Customer Reviews

The Dark Spire

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The other reviewers make a lot of good points, so I'll just say this game is freaking great and leave it at that.

I'd like take a moment, though, to point something out to people who never played and enjoyed (and loved?) Wizardry, and why it matters to this game:

Back in the day, exploration and general cluelessness about a game were the norm. It wasn't limited to Wizardry, of course. Starting with Zork and moving forward through the perfections of Sierra Online, the FREEDOM of the game was part of the enjoyment. Typing things like "throw shoe at door" were sometimes things you had to do in the game. But knowing that how or why this was the thing to do was sometimes really, really unclear.

This game allows you the enjoyment of vague expectations and objectives as a part of the design.

I would suggest AGAINST reading online guides if you intend to buy and enjoy this game. It is not so much about finishing as it is a puzzle of how the game actually works. I know this sounds like nonsense, but at least try it. Yes, you'll have to grind a bit more gold for stupid purchasing decisions, the numerous deaths that you face (especially early on) and subsequent healing and/or raising costs... Well. It's painful, but it's worth it. The atmosphere of a rather intense fear of videogame death and penalties is refreshing in these days of instagrat. As is being completely bewildered.

Back in the day, we didn't have the internets, and games like these are made and meant to hurt, sometimes.

TL;DR: Enjoy the hurt.

There some great reviews here that describe the game well. But I've got to give the game 3 stars and not 5 like many here are doing. Why? I like the old school graphics but the graphics repeat a lot. Really folks, you are looking at the same 2D graphics for hours. This is a long game and started to tire of the same level graphics.

Its not just the graphics though obviously: the gameplay requires enormous amounts of "XP grinding" where you fight lower level enemies to get to a certain point where you can get to the next level of the tower. This for me at least, got old really fast. Yes I know this is what old school RPG's are like and I'm sure this is fun for some gamers, but I got bored. I enjoyed the first 15 hours of gameplay but I really had no interest going another step. Your mileage may vary!

Also one nitpick -- would it have been so hard to have the battle text be red when you are taking damage and blue you are giving damage to your enemies? Some colored text would have made a world of difference and you are looking at this text all of the time, so why not font colors?

This is yet another reason why those of us who grew up playing computer games in the 1980s really owe it to ourselves to buy a DS. First, the DS has a pretty good sized number of turn-based wargames, complete with hexes and counters, (does anybody remember Avalon Hill) an excellent remake of Populous with all the fun still intact,(something many remakes don't achieve so well)and a few excellent arcade collections that bring the 80s back to life. This game, however, is like Nirvana for those of us who grew up playing Wizardry on Apple II computers, early Ultima games on Apple, Commodore 64, or Atari computers, or the Bard's tale games that did not have "in-your-face" 3-d photorealistic, holographic graphics and fifty-seven channel super-duper sound, but required you to have an imagination and to not be afraid to start over many times. Back then, we used to play these games, help our friends with the puzzles, and feel a real sense of achievement on finishing. People then welcomed other players of their games, never used the words N00b or pwned against other gamers, (it was a tight and welcoming community) and cared more about helping each other solve puzzles. I remember in High School there was even a computer game club in which we would help each other with Zork, Ultima, Wizardry, and some of the lesser known games like Odyssey:The Complete Apventure. Trust me; if you lived through those times, you owe it to yourself to buy this game, and be sure to use "classic" mode for the full effect of playing a real RPG on an Apple II or a Commodore 64. There is a more artsy modern mode as well if you don't like the old graphics style, so everyone gets something. If you lived through the classic gaming era of the 80s and you don't have a DS, buy a DS then buy this game.
Enjoy!

Be sure you know exactly what this is before purchasing it. This game is the very definition of a niche title, aiming itself squarely at older gamers who remember grid-based dungeon crawlers in the old days when you had next to no information about various elements of the in-game world and two hours of work could be undone by an unlucky run in with a particularly nasty skeleton. This isn't so much a tribute to those games as an elaborate recreation of them, and all the flaws that came with RPGs from that era.

Old dungeon-crawlers (think Wizardry or The Bard's Tale) were essentially frustrating grind-fests that killed you frequently and never stopped to explain themselves. Generally, you learned through trial-and-error as you went along and suffered long hours of tedious and monotonous gameplay in order to perhaps graduate to the second level of the dungeon after hours and hours of sheer work. Most never included a map function, forcing players to create their own maps on graph paper, and the various items/weapons were largely mysterious in nature until you bought them and discovered what they were good for.
The Dark Spire accomplishes this with ease and grace, even managing to throw in random stat selection ala D&D.

The game has two modes: Standard and Classic. Standard mode drapes the game in dark textures and designs of astonishing power, giving the game a haunting and gothic edge. There is some variation in the music, but it is generally unexceptionable.
For gamers eager for the most retro experience possible, the Classic mode is available. This mode literally discards all of the textures and designs in the game, replacing shadow strewn walls with wireframes. Literally. That's it. This mode recreates the PC RPG look and feel as authentically as I have ever seen.
Unless you're one of the 'Hardcore Players,' who don't need to even think about reading reviews of this before purchase, you're not likely to keep the game on Classic Mode for more than a few minutes, in which time your curiosity will likely be satiated.

I am giving this game four stars for doing what it has set out to do. In all fairness, I cannot award it a 5, as it is so faithful in its recreation of ancient PC RPGs that it also includes all of the same problems. The game is long, frustrating, infuriating, often baffling, and never fair to the player at all. Which won't be an issue for most of the people likely to be playing this game.

If you have no idea of what I am talking about, but are curious about this game, please take this simple test: find an old Commodore 64 or similarly archaic computer and play a dungeon crawler on it. If you like it, you probably really, really like it, and will probably already be sketching maps for the various levels of the dungeon. If you're in this group of people, purchase this immediately. However, if you grow sick of the monotonous frustration of the process early on, and find yourself yearning for the relative user-friendliness of a Final Fantasy game, then don't even consider getting this. You either get it or you don't.

This is a stripped down version of recent Wizardry games. Painfully difficult at the beginning--it takes cunning and perseverance (and lots of saves!) to make it past the first dungeon level. I have only played for a few hours but I must say that I am enjoying this throwback game quite a bit. The only difficulty setting for this game is HARD! I don't play it in classic mode and I doubt that very many will. Make sure you roll high Vitality and Strength stats when creating your characters. This translates into hit points and buffness respectively. Advancing takes a heck of a lot of EP so spend your money and time upgrading your equipment.

I'm a big fan of classic RPGs, having played Bard's Tale like mad on the PC around 15 years ago. It featured a variety of classes, different spells, stats, secrets, and very little guidance. One feature that tells you it's classic is that Armor Class (defense) actually gets better as it DECREASES and goes into the negatives. The Dark Spire features all of this and more.

To start off, you choose four characters to make up your team. You can decide their name, race (dwarves, elves, halflings, humans), class, spells (if they use magic), and alignment (lawful or chaotic). Everything makes a difference in this game, however slight.

Now you enter the Dark Spire itself to begin your adventure. Navigation in this game is like old RPGs and Etrian Odyssey in that you are constantly walking through hallways from a first-person perspective, moving one square at a time. You encounter random battles which range from one enemy to multiple groups of enemies. The challenge level is pretty steep, requiring patience, lots of healing, and grinding.

Experience points are used to upgrade your class level, skills, or stats. Anything you raise costs a lot, so you need to be careful and think ahead before you spend your experience.

There's a variety of different equipment available in The Dark Spire--swords, helms, armor, shields, and accessories. Weapons and armor can add special options to your attack and defend commands while in battle. For example, a Longsword offers a precision attack for increased accuracy but takes longer to perform. It also offers a lunge attack for doing extra damage at the expense of defense for that turn. This adds lots of variety to each battle, and it makes equipment choice very important.

Of course you can choose between classic and modern graphics in this game. Classic is literally composed of straight white lines against a black background, except for character sprites which have a little color and detail. It's as bare-bones as it can get. Personally, I enjoy it and find myself playing in Classic mode periodically. There's something about the retro feel that really interests me and adds some spark to the experience.

The music is odd, but enjoyable at the same time. I really don't know how to describe it, so all I can say is that it ranges from mellow to upbeat. The controls are great, but the menus (especially in the guild where you make and format your team, as well as spend experience points) can take a little bit getting used to. I'm pretty comfortable with them now, but at first they had me lost.

Overall, this game is amazing. It's definitely not for everybody, though. Those who like classic RPGs, enjoy difficult games, and liked Etrian Odyssey will probably like this game. Otherwise, you might want to avoid it. It's hard core Role-Playing, and its not taking any prisoners.

If you grew up playing the old style 1st person D&D style game on the PC or even TRS80 Color Computer, then you will love this game! Takes only a few minutes to assemble a party and off you go into the dungeon for training and your quest. You have 2 modes of play, a graphic mode and a line mode where the game really takes on the characteristics of an early 80's video game (anybody remember Dungeons of Daggaroth on the Color Computer?) Very well made game, wish there were more like this one out there.

The Dark Spire is a game that nearly perfectly copies a game that might have come out in the '80s when in classic mode.

This is a strange game, in comparison to many of the current titles and even those that have mildly attempted to bring the dungeon crawler back to life.

I'm going to assume many review readers are coming to read reviews because they were lead here after they enjoyed any of the Etrian Odyssey I, II, or III titles. Let me be the first to tell you that you would be in for a harsh surprise.

Etrian odyssey has much functionality, and though many don't want to admit it, Etrian odyssey is not that hard to figure out, which makes it convenient. The only exception might be for those who played Etrian Odyssey I, in that weapons and equipment menues were still very poorly, or inconveniently designed. The Dark Spire equipment menues are headache inducing, in that certain weapons will detrimentally or harmfully affect your character or cause them to not be able to use spells in battle, or to be able to pick locks as well etc etc. The character creation part of this game is done by literally rolling for character stats until you roll stats that are acceptable. Each class has a specific stat that must be at 11 or higher in order to be played as. There are 5 different stats that must be rolled and the possible values are specific to the race that you pick. In The Dark Spire, you do not level up after a certain amount of experience, you choose to level up after a certain amount of experience, but you are not forced. Only the original class that you pick, when leveled up, increases your HP, while other classes can be leveled up on the same character if their stats meet the requirements. Stats, besides that of HP, do not increase after leveling up and are only increased with a large amount of experience points, especially if it is the stat your main class requires. When you level up your main class, you are given a random amount of HP usually anywhere from 1-11 but I have never gotten any higher than that. In order to make sure you are not ripped off when leveling up, it is necessary to save before leveling up and continue loading until you are satisfied with the random HP value you are given. This is very close to how a 1980's game would have been, however, it makes comparison of skill and strategy impossible. One other difference is that mp or tp do not exist in this game, rather you are given a specific number of level 1, 2, 3, 4 . . . spells and as you level up you gain access to more spell types, more spells that can be equipped, and more spells that can be used for certain levels.

In short, Etrian Odyssey is nothing like The Dark Spire in terms of menues, character progression, weapons, and usage of skills.

Etrian odyssey has players drawing in their own maps while, generally, showing where the player is facing on the map and giving a variety of mapping options. Throw these out the window because The Dark Spire throws them out as well, not surprisingly, however. We still do get a map, but it does not show your position unless you use a specific spell and there is no spell, that I am aware of, that will show your position while walking. The mapping icons are much different, and the style is different as well.

The atmosphere of The Dark Spire is. . .eerie. If you don't like dungeons, you might want to stay away. Etrian odyssey generally provides beautiful environments with dangerous predators, while The Dark Spire gives us gloomy, eerie, dreadful environments filled with strange enemies from spirits, to mushrooms, to bandits, to skeletons etc etc. The battling on Etrian odyssey, especially in the third release, is completely refined, while the battling in The Dark Spire is completely unrefined. You'll find nothing intuitive about the design in terms of convenience, and certainly are not going to find the graphical phenomena of the year.

The Dark Spire nearly satisfies the taste for a darker dungeon, but it boasts a large deal of traps and death that have yet to come upon me, as, strangely, I had hoped for.

Beat Etrian Odyssey I, II, or III and looking for a sequel? You might want to look elsewhere, but if you're looking to find out what older generation games were like, struggle/grind for experience, be frustrated to no end, while having no idea what to do, what to equip, where you are, where you need to go, when you're going to die, how the game operates, and how to structure your team, then this game might be for you.

It literally comes close to one of the hardest, unrefined, yet mastered games on the Nintendo DS/3DS systems. If you are looking for a challenge, well, I think you've met your match, and a few headaches along the way.

Well? What are you waiting for? The Dark Spire, a seemingly endless dungeon filled with terrible enemies, awaits. No one knows exactly what lies at the top of this dread-filled dungeon, so round up your under-equipped team, your lucky rolling hand, and be prepared to do something that no one has ever accomplished before, that being save and load over a thousand times within the certain death labyrinth, of The Dark Spire.

Do you have what it takes?

*This review is subject to change

While I don't like the artwork or the color palette and the music isn't suitable for the genre, this is a fun retro game from the days when there was no animation and text described everything. You can even switch the presentation to wire-frame and 8-bit mono music for a real TRS-80 feel. Should keep any D&D fan happy between gaming sessions.

The Dark Spire is a throw back to the early RPGs of computer keyboard typing and very retro machine like sound effects. But it translates into one of the best hard core RPGs the DS has to offer.

There has been comments of incredibly difficult learning curve, very little info on the game and game mechanics. I want to tell all people on the fence about this game it is not that hard to figure out. The puzzles in the game are meant to be difficult though, that is part of the fun factor of this game.

OK now to the game. Two methods of play old school(Wireframe and clanky sound effects, blast from the past) and new school(3D environments with dungeon type music and upclose monster drawings). You are able to change from one or the other at will, when paused via a menu selection. Choices for starting group/party is Warrior, Thief, Priest and Mage. I suggest creating one of each and keep rerolling stats to get everything as close to "13" as you can. No spoilers just trust me.

Game mechanics are simple. Typical town environment where you buy weapons, armor, items, heal, rest etc. and off you go to the tower. Once in the tower it is a menu style turn based battle system with typical RPG elements like attack, spell, item, run etc. It adds a little strategy by allowing for different formations of you group allowing for more attackers in front or less whichever is your play style.

Game play in this game is great. At any time you can come across a group of monsters that can completely wipe out your group. Those random encounters can be nail biters depending on who shows up. In the tower the game has very fluid movement and MASSIVE levels to explore with secret doors on every level to unlock even more area to explore. I am 10 hours in and have just now made it to the second floor,there is ten floors to explore.

Customization in this game is what really makes this game shine. Whatever your play style is you can do it in this game. The leveling system allows you to decide where to level the character the computer does not do it on its own. If you want certain characters to have skills from several different classes then you are able to level them accordingly. Example my entire party has the ability to cast mage spells. Later in the game specialty classes are unlocked for even more variety.

Overall, oustanding game I am hooked. If you are looking for a dungeon crawler with a great character development engine this is the game you want. Do not be discouraged at first, once you get the feel for the game you will learn how to conquer the tower. The best option for beginners the save anytime anywhere ability of this game allows for an easier beginning. Then you will be sucked into one of the greatest old school games to come out in a long time. Highly recommended!