Customer Reviews

Away Shuffle Dungeon

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm really surprised that no one has written a raving review for this game, considering how great it is, but I'm glad that I can be the first. This game ROCKS THE CASBAH! I've been looking for a good game to play for a while, and till the next Professor Layton comes out or till someone *cough* gets their act together and put out a new Legend of Zelda for the DS, I bought "Away." It is a very quiet-looking title or something a serious gamer wouldn't enjoy, but don't let the box image fool you. It is far more challenging than the package would lead you to believe.

I'm going to try to not give away TOO much of the game, but here goes. You're Sword, and there is an annual event called the Away. During this time, one person in your village is "stolen." When it comes time for the one hundredth person to be taken by the Away, after a few interesting cut scenes, the whole village--with the exception of you--has been taken, and it's your job to find them.

OBJECTIVE: Find the villagers

HOW TO FIND THEM: Search the three main areas of the game for items that will open up dungeons. Progress through these dungeons to come to the final areas, which can either have in them a villager or a baddie you need to defeat.

DUNGEON PLAY: Any RPGer will be familiar with the concept of dungeon play. You enter the dungeon, fight the monsters, go from floor to floor to floor, and eventually wind up in the final room. What's so great about the dungeon play in this game is the shuffle aspect. The dungeons utilize both top and bottom screens. When one of the screen "shakes," look out! The screen literally "shuffles" and changes. If you are in the part of the dungeon that is getting ready to shuffle (you'll know when it's going to happen because there are sounds and the screen shakes), you get "thrown" out of the screen and you have to start at the beginning of the dungeon. Any of the fupong (see below) you have with are immediately rendered useless till you go up (or down) a dungeon level. It's ridiculously frustrating but in a good way. The gamer in you will want to try to beat the clock and make it through that portion of the screen before it shuffles. Note that after a while, you start seeing the same combinations for the layout for that particular floor of a dungeon and start to become familiar with them.

PROS
* The shuffle dungeons. It's incredibly challenging to try to beat the clock.
* A lot of game play time. You can revisit the dungeons to collect special items.
* Pretty decent graphics for a DS game. It's far less cutesy than the box would lead you to believe. (Kind of like a PC game.)
* Side task of collecting special items to upgrade the shops (which allow them to carry more special items to buy), which keeps the game from being one note.
* Three slots available for game saving.
* Quite a bit of voice-over work; more than is usual with a game of this type
* You can raise fupongs, a task which also keeps the game from being just a search-and-rescue mission. Fupongs are little creatures that you can collect through your journeys into the shuffle dungeons. The fupongs are basically your magic in the game, and you can carry several with you into the dungeons. I'm not that far into the game, but I've so far found four types of fupong: yellow (lightning), green (health), blue (ice), and red (fire). You an combine fupongs to level them up and increase your magics. But be careful! You get three chances to restart a dungeon after being "lost" in the shuffle, before you lose and have to start over--without any of the fupongs you've lost during the shuffle and without any of the healing items you may have used.
* Not overly complicated so that a gamer who's new to the genre wouldn't find it frustrating and stop playing, but challenging enough that seasoned gamers won't find it too easy.

CONS
* The save points are rare. Well, rare-ish. You can save when you are in your house, and in the final areas of the dungeons. Some dungeons are so long that they may have a save point halfway through it, but it's a little annoying to have to go all the way home, just to save.
* The amount of items you can carry is limited. I can only carry 20 items. (Although there is a storage box in the general store in which you can put things. The more you upgrade the general store, the more it can hold.)
* Just a little weird, but Sword moves pretty quickly in the dungeons and when going from one of the three main areas to another, but he's really slow moving when he's actually inside a store or house.

As you can see, I don't have many Cons for this game because there really aren't that many. It really is a well-thought out, well-executed game that will appeal to all levels of gamers.

I can't believe a game of this quality is going for the price it's set at and every time I look it's cheaper and cheaper.

Cut to the chase: if you have a DS, buy this. The gameplay is phenomenal, the writing is a scream. Refer to the other excellently written review for details but there is simply no excuse for a game this great to be ignored.

Purchased this game for my 9 year old grandson and also as a gift for a 7 year old. My grandson enjoys this game and says the 7 year old will also like the game. Great price for a great game.

I bought this game because it was pretty cheap and got pretty good reviews. I'm really glad I didn't shell out much cash for this one.

The graphics are "ho hum", you get a pretty good idea from the picture on the box. The character's interactions with their environment is extremely limited. For example, in any Zelda game you can break open pots, cut the grass, or open drawers, etc. to find rupees. There is no such thing in this game.

The main problem I have with this game is the concept of the "shuffling dungeons". Some reviewers have really liked this feature and I say "To each his own". I KNOW the word "shuffle" is in the title, but I found the shuffling to be distracting and annoying. When I play a dungeon crawler, I like to take my time and explore every nook and cranny. With this game this is very difficult to do as you frantically move from the top to the bottom of the screen and back. Let me reiterate that some people like this feature. I'm just saying, it isn't for me.

The shuffling dungeons is a pretty unique concept and I do give credit for that. However, I found that games like Golden Sun, Dragon Quest, etc. were MUCH more enjoyable.

The game is very fun in the begining, the storyline gets more and more interesting as the game progresses. However the dungeons are all the same, it is just the same dungeons over and over again, with different monsters, and a little bit different things that need to be done to progress. All in all i did enjoy playing it, but after 18 hours of gameplay it is still going on, dungeon after dungeon.