Mage Knight: Destiny's Soldier

"Great strategy game"

First off, I would like to say that I actually give this game an 8.5, but this site doesn't allow fractions. This is the most recent game that I have bought for the DS, and I really enjoy it. I only played the MK miniatures game once, so I didn't know if I would understand this game, but it looked fun, and it is fun. You can enjoy this game without any experience playing the miniatures game beforehand. One of the features that sets this game apart from the others around it is the ability to create your own army and have different units for every battle. This is made even better by the fact that characters do not level up or gain experience points. Usually I like leveling up, but in this case it works quite well, because if you use the same people for each battle, and then want to switch, your new units won't be any weaker. In this review I will score different subjects for this game, since that is what is most helpful to me.

CONCEPT 7/10- The world is in danger, and you need to save it. It's the standard RPG story, nothing special there. To do this you create your own army and compete in strategic battles formed around the MK miniatures system. While the story will never excite you or make you want to play more, the strategy is very entertaining. The tired story brings down the score a little, but I'm a big fan of creating anything in video games, and the ability to choose your starting hero is very nice too, so the concept part gets a 7.

GRAPHICS 5/10- The graphics aren't anything special, especially on the DS, but they get the job done. I am disappointed by the spell and attack graphics though, they could have been much better and I have seen better on the GBA. The characters are good looking, but there a lot of pixels that can be seen, and if I saw a screen shot of this game and hadn't heard of it, I would probably say it was for GBA. The dice look really good though.

SOUND 7/10 - There isn't a large variety of music, and so far I have heard the same music for every battle, but it isn't bad. Each town has different music, but none of it particularly enjoyable. Thankfully, none of the music gets annoying, which is usually a problem with strategy games. The battle sounds are just what you expect them to be, which is good, but not amazing.

PLAYABILITY 8/10 - Early on the battle system is confusing, but after the first few skirmishes I became familiar with it. The entire game is controlled with the touch screen, which allows for more precision when placing your units and planning actions. I have encountered very few problems with this scheme, and those few were caused more by my impatience than anything. The myriad of special attacks are also easy to understand, and the simple game actions allow the player to utilize the games strategy to form any kind of army they want and choose how to win the battle. Some of the levels are exceedingly difficult and cannot be won without some amount of luck, but that is to be expected with any combat systems based on die rolls.

ENTERTAINMENT 10/10 - While this game won't change the way you look at strategy , it has provided me with many hours of enjoyment especially on rainy days. in this game the little things add up to make a very enjoyable experience. The ability to actually throw the dice and control how hard they are thrown is a very nice touch that I like a lot. This game also makes you think, and there are at least five ways to win any mission. Being able to capture enemy units is also very entertaining.

REPLAY VALUE 9/10 - Since there are multiple starting characters, I will probably play this game through once with each of them, which will doubtlessly provide a lot of game play time. The fact the each battle is different also lets every play through be memorable. Even if you lose a battle and have to do it again, it's still fun.

Overall I would strongly suggest buying this game if you like strategy games or just want a game to play when you are bored.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/29/07