Dark Spire released: Comments/Impressions?

thekdawg21 · Apr 14, 2009

Anyone out there pick this up yet?

JarlFrank · Apr 14, 2009

Link plx.

Fat Dragon · Apr 14, 2009

JarlFrank said:
Link plx.

http://www.atlus.com/darkspire/
Wizardry clone for Nintendo DS.

I ordered this game about a week ago, should be here in a day or two.

Panthera · Apr 14, 2009

This looks really good, but reviews are middling so far. I want some opinions from people who actually play RPGs.

Fat Dragon · Apr 14, 2009

Panthera said:
This looks really good, but reviews are middling so far.

It's a throwback to the classic dungeon RPGs of old. It was doomed to be disliked by mainstream.

Anyways, I'll post some impressions here after I get it. My copy will hopefully be in by tomorrow.

SuicideBunny · Apr 15, 2009

http://www.destructoid.com/destructoid- ... 8154.phtml

Hobo Elf · Apr 15, 2009

The races and classes don't seem to be very exciting. I know it's supposed to be old school, but still. Come on. You got your basic 4 classes, and then 6 "speciality" classes which are just different combinations of the 4 existing ones. And according to Destructioid the game might be too short. I'll refrain from buying this until I can see some kind of approval.

Castanova · Apr 15, 2009

Destructoid didn't say the game is too short. You're just reading the generic explanatory text that accompanies a score in the 7's. It got a 7, seemingly, because it's a niche title that most people would not enjoy.

Sounds pretty good to me. However, I recently got Etrian Odyssey 2 and I've been pretty disappointed with that one. The game is pretty hard, yeah, but it's also has a huge amount of grind and drawing your own map gets annoying.

I'm waiting to hear if The Dark Spire is super grindy or not.

ghostdog · Apr 15, 2009

I think jasede has played it and liked it, he made a thread not long ago.

Hobo Elf · Apr 15, 2009

Castanova said:
Destructoid didn't say the game is too short. You're just reading the generic explanatory text that accompanies a score in the 7's.

Ah, I see. First time I've read a review on that site. Still, shortness isn't always that bad if the content is interesting. My main concern is still with the generic classes.

obediah · Apr 15, 2009

I think it will be my next DS game. I bailed on the Fire Emblem game at around 80%, then on Luminous Arc 2 at about 20% ( witch bewbs aren't enough to make up for the boring combat and lame story ). Now I'm plugging away at Front Mission and it's holding my interest so far.

Saxon1974 · Apr 15, 2009

I assume there will not be a windows version. It looks interesting but I dont have a nintendo DS.

Castanova · Apr 15, 2009

I believe there are working DS emulators. Can't say whether this particular game is available yet on the intarwebz.

getter77 · Apr 15, 2009

Yeah, I'm leaning towards a purchase consisting of this and Dokapon Journey. Neither of the EO games appealed enough to give them a shot, but this one seems like it might have a bit of Wizardry-esque meat to it. I also dig the nuanced attack/defend options instead of just the "hold down confirm" mess that happens often on RPG's lately.

$30 isn't a bad price either all things considered. Unless some amazingly bad impressions that can back them up start filtering in I think I'll grab some cash tomorrow and place an Amazon order.

Panthera · Apr 15, 2009

That review is extremely positive, actually.

I mean, look at this:

So let's say that you do persevere and manage to push your party past the first round of early deaths and actually advance a bit, you'll really get a taste of what elevates The Dark Spire from being good to great: its personality.

getter77 · Apr 15, 2009

Yep, just cracked and placed an order for the above 2...plus I got a sweet deal and scored Icewind Dale DVD Collection for $7.99.

Between these 5ish games, good times surely.

Also this battle music did it for me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agkqfWqe ... re=related

Jasede · Apr 15, 2009

I couldn't have played it yet since it wasn't released when I made that thread. Not ordering it just yet- gotta play Cave Story Wii (a good game on the Wii!?!?) at the end of the month, gotta be ready.

feighnt · Apr 16, 2009

just to note, about Destructoid and their scoring system: they are, theoretically, committed to having a more honest scoring system. ie: whereas, with most places, anything lower than an 8 equals a pretty bad game, and a 5 is basically abyssmal, in Destructoid 5 just means average (might have good points, but they're countered by equal number of bad points) and a 7 is actually a rather good score.

though i doubt they always succeed with the ideal, they're still a little more honest about scores. so, the score they gave to the game was actually very good.

but, to note: the lass who reviewed the game, it should be known, also tends to gush about all sorts of jrpg stuff that most of the people here *hate*, so... yeah, keep that in mind.

Andhaira · Apr 16, 2009

Look forward to playing this one if I ever get a DS.

Emotional Vampire · Apr 16, 2009

lol, fatlus.

Wyrmlord · Apr 16, 2009

Emotional Vampire said:
lol, fatlus.

One thing I have noticed about these Atlus games is that special classes are available for unlocking later on, and not at character creation itself a la Wizardry 6, 7, and 8.

And they require you to multiclass for a while before switching to that special class.

Sounds pretty wierd if you ask me - but someone once explained to me that by Japanese rule of thumb, they always like to have unlockable classes in their games, as they did in the earlier DQ games where there supposedly was an unlockable class of Priest.

The simple western system of reducing level progression of special classes is effective enough in itself.

Crawfish · Apr 16, 2009

Hobo Elf said:
Castanova said:

Destructoid didn't say the game is too short. You're just reading the generic explanatory text that accompanies a score in the 7's.

Click to expand...

Ah, I see. First time I've read a review on that site. Still, shortness isn't always that bad if the content is interesting. My main concern is still with the generic classes.

I preordered it from Amazon some time back. It hasn't arrived yet, so I can't speak from experience yet, but one of the screenshots on the official page shows the "Ninja" secondary class being selected. The in-game text states that the class has the ability to instantly kill enemies with a single shot.

I'm assuming this means that each of the secondary classes, like the ninja, has unique abilities that aren't available to their constituent base classes. That fleshes out the class system a bit, and potentially provides value to each of the ten options.

Hobo Elf · Apr 16, 2009

Crawfish said:
Hobo Elf said:

Castanova said:

Destructoid didn't say the game is too short. You're just reading the generic explanatory text that accompanies a score in the 7's.

Click to expand...

Ah, I see. First time I've read a review on that site. Still, shortness isn't always that bad if the content is interesting. My main concern is still with the generic classes.

Click to expand...

I preordered it from Amazon some time back. It hasn't arrived yet, so I can't speak from experience yet, but one of the screenshots on the official page shows the "Ninja" secondary class being selected. The in-game text states that the class has the ability to instantly kill enemies with a single shot.

I'm assuming this means that each of the secondary classes, like the ninja, has unique abilities that aren't available to their constituent base classes. That fleshes out the class system a bit, and potentially provides value to each of the ten options.

Huh, sounds cool then. I'll still wait and see if this game is really grind heavy though. I'm kinda burned out on grindan for now.

thekdawg21 · Apr 16, 2009

Anyone pick this up that can attest to a good hard difficulty? What about some semblance of a story?

The Larpin' Dude · Apr 16, 2009

sup guise

Dark Spire released: Comments/Impressions?

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