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| The Dark Spire; A review | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 3 2011, 12:48 PM (1,644 Views) | |
| KingJames88 | Mar 3 2011, 12:48 PM Post #1 |
Ds Games!
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 As bit of an introduction, I thought I'd make The Dark Spire my first review as it's my favorite game on the ds. It's not as unknown as it used to be, but still isn't known to the mainstream audience, and I feel a lot of people may have skipped over it because of it's visuals, reviews, and short shelf life at gaming stores. I plan on breaking down most reviews into a few categories, some games may have more or less than others, according to what it necessary. Some areas I will touch on are story, game play, and visuals/presentation (not graphics because I feel a game even with a simple design can look great if displayed correctly). Now I know only three areas seems a bit small, but a lot of other review sites break down graphic and presentation into two categories, which I feel I can make one topic, and certain areas like replay value or music I will certainly address in the games that require it, but other games I wouldn't have much to say on the subject. I also plan on having a section for anything extra or special about the game that doesn't fit into any of the above.  Story There isn't much of a story to The Dark Spire when you first turn on the game. You begin the game in a fictional town with the standard fantasy setting, asking you to introduce yourself, gather up a party of four characters and go into the dungeon known as The Dark Spire at the request of the royal family. To tell you anything more than this would be spoiling the game, as some of the best parts are piecing together clues as to why your in the tower and figuring out what it's all about. The story expands even further and takes a couple of twists if you decide to go into the post game, but again that would reveal too much. Just know there is a back story for those of you looking for one, you just have to work to figure it all out. Gameplay If anyone played the old PC games like Wizardry, you will know what to expect here. For those of you that haven't, this is a very straight forward dungeon crawling rpg. After composing your team of four characters, of which you can choose a warrior, thief, mage or priest, you set out into town. This is where you can speak to the guildmaster and accept quests, go to the temple and pray (you can choose to align yourself as neutral, chaotic, or good), sleep at the inn, or purchase things at the shop. It is all laid out in the form of text menus with a background illustration or a person your speaking too and the backdrop of the town, no voice acting or animations, but more on that in the presentation area. Once in the labyrinth, you move one square on the map grid at a time, either north, south, east or west. If you encounter a square of interest, sometimes you'll be prompted by a message of text or an npc popping up and talking to you, while other times you need to press a button to actually investigate on your own. You'll quickly find yourself pressing a button on every square, looking in all directions, as this is the only way you can find secret doors and certain other things, as none of this appears in the game world, you only see the walls, floors, doors, stairs, and ceilings. Don't go into a room seeing nobody is in there and turn around and leave, you may need to take a step or two inside to make the person show themselves, and exploring every tile of the dungeon is important because of this. About the combat, it is also text driven, with an avatar of the enemy or enemies your fighting displayed above. You choose from a menu of commands, either using magic, attempting to steal, using an item, or attacking with a weapon. Upon winning a fight, you'll receive experience for everyone who survived the battle, as well as treasure at times in the form of items of gold pieces to spend. There are times when the enemy will drop a treasure chest as well which is almost always riddled with traps, so having a thief on hand isn't a bad idea if you want to take advantage of this extra loot. As in most rpgs, you buy weapons and armor and other equipment to make yourself stronger, but things are a little different in the dark spire. When you go to buy a weapon, you don't see any stats for it, you can only get a description of it and which classes can use it, and need to judge based on the description, and it's price, if it's going to be better or worse than what you are already equipped with. There are plenty of quests and puzzles throughout the game, some of which really make you think, and others of which are near impossible, but there's always something for you to do to accompany you on your journey higher into the tower, and many of the quests have great rewards, not to mention the reward of feeling good when solving a tricky puzzle without using gamefaqs. To sum it up, like most dungeon crawlers, you enter the dungeon, fight as much as you can, leave the dungeon with your loot, rest up, buy better equipment, and try to get further next time. Presentation This area of the game can be amazing for some, and horrible for others. I personally love the look and feel of this game, but for certain younger gamers it may be a turn off to see everything in static 2d avatars and backgrounds with a style of an rpg from 1983. The art itself is very well done and the colors chose for each floor and the town are excellent and really leave an impression, even more so than a game that would be trying to do too much at once. Spells and attacks are displayed as a flash on the screen followed by a word like "pow" or something else very simple, along with a simple sound effect. Each floor has a very specific theme and it's own amazing sound track. The only exception to this is the first and second floors have the same soundtrack, but still different themes. I don;t want to spoil any of the themes, but they are incredibly varied for a setting that is supposed to take place all within one tower, and so each floor has enemies, a layout, npc's, art style, and music all to match the theme. The map is displayed on the lower screen and is very simple as well, with walls, doors, stairs, secret areas and squares you have stepped on all being displayed, but just by colored lines or blocks. For a quick reference without spoiling much: Music from the first floor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVSVT-VcHMc&playnext=1& list=PLD1229B92C0B05387 Music from a basic enemy encounter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9Z0zvwu2mw&feature=related I'm not one to enjoy music in a video game, but the music in this game is in my head for the rest of my life and really played an important part of the atmosphere of the experience.  For those of you even older than myself, if you really wanna be taken back into time, there's even a classic mode, with even more simple presentation, and simplified music. Every track is the same, but remade in an 8 bit type of sound.  In closing, if your a fan of rpgs, anything different, games that are incredibly rewarding, or dungeon crawlers, you have to give this a try if you think you can get past, or even enjoy the old school approach the game takes. It adds a lot more to the game than it takes away, as I haven't had to use my imagination this much since I was about 5 years old. The game gives you just enough where your mind fills in all the rest, and I often forget you never see your own characters or certain events in the game, because i have such clear images of them in my head from the awesome descriptions the game gives you to work with. Don't let the start of the game put you off, as it's not easy to get into as you really don't know what's going on, and often times have to leave the tower to heal yourself after only one or two fights. I promise it's worth the difficult start if you think this is a game you'd be interested in. One other thing to note, there are three endings in this game, but not in the usual sense where you can get either two bad endings or one good ending. One ending is beating the boss of the tower, but then you can continue on into the post game to get a second ending which comes up very quick, and a third ending which took me around 20 more hours to get to, and is really worth it for anyone that took the time to play that far into the game, as it fully explains the story and gives you a lot more content. I hope I swayed at least one person to give this game a try. 
Edited by KingJames88, Mar 6 2011, 09:53 AM.
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 >>My DS Collection Here<< 194 games and counting! | |
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| browland1 | Mar 3 2011, 01:27 PM Post #2 |
 
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Excellent review, very thorough and well presented. I voted for Harry Hatsworth next, since that's one of my favorite DS games. |
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| NostalgiaKing | Mar 3 2011, 02:12 PM Post #3 |
These aren't the droids we're looking for.
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That was fast! Great review! I've been wanting to play The Dark Spire for ages, but it's just not available in my area, and I've only recently started to buy games online. Really need to pick it up when it's price is at a low point on Amazon! Also, your review has an excellent format! I agree with your choice judge a game by it's visuals/presentation rather than it's graphics. |
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| DizzyDial | Mar 3 2011, 03:00 PM Post #4 |
RPG Obessed
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Great review dude, very well written and informative. |
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| Overtimee | Mar 3 2011, 04:38 PM Post #5 |
Run!
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Awesome Review. I have always been interested in this game, but here in Europe i can't find it that easily, and if i do it's usually pretty expensive. Also, i think the battle theme is awesome. I also checked the 8 Bit version of it on YouTube, which i even think is better. |
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| FailedElectrician | Mar 3 2011, 06:31 PM Post #6 |
Lametastic
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Great review. Can't wait to see what other reviews you do... Though I am not personally the biggest fan of the Dark Spire I will say that the review was very well made. |
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<('-'<) <( '-' )> (>'-')> >: 3( | |
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| KingJames88 | Mar 3 2011, 09:05 PM Post #7 |
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Ds Games!
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Thank you for all the support. The poll is tied at 3-3 right now, but before I ask for a tie breaker I'd like to see a handful more votes. |
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>>My DS Collection Here<< 194 games and counting! | |
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| appletsauce | Mar 5 2011, 03:21 PM Post #8 |
3DS
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I'm interested in finally getting to The Dark Spire, but I'm currently playing through Enslaved. Need to have it done by tomorrow. Then there's Dragon Quest 9 and a slew of other RPGs. How many hours did it take to get to the second ending? I need to prioritize which games come first in my pile of DS goodness. So many RPGs but not enough time. |
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| KingJames88 | Mar 5 2011, 05:31 PM Post #9 |
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Ds Games!
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I'll try my best not to spoil anything, but it only took an extra few minutes to get to the second ending. it's the third ending that was a ton more gameplay, 20 hours+ for me, but enjoyed every minute. The second ending is really just getting somewhere in the tower, after already beating the boss. I know what you mean about prioritizing, I'm doing the same with playing EO2 so I dont have to play through 2 and 3 after the 3ds is out, and I wanna get to DQ 5 next so I dont have 5,6 and 9 all to play. That being said, The Dark Spire has still been better than everything else I've played on the ds, if that helps with it's priority for you. |
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>>My DS Collection Here<< 194 games and counting! | |
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| KingJames88 | Mar 9 2011, 09:25 PM Post #10 |
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Ds Games!
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I'm going to start to type up my next review this coming weekend so get those votes in if you want to see henry hatsworth as hotel dusk is currently winning. Thanks again for all the kind words, I didn't realize how much I carried on until after I posted it, but I like being thorough, and there was so much to say about this game. I'll try to tidy things up in the next review. |
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| Aerodynamisch | Mar 10 2011, 04:57 AM Post #11 |
Level 7
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Must have missed this thread, only read it just now. But I have to say that this is a wonderful review. Good in-depth look at all the important aspects of the game. It is shorter than most of my reviews. I definitely look forward to a Hotel Dusk review. But there can always be time for a Henry Hatsworth. I hope more people will pick up The Dark Spire. I remember playing this at the same time you were playing it and it was a blast. For my first dungeon crawler it was a welcome suprise. Surely The Dark Spire was inspired by both old skool RPGs like Wizardry, they have also taken a lot of aspects from the old Shin Megami Tensei games. Sadly those have never been officially released but a fan translation is out there for connoiseurs of the RPG. Or you can just check out Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey which is pretty similar to both The Dark Spire and the old Shin Megami Tensei games. But again great review and i look forward to reading more! |
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| KingJames88 | Mar 11 2011, 02:26 PM Post #12 |
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Ds Games!
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I did pick up Strange Journey and like the way it looks some like etrian odyssey and it seems to have a story with some plot twists in it (I doubt your really in antarctica the whole time). I will eventually play it in the future but no time soon as I won't want another dungeon crawler for a long time after etrian odyssey 2. |
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>>My DS Collection Here<< 194 games and counting! | |
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| Mrkingdomheartsboy | Feb 22 2012, 01:30 AM Post #13 |
Level 5
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Great review man, i'm more of a younger gamer so i have no attachment to games like wizardry but i love dark spire from what i played, yes it's hard but i always fell great after beating a tough battle against 10 grave robbers. But i don't agree with you on one thing while i'm a younger gamer i personally love the art style of the game though i'm not a terribly big fan of the classic mode.(music's great though) |
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| KingJames88 | Feb 22 2012, 10:27 AM Post #14 |
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Ds Games!
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I never did end up typing up a "next" review sadly, work takes up way too much of my time where the only free time I have left is split between a number of other things I'd prefer doing instead. Glad you like the game so far, even with it's dated style and look, and the difficulty at the start. It's a really rewarding game to finish, especially if you get the real ending. |
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| ctx47 | Apr 2 2012, 09:57 PM Post #15 |
Level 4
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This was a very detailed and well done review and as someone whos trying to become a reviewer i am quite jealous :)*claps hands* bravo. |
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| KingJames88 | Apr 2 2012, 11:16 PM Post #16 |
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Ds Games!
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Thank you. I regret I no longer have the time to type out reviews like that due to work, but I'm always up for offering recommendations. as far as reviewing goes, it's a lot like writing a school paper, break it up into parts and know what your talking about. Make sure you can articulate what your brain is trying to say. |
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>>My DS Collection Here<< 194 games and counting! | |
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| XxKomebackKidxX | Apr 3 2012, 12:26 AM Post #17 |
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I really wish I could have gotten into The Dark Spire more but it was far too challenging for me at the time. I died within the first room in like 10 seconds. I tried to give it a chance but to no avail. Maybe someday I will go back to it. |
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