"Sister to Azure Tower, almost"

Pros:
-Worth a bit of play time, maybe 15 hours or so, more than most games last nowadays.
-Lots of interesting enemies and traps.
-Lots of different items and weapons.
-Some pretty funny dialogue with great graphics on the town, people, and characters.

Cons:
-Difficult save system.
-Can be repetitive if you're not into dungeon crawling.
-Sometimes weapons crack and break at the most inconvenient times.

Wow, this game is really hard to put down. First off, and most importantly, yes, this is a dungeon crawler, and sometimes the dungeons get repetitive in their design and visual details. But to spice it up the game designers created many different monsters, traps, and items. As you progress through the game, you find better and better equipment, but these are guarded by stronger and stronger monsters. Not to worry though, as Izuna has a few tricks up her sleeve to keep her alive.

This game is played much like Azure Tower, where the game revolves around a single town, and you spend a decent amount of time going into a dungeon to level up and get some decent items, then heading back to town to sell surplus items, store the ones you want to keep, and stocking up on healing items before heading back in. Except instead of one dungeon (or tower) there's 7.

The storyline is fun and quirky. I won't go into boring details but it's an engaging story that offers lots of humor if you pay attention to what the characters are doing in their 2D portraits and talk to everyone a couple times. Story: 8/10

Sound is pretty good, the music changes depending on how far down into a dungeon you go, but the town music stays the same. It can get a little monotonous but you'll most likely be paying more attention to what talismans you want to stick onto your weapon or armor to make it more powerful. Sound: 6/10

I've seen a few complaints about how Izuna's health degenerates as enemies hit her continuously, and this is true, if you don't have any idea what you're doing. To protect yourself you need not only a good sword and armor, but you need to retreat to hallways, pulling 3-4 enemies into a corridor where you can easily fight them one at a time. After dispatching the nearest enemies you can "skip" in which you regenerate health almost instantly as long as no enemies are nearby. If there are enemies that are moving around, it slows down the process but you can gain enough health to stay alive. Another complaint I've heard is that her strength stays the same, as well as her defense, and this is true. Izuna will naturally hit harder as she levels but her stats stay the same. To increase these, you need to stick talismans onto your weapons. If you equip a 30 strength sword, and stick a talisman on it boosting its attack by 50, you'll have 80 strength when you equip the sword, and the same goes for defense. But enough about strategy.

There's also traps later into the game, around the third dungeon or so. You can't see these but some are helpful, like the "light" trap that makes you light as air and helps you avoid other traps, or the "excite" trap that lets you critical with every strike. Others are just frustrating like the "smoke" trap that randomly places you on the same floor someplace else or the "tub" trap that does roughly 100 damage and wipes your map clean, making your character forget where she's been. Some are funny like the "forget" trap in which you drop items every few steps. A useful feature is that when Izuna is hit, she faces her last attacker. Even while blind, you can easily defeat opponents, just keep slashing or throwing items. Gameplay: 10/10

A plethora of items await to help you survive. There's items that heal health or spirit, and talismans that you can either use (cast) or stick onto weapons and armor. Casting talismans costs spirit that you regain by using items or going back to town. Also, getting to the bottom floor of the dungeon fully restores your spirit. Talismans and every other item in the game can be thrown. This can be useful because one talisman, if you cast it you will randomly be placed on the same floor, however if you throw it at an enemy, they will be whisked away, giving you time to use items and attack from a distance when they show themselves again. Other items like the "fire pill" can be thrown at an enemy, causing damage. Your weapons and armor can break too, so when you see a sword you like crack, it's time to put it away and either use something else, or throw some punches, unless you want it to get broken and disappear from your inventory forever.

The only bad thing about this game is the save system. I've heard complaints that if you load your file and shut the game off, all progress is lost. Not true at all. If you save in town, feel free to shut the game off anytime mid-play, load it, shut it off, load it, you'll be back in town from where you last saved. Dungeons are a different story. If you turn off your game in a dungeon, it acts as if you died. When you die, you lose all your on-hand equipment and money, so utilize the bank as best as possible. This can become a problem for those of us on the road, like myself, who cannot access an outlet to charge our DS. I constantly found myself worrying if I was going to lose all my progress in the dungeon when my battery died. You can save in a dungeon when you get to the stairs leading down, but you can't continue playing. You have to stop, go to the title screen, and click load. THEN if you shut off the game, you'll be put back in town, all on hand items gone. And be very careful. The first time I died, I didn't want to lose my items and money and I shut the game off, hoping I reacted in time. No dice, it had been saving and now the data was corrupt, forcing me to start a new game.

All in all, if you're into dungeon crawlers, this is an absolutely must-have game. Overall: 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/07