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chuckroRyser and Cougar are Seekers, searching for magical map pieces that will lead them to the legendary Sword of Amal, which was created by the sage Elpis but sealed away. It’s said that the sword can grant the holder any wish—which means that many others seek it, as well.
Though this is a KEMCO game, it’s mechanically a step above most of the previous ones I’ve played, featuring rotating 3D graphics in battle and voice-acted cutscenes (only in Japanese, but still).
There’s a gem-equip system for magic types and various boosts, but character-specific special abilities are locked-in. There are only two types of magic (black and white, plus “mix” spells you get from leveling both) and it’s to your advantage to designate members of your party as either mages or non-mages so you can free up their gem slots as necessary.
A neat gimmick is that you’ll sometimes run into “Giga” enemies as random encounters—single large versions of a common enemy with inflated stats. The rewards for beating them often aren’t great, though, so I opted to run for them in later dungeons.
The sidequests are standard stuff—go beat a bonus boss, fight ten of this monster, retrieve this macguffin, etc. The rewards for them are stat-up items that you can also buy in the IAP store.
The Alten Ruins are the first time I saw any kind of real puzzle in a dungeon, and that was just a couple of block-pushing puzzles. Generally, there’s either a switch to open doors or a cutscene puzzle that the characters solve without your involvement.
The IAP store isn’t particularly powerful, nor is it terribly accessible. You only get points by beating special map enemies, and by the point that you can take down the first few, you get locked into several dungeons and can’t backtrack for a while. And after that, the rewards for beating the map monsters are far better than the IAP purchases you can make: The level 42 and 48 map monsters (near Port Rosage) have massively overpowered weapons for your party; I found them beatable after escaping from the Alten Ruins. (You need to kill each one two or three times to get all of the items they drop.) The level 56 and 60 map monsters (near Alten Ruins and Gardenia Castle) have another, even more powerful set that I used to steamroller the final dungeon. In the post-game, three high-level monsters than hold ultimate weapons (and useless armor—great stats but it causes the Death Countdown status) that appear on the map.
Just south of Pesche Town, there’s a patch of desert in the mountains that you can reach with the bird, where only metal enemies (that, in classic Dragon Quest model, give massive XP) spawn. Combined with the boots that cause an encounter with every step and the weapons (and one skill) that can hurt metal enemies, and you can grind up levels very easily. This made the last few map monsters possible and the post-game final boss very easy.
Characters are a bit one-note, though there’s at least a presentation of growth. Usual stuff—the villain goes mad with power, the power of friendship saves the day, etc etc. I do find it neat that the original legend of the Sword of Amal says it grants wishes, and in the end, all of the characters who searched for it got theirs. Ryser gets dumped in a treasure room full of gold (though he opts not to collect it); Cougar eats food all over the world and in the swankiest places; Tiana becomes a good queen and makes her people happy; Caldina remembers her friend’s last words. (Even Ferio gets to help Tiana’s wishes come true…if you beat the game a second time for the ending where he survives.)
That’s right: If you beat MacGregor you get an ending to the game, but then if you fight him again in a clear game file, it releases an even bigger bad to be the true final boss. The post-game is mostly a retread of dungeons you’ll already been to and a few bonus bosses, but it does unlock extra sidequests and map monsters if you were enjoying that part.
Overall: I’m not going to claim this was a work of staggering brilliance, but it had some decent challenges and a nice flow to the battle system, and a good leveling curve. It’s a shovelware rpg with a stock plot, but I had fun with it.
Note: The game contains no Illusions, nor does it reference any person, place or thing called L'Phalcia.
Though this is a KEMCO game, it’s mechanically a step above most of the previous ones I’ve played, featuring rotating 3D graphics in battle and voice-acted cutscenes (only in Japanese, but still).
There’s a gem-equip system for magic types and various boosts, but character-specific special abilities are locked-in. There are only two types of magic (black and white, plus “mix” spells you get from leveling both) and it’s to your advantage to designate members of your party as either mages or non-mages so you can free up their gem slots as necessary.
A neat gimmick is that you’ll sometimes run into “Giga” enemies as random encounters—single large versions of a common enemy with inflated stats. The rewards for beating them often aren’t great, though, so I opted to run for them in later dungeons.
The sidequests are standard stuff—go beat a bonus boss, fight ten of this monster, retrieve this macguffin, etc. The rewards for them are stat-up items that you can also buy in the IAP store.
The Alten Ruins are the first time I saw any kind of real puzzle in a dungeon, and that was just a couple of block-pushing puzzles. Generally, there’s either a switch to open doors or a cutscene puzzle that the characters solve without your involvement.
The IAP store isn’t particularly powerful, nor is it terribly accessible. You only get points by beating special map enemies, and by the point that you can take down the first few, you get locked into several dungeons and can’t backtrack for a while. And after that, the rewards for beating the map monsters are far better than the IAP purchases you can make: The level 42 and 48 map monsters (near Port Rosage) have massively overpowered weapons for your party; I found them beatable after escaping from the Alten Ruins. (You need to kill each one two or three times to get all of the items they drop.) The level 56 and 60 map monsters (near Alten Ruins and Gardenia Castle) have another, even more powerful set that I used to steamroller the final dungeon. In the post-game, three high-level monsters than hold ultimate weapons (and useless armor—great stats but it causes the Death Countdown status) that appear on the map.
Just south of Pesche Town, there’s a patch of desert in the mountains that you can reach with the bird, where only metal enemies (that, in classic Dragon Quest model, give massive XP) spawn. Combined with the boots that cause an encounter with every step and the weapons (and one skill) that can hurt metal enemies, and you can grind up levels very easily. This made the last few map monsters possible and the post-game final boss very easy.
Characters are a bit one-note, though there’s at least a presentation of growth. Usual stuff—the villain goes mad with power, the power of friendship saves the day, etc etc. I do find it neat that the original legend of the Sword of Amal says it grants wishes, and in the end, all of the characters who searched for it got theirs. Ryser gets dumped in a treasure room full of gold (though he opts not to collect it); Cougar eats food all over the world and in the swankiest places; Tiana becomes a good queen and makes her people happy; Caldina remembers her friend’s last words. (Even Ferio gets to help Tiana’s wishes come true…if you beat the game a second time for the ending where he survives.)
That’s right: If you beat MacGregor you get an ending to the game, but then if you fight him again in a clear game file, it releases an even bigger bad to be the true final boss. The post-game is mostly a retread of dungeons you’ll already been to and a few bonus bosses, but it does unlock extra sidequests and map monsters if you were enjoying that part.
Overall: I’m not going to claim this was a work of staggering brilliance, but it had some decent challenges and a nice flow to the battle system, and a good leveling curve. It’s a shovelware rpg with a stock plot, but I had fun with it.
Note: The game contains no Illusions, nor does it reference any person, place or thing called L'Phalcia.
