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The Dark Spire Review for Nintendo DS

The Dark Spire Review for Nintendo DS

Right in the Jewels

This whole reviewing gig is bittersweet. Day after day I find myself researching videos and press releases to write optimistic previews about marginal games. Occasionally, I get to review something worthwhile and for that brief shining moment, I truly honored to be able to offer my humble opinion to you gentle gamer. Out of respect for that relationship I must say: don’t fall for the nostalgia; The Dark Spire is a cringe-inducing look back at everything frustrating about early RPGs.

The Dark Spire screenshot

There is an obvious answer to why we’ve seen so many remakes and updates in the gaming world recently (starts with an ‘e’ ends with ‘conomy’), and it makes sense that developers are looking to the past to find some surefire moneymakers. What doesn’t make sense is the utter lack of effort to produce anything that could reasonably be anticipated from a game like this. The Dark Spire is a bland, unexciting, and seemingly untested assault on my sensibilities as a player. As a gamer and critic, it’s time I put my foot down. Let me start at the bottom and make my way up.

Do you remember how much fun you had with those old pen and paper RPGs? The ones that used arbitrarily assigned and improved stats to determine the outcomes of randomly occurring enemy battles and everything else from lock-picking to magic spells? Yeah, neither did I, but developer Success seems to think we loved them. Someone had to anyway, and this game will definitely appeal to a very specific niche of gamers who love that sort of thing. As for the rest of us, there’s nothing to get excited about.

The Dark Spire screenshot

You begin The Dark Spire by selecting a team of adventurers. There are a few races (elf, human, hafling, etc.) and a few classes (mage, priest, warrior, etc.) to select, but for an RPG this seems terribly limiting even though you can take on secondary classes later in the game. Each of these adventurers has a specific alignment and skills that can be learned later (magic spells, trap disarming, etc.). For all of the retro gamers out there, The Dark Spire is very reminiscent of earlier NES RPGs like Final Fantasy. Players will use their weapons, skills, spells and wits to battle the forces of a dark wizard holed up in the top of a tower. Why? In order to defeat the wizard and return the stolen jewels to the queen. It’s predictable, but it’s forgivable since it is a remake.

The meat of a game like this is the exploration, which is tedious but not unexpectedly so. You will do much of your journeying between towns and shops via the menus. In fact, most everything in this game is done through them. This, of course, is one of the game’s greatest problems. As a fan of untraditional RPG’s, I may be biased, but using menus as pretty much the sole means of player interaction is a tricky thing.

The Dark Spire screenshot

There is little sense of actual influence on the Woods of Mist. The whole of your journey ultimately amounts to you scrolling through endless options screens and menus before settling on a course of action that may or may not work. It’s just not that satisfying to watch a screen pop up every time you “unlock a door” by selecting an action then a party member, just to let you know that you haven’t been successful. That’s annoying, but what is most frustrating is that, for those new to the franchise, there are no cues to try again. I wandered around a maze of red brick walls in a dungeon for half an hour before I figured out that I had to try to unlock a door more than once. It actually took around 5 or six tries with random party members before one opened it. That was just the training level.

The Dark Spire screenshot

The game uses an interesting combination of comic book style and 3D animation to provide the visuals. I’ll admit that the colors pop and the gimmick is nice (I played on DSi) but, in a game like this it just isn’t a enough to keep you interested. Even in battle (which is terrifically un-engaging, but more on that in a minute) the Crayola spectrum is only amusing for so long. We’ve seen the comic panel presentation before and, even combined with the still photo effects, you probably will get bored by the end of your first few fights. It’s sort of a cross between the first few Pokémon games and John Madden’s replay pen. Even as lights flashed behind the pictures of my enemies, and slashes and 1960’s Batman-esque words appeared on the screen, I found myself sifting through yawns like so many unnecessary menus.

Clearly, the focus was on nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake here, and that doesn’t make this any easier. Success even decided to include the old wireframe level models from the original game. Sometimes we can look at the old titles and learn something. Sadly, this one’s showing every wrinkle.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.0 Graphics
The colors really pop, but DS remakes have spoiled us for the still shot thing. 2.0 Control
A lifetime to learn, and then the game decides to switch up the menu interface every so often. Fun. 2.5 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Some interesting sound effects. Didn’t really notice the music, but they felt the need to include a CD of it. That counts for something right? Hello? 2.0

Play Value
It just wasn’t that fun. If you play this game it’s because you love the original. If not, it’s because you love yourself.

2.5 Overall Rating – Average
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Pen and Paper RPG just like mom used to make.
  • Quirky comic visuals.
  • Wireframe Classic Mode for Dark Spire aficionados.

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