay this one again anytime soon. Some solid ideas are present, but there's not enough substance (owing to too strict adherence to the original cellphone version me thinks), the controls are unresponsive, and most of the (few) items you collect warrant much use. In the end if you like the look of it and you enjoy ‘crawling' through games, give this one a shot for an hour or so. You may find yourself hooked into what is otherwise a fairly sub-standard game.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/21/06, Updated 10/08/07

Game Release: Deep Labyrinth (US, 08/15/06)