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Tag: role playing

  • Suits and Swords Review
    Reviews
    • Android
    • iOS
    Suits and Swords Review

    By

    As someone who makes most of his income working in the casino industry, but also enjoys playing and writing about RPGs, I sometimes feel games like Suits and Swords are messing with my head. Splicing together blackjack and a fantasy RPG could be really intriguing. Or it could be a disaster, as splicing in general sometimes is. This game manages to be neither, ending up a middle-of-the-road experience in both content and execution.Unlike some other casino-RPG hybrids, having the inhabitants of the Suits and Swords world play blackjack to fight their battles makes some sense. That's because the whole place is themed like a deck of playing cards, with four distinctly different lands - Heart Union, Diamond Empire, Club Kingdom and Spade Nation - in which to adventure."As Captain Black Jack (get it?), you return to find all four nations have come under the sway of the evil Joker. No, not the famous one, but their inspiration is clearly the same. To get to him and set things right, you've got to defeat a number of enemies and brainwashed friends by defeating them in head-to-head blackjack play.Most people know at least the basics of blackjack, so I won't go into the rules here. Suffice it to say that in each round of play, if you get closer to 21 without going over than your opponent, your character attacks. The reverse is also true, and if both sides bust or have equal totals, it's a push and no damage is done either way. Better totals do more damage, so a 21 takes away more hit points from an enemy than a 19.
  • Winds of Destiny – Duels of the Magi Review
    Reviews
    • Android
    Winds of Destiny – Duels of the Magi Review

    By

    Winds of Destiny - Duels of the Magi is one of the most straightforward games I've ever played. Seriously, the game is on par with Checkers as far as complexity goes. A single match in Winds of Destiny can be completed in minutes, and the entire single-player game can be knocked out within a half-hour or so. Best of all, the game's brevity comes without penalty. It's clear that the developer, Stupidgizmo, realized the key to a good smartphone game is succinct gameplay, and they capitalized on that knowledge here completely.Players start the game out by choosing a guardian from one of three class types: healer, protector, and "damage." There are eight guardians in total, and the only difference between them (apart from varying cosmetically) is that every character possesses a special ability which can be activated during battle. Once a guardian is selected, players meet Custos, the leader of the guardians! Custos introduces himself and it is quickly apparent that his own special ability is conjuring up walls of text out of thin air."Once Custos' history lesson is over, players are plopped right into their first battle. There is no tutorial in Winds of Destiny. In lieu of a tutorial, Stupidgizmo uploaded a video onto YouTube that runs through the basics of the game. The video is linked on the main menu, which is inaccessible during gameplay: a fact I discovered straightaway. I found myself starring at a hand of cards, some with numbers, some with pictures, and I had no idea what to do.Luckily for me, and probably the good chunk of players who failed to see the tutorial link on the main menu, Winds of Destiny is really easy to figure out. At the start of each turn, players choose three cards from the hand which has been randomly drawn. If the player selected three numbered cards, the numbers are added together and that is how much damage is dealt to the opponent.
  • Tales of Phantasia Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    Tales of Phantasia Review

    By

    Free-to-play mobile titles tend to make traditional game fans furious, and when you come across a hair-pulling experience like Namco Bandai's Tales of Phantasia, it admittedly becomes hard to defend the controversial formula.  Tales of Phantasia is a 16-bit classic action / RPG that was a huge hit in Japan, but has had a limited Western release since its debut on the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo). The original game received a fan translation that takes some creative liberties with the story and its characters (think unwarranted profanity - lots of it), and a poor Game Boy Advance remake, but otherwise, English-speakingfans will have to make do with Tales of Phantasia for mobile. What a shame, then, that Namco considers this poorly-constructed adaptation a worthy ambassador for newcomers to the series.Tales of Phantasia is free to download, which should rightfully set off some warning bells. How does the free-to-play formula even work in this instance?"The answer: It doesn't work. This is a 16-bit RPG through-and-through, right down to the "orphaned hero" storyline. You grind enemies for experience, grow in levels, and buy better monster-slaying equipment. That's fine - except Namco Bandai has thrown in optional purchases like orbs that revive you when you die.The problem with making a title like Tales of Phantasia free-to-play is that you have no idea if the game is playing fair. The mobile iteration is apparently a port of a Japanese PSP re-release, and to hear the tittle-tattle from series fans on message boards and the App Store, the mobile port allegedly jacks up the difficulty, reduces item drops, and even removes save points to goad players into buying resurrection orbs and other boosters.
  • Road of Kings Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    Road of Kings Review

    By

    Gamebooks have made a big comeback on mobile devices recently. But for all the nostalgia and entertainment they provide, I can't help but feel most of them are a wasted opportunity. On a multimedia touchscreen device, why limit yourself to static pictures and text? Road of Kings attempts to take the concept to a new level by mixing in elements of rouge-like adventure games. You play a barbarian warrior who has 100 days to amass a fortune of gold big enough to buy yourself a chieftainship.The action takes place on a top-down hex map of a fantasy kingdom. There are towns to visit, ruins to explore, and monsters and other heroes to encounter, which you can either fight or have join your party; if you choose the latter option, you must then feed them by buying food or risking hunting in the wilderness."So far, so ordinary. What's intriguing about Road of Kings is the combination of chance encounters and scripted story. Travellers on the road or the contents of long-forgotten ruins are generated randomly, but many locations on the map provide a richer vein of adventure.Enter one of these and the game map is overlaid by a text window describing your encounters and offering you choices in the vein of a "choose your own adventure" book. The locations of these change occasionally, but once you're in a given adventure the script remains the same. And you'll need to experiment and learn the rewarding choices if you want to succeed in your quest.
  • Overlive Review
    Reviews
    • Android
    • iOS
    Overlive Review

    By

    Overlive is a promising mix of things. On one hand the game is a tap-and-shoot zombie shooter, and on the other hand it's a choice-driven narrative full of decision making. Unfortunately, neither one of these elements stands out memorably. The combat scenarios involve simply tapping at static images to shoot, or swiping a finger across the screen for a melee attack, and while the writing was grammatically sound, by the end of my playthrough I was left with more dead-end subplots than I cared to remember.In the game, players are tasked with escaping a zombie-filled city before the local nuclear power plant has a meltdown and blankets the area with atomic radiation. Instead of simply tossing players a shotgun and pointing them in the direction of the best way out of town, Overlive has players scrounging the city for a vehicle to use to escape the blast radius of the power plant. While on the hunt for a vehicle, players encounter a number of survivors and begin to unravel the mystery surrounding what really caused the apocalypse."The problem with Overlive's storytelling is that the game can end before the story does. I literally ran the clock out, attempting to unravel the story, and ended up dying on the 180th day when the power plant exploded. I never found any answers to the half-dozen plot points brought to my attention while playing through the game. Now, while that does promote replayability (something which I typically like within a game), the gameplay itself was just too dull for me to want to have to deal with it again.
  • The Banner Saga Walkthrough
    Walkthroughs
    • iOS
    • PC
    The Banner Saga Walkthrough

    By

    The Banner Saga is a turn-based tactical RPG from Stoic. You play as a series of protagonists, traveling across the world, tending to your armies, and engaging in grid-based battles. Gamezebo's quick start strategy guide will provide you with detailed images, tips, information, and hints on how to make the good guys suffer for their foolish delusions of heroism."
  • Across Age 2 Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    Across Age 2 Review

    By

    Across Age 2 has a lot to live up to.  Its predecessor is one of iOS's earliest action-RPG success stories.  Despite a shaky start upon its 2010 release, subsequent updates and expansions—in the form of Across Age DX—improved the original's controls and added an entirely new dungeon to the 10-hour+ adventure.  Its combination of character-switching, time-traveling, and 16-bit-era charm formed the basis for a series that would pride itself on nearly non-stop action interrupted only by the occasional switch puzzle or drunken pirate quest.All of these features have returned to duty in Across Age 2, along with a number of upgrades that improve upon even Across Age DX.  The story is richer and less cut-and-paste "collect the items and stop the bad guy" linear; characters are deeper and not limited to Ceska, Ales, or one-off caricatures; and gameplay has been expanded through additional items, puzzles, and strategies.  While these enhancements technically make Across Age 2 the best entry in the series, they are minor changes in a game that relies heavily on its predecessor's features, too intimidated by its success to fall far from the tree.  The result feels more like Across Age DX2 rather than a brand new game in an expanding series."The story of Across Age 2 picks up immediately after the end of the original: Prince Ales and Mage Ceska have thwarted Count Agrean and altered the course of time to save the future.  Because they changed history itself, no one remembers their heroic deeds save the two of them, and life returns to a peaceful normal.  Meanwhile, 25 years into the future, an evil king and queen have taken over Ales's kingdom, openly killing subjects who defy them.  Lily, a member of the rebellion against the despotic rulers, uses the power of Across Age to travel to Ales's and Ceska's present, intending to kill the monarchs before they come to power.  She runs into our newly minted heroes and the three set out to save the future once again.While the monarchs could easily have become the next Count Agrean, Across Age 2 utilizes a bait-and-switch technique that makes most dungeons and dangers feel of the utmost importance.  Instead of traveling around in search of clocks to prepare for the impending final battle, there are multiple "final battles" and big bosses throughout the journey, and the true danger to the world is often yet to be revealed.  This is a popular tactic in Super Nintendo-era RPGs like Final Fantasy VI—which requires a cataclysmic event to reveal the true big baddie—and it keeps Across Age 2 exciting and surprising.
  • Archangel Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    Archangel Review

    By

    Sometimes all you need is to hear a game's name and see a few awesome screenshots to know that it's going to be cool. Yes, it's the digital equivalent of judging a book by its cover, but it does work on occasion. Other times, you end up with something like Archangel, a dungeon crawler that boasts attractive graphics but misses the mark with so many other things that it ends up a depressingly dull experience.Let's get the positives established up front. Black Tower Studios and Unity Games definitely came up with a decent enough concept, placing you in control of a vengeful archangel who looks like he means business. He's got the big wings, a menacing weapon, and a shield: all the things you'd need to rough up anyone defying the will of Heaven (though technically the Powers are the warrior angels; just saying).But as soon as you're done admiring how awesome everything looks during the opening cinematics, the doubts start creeping in pretty quickly. The animation doesn't do justice to the character designs, as everything moves very stiffly. It's almost like the forces of Heaven and Hell don't have as many joints as us mere mortals. The beautifully rendered scenery also gets in the way, making it hard to see more than an inch or so in front of you.That wouldn't be so bad if it was used to create some tension or something, but the bad guys simply stand there and wait for you to approach. You do that by tapping to get the archangel to move from one point to another, meaning you'll be tapping a lot to get him from one end of the dungeon to another. A virtual button is used for attacks, which can increase along with movement speed after defeating strings of enemies without taking too much damage in return.