Nutmeg
Arcane
I think Shining in the darkness is a charming game.
It *feels* a lot like Dragon quest 1.
However, its interface is not designed very well. For example:
The game world consists of a town, a castle and a dungeon. The goal of the game is to reach the highest level in the dungeon, defeat a boss, and report your success in the castle.
The town and castle harbor NPCs that function as keys to advance the game, and also traders of goods.
The dungeon is entertaining, but the same every playthrough. It follows a faux hub spoke design, with the first level having exits to 4 caves, the outside world, and the level above. However, the 4 caves must first be accessed in order, before the player can proceed to the upper levels, which only have (multiple) exists to the levels above and below.
Combat encounters are random, and offer a little room, but room none the less, for strategic and tactical decisions.
The game starts overly slowly. Until the first boss --- Kaiser crab --- is defeated, the party is limited to one adventurer who is capable of only melee combat, has superior attack and hp growths, and can equip heavier armor and weapons. To defeat the first boss, the player must grind to level 7. Presumably this is to give time to adjust to the interface, the dungeon, and the systems of status effects, angel wings (teleport out of the dungeon), and wisdom seeds (rudimentary map prompts). However, too much time is given.
After Kaiser crab is defeated, the player recruits two other characters into the party. One of these characters learns mostly offensive spells as she levels up, has superior speed, defense, and mp growths, but can only equip the lightest weapons and armor. The second has growths in between the other two characters and learns healing, curing, and defensive buff spells.
Together the three characters are mostly railroaded in what they will be equipping --- optimal choices are obvious. Nevertheless the player must optimize *when* to upgrade which character's equipment in order to best take advantage of the associated power spike. For example, an early hexwhip makes short work of dungeon level 2.
Until level 4, gold is a precious commodity, but afterwards is mostly worthless.
As with most rpgs, grinding is possible, and a cop out for poor strategy. However, screwing up a few times will make sure your party grinds automatically, as death results in revival at the town, half your gold missing, and a long trip back to your previous place in the dungeon. This is, effectively, a dynamic difficulty mechanism.
In the late game, trip time is alleviated by nominating one of many portal points (gold fountains) with an item (gold medallion).
It may be entertaining to replay this game with the aim of completing it at a lower party level, but, again as is the case with many rpgs, the game follows a slot machine design --- assuming the player uses optimal tactics (trivial), each combat encounter is pulling the lever, and player strategy and preparation prior to the encounter is second to the luck of the result. In so many words, a lucky run through the dungeon will always trump a better prepared but unlucky run.
One conceptual problem with the dual time keeping in the game (combat vs exploration) is that buffs can't be cast prior to combat. What's worse, during the final encounter, the game does not explain that buffs cast during the fight with the first form of the boss do not carry over to the second form, even though the game remains in the same mode (combat) during the sequence.
I give the game a 5/10 (open to revision). It is a good babby's first dungeon crawl, and a good set "challenge run" for players of similar games but which have more setup options (player created party, randomized dungeon(s), order of dungeon levels, etc.)
It *feels* a lot like Dragon quest 1.
However, its interface is not designed very well. For example:
- Equipping gear cannot be performed simultaneously with purchasing gear.
- Status effects can only be seen under the status menu (yet player level is always visible during combat).
- Casting healing spells MP optimally after battle follows a simple method, but must be done manually.
- Items are described poorly (even though MP is spent to get a description) e.g. it is not mentioned that the flail weapons have multiple attacks.
The game world consists of a town, a castle and a dungeon. The goal of the game is to reach the highest level in the dungeon, defeat a boss, and report your success in the castle.
The town and castle harbor NPCs that function as keys to advance the game, and also traders of goods.
The dungeon is entertaining, but the same every playthrough. It follows a faux hub spoke design, with the first level having exits to 4 caves, the outside world, and the level above. However, the 4 caves must first be accessed in order, before the player can proceed to the upper levels, which only have (multiple) exists to the levels above and below.
Combat encounters are random, and offer a little room, but room none the less, for strategic and tactical decisions.
The game starts overly slowly. Until the first boss --- Kaiser crab --- is defeated, the party is limited to one adventurer who is capable of only melee combat, has superior attack and hp growths, and can equip heavier armor and weapons. To defeat the first boss, the player must grind to level 7. Presumably this is to give time to adjust to the interface, the dungeon, and the systems of status effects, angel wings (teleport out of the dungeon), and wisdom seeds (rudimentary map prompts). However, too much time is given.
After Kaiser crab is defeated, the player recruits two other characters into the party. One of these characters learns mostly offensive spells as she levels up, has superior speed, defense, and mp growths, but can only equip the lightest weapons and armor. The second has growths in between the other two characters and learns healing, curing, and defensive buff spells.
Together the three characters are mostly railroaded in what they will be equipping --- optimal choices are obvious. Nevertheless the player must optimize *when* to upgrade which character's equipment in order to best take advantage of the associated power spike. For example, an early hexwhip makes short work of dungeon level 2.
Until level 4, gold is a precious commodity, but afterwards is mostly worthless.
As with most rpgs, grinding is possible, and a cop out for poor strategy. However, screwing up a few times will make sure your party grinds automatically, as death results in revival at the town, half your gold missing, and a long trip back to your previous place in the dungeon. This is, effectively, a dynamic difficulty mechanism.
In the late game, trip time is alleviated by nominating one of many portal points (gold fountains) with an item (gold medallion).
It may be entertaining to replay this game with the aim of completing it at a lower party level, but, again as is the case with many rpgs, the game follows a slot machine design --- assuming the player uses optimal tactics (trivial), each combat encounter is pulling the lever, and player strategy and preparation prior to the encounter is second to the luck of the result. In so many words, a lucky run through the dungeon will always trump a better prepared but unlucky run.
One conceptual problem with the dual time keeping in the game (combat vs exploration) is that buffs can't be cast prior to combat. What's worse, during the final encounter, the game does not explain that buffs cast during the fight with the first form of the boss do not carry over to the second form, even though the game remains in the same mode (combat) during the sequence.
I give the game a 5/10 (open to revision). It is a good babby's first dungeon crawl, and a good set "challenge run" for players of similar games but which have more setup options (player created party, randomized dungeon(s), order of dungeon levels, etc.)