This game completely slipped under my radar until a few days ago when a friend pointed it out to me so I thought I'd share. Basically it sounds like a meaner Etrian Odyssey without the anime inspired graphics. A throwback to Wizardry if you will. As a huge fan of the original Wizardry series I'm really looking forward to it.
It's a DS game and the official site is
here. Here is a feature list I stole from another site (thanks Rascyc).
Background
* Atlus game, for the DS
* Dungeon Crawler, Western-style. Think Wizardry. Think a clone. Think Wizardry Clone.
* Cheesy dungeon crawling plot. There's a tower, a spire even. There's a forest. Mist surrounds the forest. There's a queen, whose necklace is stolen by a warlord. Warlord flees to the spire, within a forest, within the mist. King says "YOUR WISHES BE GRANTED TO WHOMEVER GETS DAT NECKLACE BACK". It's cliche and dumb, welcome (back) to dungeon crawling!
Gameplay
* 4 person parties. 20 person guilds for dungeon crawling vets.
* 4 races: human, elf, dwarf, halfling. Roll for the usual statistics. Alignments are also in and is extended to a "Faith" system which restricts you to certain spell sets and things you can do at temples(?)
* 4 base classes, 6 extended classes. Looks like you can multi-class in base classes which unlocks extended classes once you get the appropriate levels in certain base class combinations.
* Turn based combat. Classic/traditional as far as I can tell.
* EXP-as-currency skill system. Standard skills such as lock picking and acrobatics (for traps) to timeless classics such as comedy and dancing.
Gimmicks
* Classic Play Mode - Want to REALLY live your childhood years of Wizardry? Now you can with the classic play mode! Do away with the graphics and just switch back to the oldschool wire frames and very basic graphics. Also utilizes 8 bit sound effects/music for the full archaic experience!
* Modern Mode - 3D dungeons with flavorful artwork. Standard fare stuff if you've played Etrian Odyssey or any of the older Wizardry titles. A lot of the room graphics look particularly interesting and the enemy models look pretty good. Let's hope that there are not too many palette swaps!
* Atmoshpere Text - Lots of references to Shadowgate and other oldschool room crawlers. Basically a number of rooms with flavor text descriptions of the surroundings. Apparently you can turn this off if you don't care (it has no impact on gaming).
Being as it's an Atlus game and will probably be near impossible to find in a couple months I just wanted to spread the love. The game shipped today (04/14/09) so I'm assuming it'll be on shelves soon.
Author
