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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2019 14:14:53 GMT -5
The second chapter seems like it might be much more interesting, but I'd still play through the first story since I assume that makes for about 50% of the game. However, I'm starting to think my issues with the magic system might stem from emulation since it was designed with the stylus in mind. That and the fact that apparently 'some parts of the main story require to blow or scream to the system's microphone in order to advance the story' make me fear the game might not be beatable through emulation.
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Post by Ex on Apr 5, 2019 14:29:55 GMT -5
the fact that apparently 'some parts of the main story require to blow or scream to the system's microphone in order to advance the story ' make me fear the game might not be beatable through emulation. The only PC DS emulator worth using is DeSmuME. And it has you covered. Just use the Microphone hotkey to simulate screaming or blowing into the mic. (A real DS microphone's signal trigger is purely binary. I used to just rub my finger across the mic hole on a real DS, instead of blowing spittle on the screens.) Here's how to DeSmuME it: Despite the workaround, I assure you Deep Labyrinth is not worth your time. There are WAYYYY better FPDCs to play on DS than that drivel. Edit: As a matter of fact I forgot about: Mazes of Fate DS is actually a decent real-time-action FPDC on DS. I beat it last year, took about 16 hours, I rated it a 7/10. It's certainly leagues better than Deep Labyrinth.
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Post by Ex on Apr 6, 2019 11:25:34 GMT -5
Thoughts on Arcana after two hours investment thus far... So in my initial hour of playing this, I'd made it to the stairs to the second floor of the first dungeon. I decided to read a bit about this game afterwards. I noticed in screenshots, that other players had something I didn't: For some unknown reason, when I started Arcana the first time, I was not given Sylph. I don't know if that's a bug in the actual game, or if SNES9X somehow glitched... not sure. However that was a pretty big thing to be missing, so I had to start the game over again. When I did, Sylph was indeed in my party the second go around. So I had to work my way through that first floor all over again, back to the stairs. At which point I went into the second floor, and explored a good bit of it. Then saved there.
Things I like so far: The rendering engine for the dungeon graphics is impressive. It seems to use some sort of actual 3D raycasting or some such. And as a result, when the player turns 90 degrees, there's actual 45 degree edge rendering shown. Which means that the view doesn't just snap between 90 degree increments, and thus the player is less disoriented as a result. The only other old console FPDC I've seen do this was Phantasy Star. There is a useful auto-map indeed.
Combat is simple, but offers enough tactical depth to create engaging battles. Fighting can be fun when it's against challenging enemies.
The graphics are decent, and the audio (music) is above average. Gameplay is very much to the point; you're crawling dungeons, you're fighting, not much in the way of overblown plot exposition.
Things I do not like:
The rendering engine is kinda slow, due to all the math it's doing via the SNES' slow CPU. Thus movement speed isn't quite as fast as I'd prefer, especially when turning. The encounter rate is on the high side. I've often hit random encounters three steps in a row before. While other times, I've walked a good 20 steps before hitting a fight. It's definitely random, but the RNG tends to fall on the encounters-are-very-often side. You have to push four buttons to see the auto-map. That is SUPER DUMB! There are quite a few buttons not used on the gamepad. One of those buttons should have been a dedicated auto-map-bringer-up button.
Furthermore, there's space on the interface that should have been used to show a partial mini-map. But it's not: (That text is supposed to say FLOWERY not FLOWERLY, but I'm not fixing it now.)
When you are buying stuff in a store, there is no indication at all that there can be a whole other page of items below the page you're currently looking at.
Lastly, there needs to be an auto-battle button. Most of the fights are very easy, so you spend a lot of time hammering the attack command over and over and over.
Dungeon layouts have been large and labyrinthine, based on the two floors I've seen so far. However there's nothing to them other then hallways, enemies, and treasure chests. I've not seen any switches, levers, pressure plates, fake walls, teleporters, rotaters... none of the stuff that makes FPDCs' exploration interesting. Let alone puzzles of any sort. Granted this is only the first dungeon, but if all of the dungeons are THIS bare bones... eh.
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So what we have here thus far, is a fairly competent good sounding/looking FPDC on a console, limited by bad interface decisions, a high encounter rate, and overly simplistic dungeon design. That's my take after the first two hours with it. Now, perhaps Arcana's complexity will improve, and I'll enjoy it more as a result. I'm willing to give this game another dungeon to prove itself to me. As I understand things, there's only five dungeons in this game anyway. It appears to be fairly short (HLTB shows 8.5 hours). But if I were to stop now I'd probably give this a 6/10 at the moment. We'll see how it goes.
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Post by bonesnapdeez on Apr 6, 2019 14:08:08 GMT -5
SNES9X somehow glitched... Time to get some actual carts!!!
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Post by Sarge on Apr 6, 2019 14:30:18 GMT -5
Yeah, I don't think you see any interactivity to speak of, much like Phantasy Star. It is very much a console FPDC, effectively a JRPG with a first-person view.
Someone is apparently working on an improvement patch over at RHDN that improves the high encounter rate, among other things.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2019 15:47:40 GMT -5
I believe I'm nearing the end of Orcs & Elves. The talking wand is pretty cool. Pretty sure Megami Tensei and Strange Journey count as FPDCs, right? In that case, I might try to squeeze some SMT in there.
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Post by Sarge on Apr 6, 2019 15:53:38 GMT -5
Would something like Sword of Vermillion count, even though it isn't a pure FPDC?
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Post by Ex on Apr 6, 2019 21:32:09 GMT -5
Someone is apparently working on an improvement patch over at RHDN that improves the high encounter rate, among other things. Huh. Well guess I'll put Arcana away for now then. It's "OK", but not really what I'm looking for. It's just too simple and the encounter rate is abrasive. The search continues. I believe I'm nearing the end of Orcs & Elves. You likely are, it's a short game. I beat the sequel Orcs & Elves II last year, it too was short (about 5 hours). Edit: Would something like Sword of Vermillion count, even though it isn't a pure FPDC? A large portion of this game is presented in first person; specifically while you explore the countryside and dungeons. However combat switches to 3/4ths bird's eye view, and towns do the same. I think it's close enough to count overall. And besides, I personally would love for you to play through Sword of Vermilion. It's a really good JRPG/WRPG hybrid.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2019 8:07:45 GMT -5
It took me way too long to realize that thing on the cover is a dragon head. Orcs & Elves was co-developed by id Software and Fountainhead Entertainment. The game runs on the Doom RPG engine, it was originally conceived for mobile in 2006 and ported a year later to the DS. Orcs & Elves is also the brainchild of John Carmack and his spouse, Katherine Anna Kang, who after the success of Doom RPG felt confident enough to expand on those same gameplay mechanics and create a new fantasy IP. Needless to say, Carmack did all the programming. O&E is a first person dungeon crawler with turn based combat. Unlike many of its peers, O&E does not feature an entire playable party, but focuses instead on a single character. Contrary to most FPDCs, O&E also puts a stronger emphasis on strategy and movement as there are no random encounters and you won't be sent to a battle screen upon meeting enemies, but rather the entire level is like a big grid-based map/arena where each step and every action consumes one turn. In full Doom fashion, enemies and friendly NPCs are sprite-based. The story in O&E is predictably simple. As everyone keeps remiding you, you are an half-elf prince named Elli. Elli is a silent protagonist, supposedly because he is not familiar with the local dialect. Luckily, you own a talking magic wand named Ellion that will do all of the talking and will also give you useful tips throughout the game, warning you when your armor needs repairing, commenting on your battle skills with encouraging remarks like Maniac!, Gory!, Stay Down! and so on. You received a call for help from the neighboring Dwarven kingdom and your father, the Elven king, sent you to investigate. Turns out the entire place was overrun by Orcs and all the dwarves have been killed, but they still wander these iron halls as ghosts. They'll usually agree to help you in your quest, although some of them need some convincing and will only aid you after you retrieve and drink a pint of dwarven ale with them. Each section of the underground city constitutes a different level. All levels are interconnected by loading screens and you can always go back if you wish to grind or discover all the secret areas. You can also reach a hub area of sorts via the Blue Flame Portal, which also happens to be the nest of Gaya, a seemingly friendly female dragon who was in good terms with the dwarves and is not very cool with her new neighbors. At first, Gaya seems completely chill and businesswomanlike and she's happy to trade armors, potions and weapons with you in exchange for gold and gems. Unfortunately, she is also subject to unpredictable mood swings that even your silver-tongued wand can't do much to assuage. Each time you talk to her, a bar appears on the screen, showing her current disposition. When she's in a good mood, you can even try to barter and buy her items at a convenient price. However, if you buy too many items, she starts to get paranoid and think you're trying to pull a fast one on her. And much like people selling their used car on Craigslist, if you try to low-ball her on the price, she will immediately lose it and threaten to murder you and your entire family. Poor communication, very unprofessional. One star. Would not recommend. While the story and dialogue itself are rather kid-friendly, the graphics can get pretty bloody at times and some monsters are somewhat scary looking. It seemed like it wants to be Heretic RPG at times, but they didn't go all the way. As a result, the game ended up being rated 7+ in NA, but 12+ in Europe. The game is on the short side (5 hours), but it also comes with three difficulty settings that can rise the challenge considerably. Playing it on Nightmare, I found the very first level quite difficult and while it slowly got better after that, I only got somewhat comfy once I got my hands on the Medusa Scroll, which has a good chance of temporarily petrifying your opponents. The game would still throw cheap ambushes at me from time to time and that's when the Haste potion - which allows you to act twice in the same turn - comes in handy. The game is all about luring the enemies in a corner where you can kill them one at a time and boosting your stats with potions at the right time. It's possible you're not as dependent on potions on Normal, but on Nightmare I was a complete junkie. There is a vast selection of stat boosters, healing potions, invisibility potions, ales and so on. There's also a decent number of weapons you can buy, not to mention how your wand also becomes more powerful and unlocks new spells. While O&E still kind of feels like a mobile game, this is a good mobile game. The dialogue is endearing, the story isn't nothing to write home about and the gameplay is solid but rarely amazing. It's a good game. I also recorded my fight against the final boss. There's already a video of such fight (also on Nightmare) on YT, but it was from the mobile version and the guy grinded all the way up to level 35 because said fight was, apparently, impossible. Well, I didn't grind and I was just level 10. In any case, if you'd like to see what the gameplay's like, here it goes: I give this game 7 Dragonscale Armors out of 10.
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Post by Ex on Apr 7, 2019 10:03:20 GMT -5
I'm glad you enjoyed Orcs & Elves. I agree it's a pleasant FPDC snack. I had fun remembering some of the goofier moments while reading your review. Gotta love those drunken dwarves. The game runs on the Doom RPG engine I think this is certainly true for the original Orcs & Elves on mobile, but I don't think that's true for the DS port. The original game was coded in Java for Symbian OS. DS games are coded in C/C++ for a proprietary OS. I doubt the engine would have been transferable. I also say that, because I've played DOOM RPG and other id Software / Fountainhead RPGs on mobile as well. They all use the same engine we're talking about, and it just doesn't feel or operate like Orcs & Elves does on DS. That said, I will agree that Orcs & Elves on DS clearly takes direct inspiration from the original DOOM RPG engine. It works similarly, but is less clunky due to a better control interface, and has enhanced graphic capability. At any rate! You would likely enjoy the rest of the games in id's Software / Fountainhead Entertainment's "RPG" series: DOOM RPG DOOM II RPG Orcs & Elves II Wolfenstein RPG I'm not sure what a good PC J2ME emulator is these days. I play J2ME games on my smartphone using this.
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