"I don't get all the bad hype..."

I must say, I feel like the people that reviewed this game for IGN didn't even play it, or went into it with a "lets just trash this title as much as possible" attitude. I am going to give it a fair shot.

GAME PLAY:8/10
I am REALLY not sure how to classify this game, so I will try...

Its a Semi-tactical RPG dungeon crawler/Monster collector.

The game play is impressive, the combat system is solid for what it is and the dungeon controls are great. Battles flow SEAMLESSLY from one to another as you explore the tower.

GRAPHICS: 9/10
The tops screens graphics are next to amazing for the DS, the colors in town are amazingly bright and vibrant and in the dungeon nice and musty. The art style is very nice, my only real problem graphically was the stairs in the inn just seemed to big.

Now for the bottom screen, There is not much there. Its pretty much your menus, which I do not mind, seeing as I think they should do MORE rpgs like that with the DS. I would have given the game a higher graphic score if they cleaned up the menu a bit, and added more detailed graphics for items in the inventory.

SOUND: 9/10
Almost perfect. The music fits where it should be, the sounds fit their actions. The only problem is the lack of many different tunes (Well, there really are a ton, but a lot of them only play when you are in certain buildings that you really won't spend much time in)

CONTROLS: 6/10
You cannot control the camera angle, the stylus control is bulky, and the trigger buttons don't do anything that I have noticed. Also the run system bothers me on both the stylus and on the game pad. It should be either hold the button to run with the pad or just plain always run with the stylus.

I must say I love the magic system. The stylus input for spells is done very well, and it seems to understand what you are trying to cast even if you mess up pretty bad.

STORY: 7/10
There REALLY is a story here, and it unwraps itself as you talk to the village and complete parts of the tower. I happen to find the story to be pretty good, I just REALLY wish you didn't have to dig so much to find out certain things. Its also a little to predictable at parts, which I am not going to ruin for anyone.

REPLAY: 8/10
There is always something else to gain, and the fact that you can trade monsters with your friends, have a million different things to level and master just makes the game so much sweeter.

Running through the tower multiple times to solve all the puzzles, collect all the eggs and get every item will take you a long time, and it will be fun the entire way.

BOTTOMLINE: 8/10
If you like Azure Dreams, or you like Rogue/NetHack this is it. This is the RPG you have been waiting for.

Fans of Pokemon will love it for its monster system, fans of tactical games will enjoy it because of its set up, and fans dungeon crawls will love everything about it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/06