Customer Reviews

Mazes Of Fate

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

 

 

This is a fun little game. It adds a lot of the challenging elements of console RPGs in a tight little package. I was immediately surprised by how captivating it is on the small screen. You move around the cities in 3rd person view and interact with the dungeons in 1st person. Traveling between areas is quick in mini-map view. The dialog is interesting without a lot of gibberish that gets in the way (yes Final Fantasy, I'm looking at you). Characters earn points when they level and you can assign your points to a variety of assets. The limited part of the world I've explored has plenty of weapons and gear to buy/discover for your characters. Combat is the most fun I've had in an RPG on the DS. It has the feel of Dementium and you can usually move quickly between spells, weapons, and characters in your party. The ambient music is actually pleasant rather than distracting. The only negative aspect I've encountered is that the story line is more linear than I usually like (although it appears open-ended on the surface, the characters' levels really dictate an order to the quests). Perhaps that will change as my characters level.

I lucked into finding this game on Amazon while browsing DS RPGs, and it struck me as odd that I had never heard of the game before. The customer reviews were all 5 stars, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Being a fan of the ancient PC game Bard's Tale, this game answers my prayers for a game similar to it on a modern system. It's definitely modernized, but it maintains a classic feel. To start off, you choose a charcter or "make" your own. You have to choose one of the characters pre-made, each with their own stats, or you can use one of their skins and customize their stats to your liking (very cool). Exploration is the name of the game in this maze-filled RPG. Essentially, you talk to people in the various cities and locales to find your next destination, gain vital information, or participate in sidequests. Then you delve into the next dungeon, switching from third person to first person view. As you navigate the mazes you will fight monsters, solve a few minor puzzles, and search for numerous secrets.

The battle system is the reason why the fun rating is not 5 stars. You tap enemies to attack or cast spells, but you miss a great amount of the time. However, you can equip a variety of different weapons which can affect your accuracy, or you can use spells which rarely (if ever) miss. It's not that the fighting isn't fun, especially for a first-person RPG on the DS. It's just that it probably could have been a little better. I have three team members now (the max number), and I got stuck fighting this one enemy that I missed up to 9 times in a row. Obviously this is to increase the challenge and force you to focus somewhat on the accuracy of your weapons, but it can get a little frustrating. Still, it is fun enough to earn a four star fun rating.

The graphics are great. There's plenty of color, and the dungeons don't get completely bland as you search through the endless corridors. The music is interesting, to say the least. I've never heard anything like it before in a video game, and I won't waste your time rating it since there is no way of being certain if you will appreciate it or not (although I will say that I do enjoy it). You've got to hear it to know.

The exploration gets very addictive. Hidden passageways and other secrets provide motivation to search every nook and cranny in each maze. The leveling up is also fun. There are a limited number of enemies in each maze, so you can't grind yourself to endless levels. What's really interesting is that leveling up doesn't seem to increase your stats. Instead whatever you start with is what you have for the entire game--so choose wisely. However, you do earn 3 skill points per level which you can allocate to a variety of skills to increase the abilities of your characters.

Everything about this game is worthy of a minimum 4 star rating, in my opinion, with most aspects deserving 5 stars (including the story which is very compelling). If you like old school rpgs with lots of exploration, this is a game for you.

A very addictive little game with an interesting plot and decent graphics. I liked this game, although buyers be where, the game isn't called Mazes of Fates to be cute. All of the dungeons in this game are long, complex, mazes. If you are the type that loves mouse-quest type mazes you will probably love this game, although for most people this game will probably cure you of any desire to ever do a maze again. Aside from that, however, I do recommend this little time vampire, I thought it was great fun and enjoyed it thoroughly.

I had high hopes for Mazes of Fate DS, but after an hour of solid playing I've come to some conclusions.

The game, at first glance seems awesome, you can choose one of several pre-set character types, like a warrior, thief, etc..or you can completely make your own, setting your skill points where you want em, creating a unique character.

Then you start playing and really see how choppy and bad the graphics are, well, graphics aren't everything right? so that might be over lookable..but what isn't is the actual gameplay.

The controls work, but not very well. The dungeons in the game are all mazes, as the title suggests, but where it SHOULD be fun exploring them, it isn't..it's tiresome and boring.

And don't plan on doing any treasure hunting, finding cool weapons, armor, etc..because it's seriously FEW and far between. What you end up doing is running in circles for an hour, or swinging about 50 times at a rat and missing every time.

When you aren't in a dungeon the graphics are even worse. You can't even tell what your character really looks like, that's how bad it is. Aside from that, overworld gameplay is all talking, that's it..you move from house to house talking to people and getting clues..ooo exciting.

Seriously, there are many better options out there for the DS, pass this one up.

I've been playing this game for 36 hours already, and I can't even tell how much more there is to it. I keep asking myself "when is it going to be over." For me it's gotten to that level of boredom. Even though I haven't finished it yet, I believe I qualify for writing a review at this point.

I purchased the game because I like dungeon trolling games. I started enjoying them when I first played Diablo. I purchased this game thinking it was going to be a dungeon troller I can enjoy while riding the subways to and from work. Rather than being enjoyable, it feels like a chore now; real tedium. You might be asking why I haven't stopped playing it by now if I feel this way. I like finishing the games I start; just to see what happens in the end; to feel a sense of accomplishment. But if I find myself playing it after 40 hours, I just might put this one away.

There doesn't seem to be any point to this game.

A game is fun if it has a great story to it with a major quest, or if there's a lot of action and discoveries to be made. This game has hardly any of that. There appears to be a quilt work of small, almost unrelated, stories. Stories that are barely two sentences long, followed by someone asking you to perform a mission for them. Menial tasks that mostly annoyed me when I was given them, like delivering an item from one character to another. Not worthy of the mighty warrior I was trying to feel like in the game.

As you traverse the game, you go from village to village, where you can buy and sell items. The items you sell are the oddities you find along the way, which you use to earn money to purchase items that you do need. Once you've purchased the weapons and armor you end up using, these stores become pretty useless. I've gone into a dozen of these stores already, and there is nothing ever new in any of them. The weapons and armory shops are all the same; they all have the same exact stuff. You can purchase herbs, plants and potions from these stores, which are useless. I say that because I've been playing the game for 36 hours already and didn't need to use any of it. They are about as useful as toilet paper is for a swimming pool.

This game is called Mazes of Fate because the primary point of the game is to get you to walk through lots and lots of mazes. These are mazes disguised as dungeons. Basically, the mazes have an entrance, and an exit somewhere, 30-40 minutes later in the game. You enter these mazes thinking it's going to be fun exploring these dark and ominous hallways. You hope to find secret passage ways that lead to some major prize, or doorways that open up to creatures that terrorize you. Then you realize after 20-hours into the game, there will be none of that fun stuff in this game. If you open a door and encounter something or someone that wants to battle you, you tap on character repeatedly until you defeat it. There is no challenge to the battles, no thinking involved, no clever tactics or strategies. Just tap, tap, tap, tap, until it's over. Sometimes you'll even get two foes to tap at the same time. I don't think I've ever seen three foes together. And what you get for your great tapping battle is an herb you can use to heal yourself. Sometimes there will be useless weapons that you can sell for gold. That's all there is to it; repetitive non-interactive hallways, doorways with occasional foes, and a few items to collect in each maze.

The entire shtick of the game is to make you walk through the hallways, to waste your time, until you get your next trivial quest, which makes you walk through yet another pointless maze.

For me, this game has been dull and unsatisfying. I'm probably going to wish I could get back the 40-hours I spent on it.

I don't normally play games like these...but this one is great!! A blast to play, can't wait until they come out with more!!!

This game is the best game of the year to come out for Nintendo DS