Customer Reviews

Nintendo DS Tao's Adventure: Curse of the Demon Seal

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

 

 

Tao's Adventure: Curse of the Demon seal has all the elements of a good RPG; plot, interaction and an easy to learn game play. Spell drawing is challenging, yet curiously fun, as you learn new spells with each new level up. Numerous puzzle based tower levels, test your navigation skills. Collecting and hatching eggs allow you to add monsters that help you in these dungeon like levels.

Your character can carry either a wand or a sword as a weapon. A shield is also available to defend with. The equipment is upgradeable for an ever increasing fee. As you play the game you can collect items and sell them in town to increase your available funds.

The monsters in the game gain experience and level just like the main character. However, the monsters can be used in the coliseum to fight other monsters for experience and gold. Additionally you can fight and trade with other players in multiplayer mode. Luckily, if you like to fight alone, monsters are not required for gameplay.

The game mostly uses the stylus for interaction, with the cursor pad used to direct the character's path. However when in battle you must "tune" the direction the character is facing with the stylus to engage enemies. Additionally the spells are drawn using the stylus. Drawing these spells will take some time to master so do not get discouraged. For this reason I gave the game 4 stars overall.

The game has never locked up on me. A recent rash of poorly written DS games have been doing this, luckily Taos after 40+ hours of gameplay is ok.

I have played other RPG's for the DS, but this game is the one I keep coming back to. At the time of this review, the other avaialable RPG's all had serious game play flaws that made them boring after only 10 hours. If you are looking for a good portable RPG or just a DS game to burn time, give this game a try!

Pros:
1) Drawing magic spells makes gameplay faster and enjoyable.
2) Monster Rancher style battle coliseum.
3) 3D graphics
4) 40+ hours of gameplay
5) A simple but engaging plot.

Cons:
1) Stylus only game interface and unforgiving spell drawing.

I love RPG games, but Nintendo's Nintendo DS isn't so hot on games for that genre. I found this while shuffling through games at Game Stop, found this one, and bought it.

The basic story line of this game is that you play as a child of an extinct Bente tribe. His name is Tao, but you are allowed to change that. He is one of the last of his kind and escapes to a new place where a legendary Monster Tower is. This tower had a seal to keep the monsters inside, but that seal failed and all havok broke loose. It is your job to climb that tower.

The Info
Tao's Adventure is all about fighting. The character can hold on to a sword, or staff, and a sheild for defense. He can summon mosters that he raised from an egg, and he has magic abilities. The whole tower dungeon is based on turns. That may not sound thrilling to some, but it is nothing like Fire Emblem. YOu may move around freely, avoiding monsters and traps. If you happen to run into one, however, you are obligated to engage it OR run away. Your summons can aid you in your fights. By beating monsters you grow levels and further develop your characters skills. Your summons also gain levels. There are lots of floors in this tower, designed to keep you busy.

Appart from the dungeon itself, theree is a fairly roomy village where you may purchase other weapons, upgrade weapons, buy other items, rest, eat, ect. There is also a multiplayer mode.

The Good
1) With the many floors to the tower, the game will last awhile.
2) Monsters have been incorperated in gameplay.
3) Graphics are pretty good
4) It's an awesome RPG for anyone.
5) It does a great job incorperating the DS's capabilities.
6) There are lots of magic and weapon upgrades, and many monster summons.

The Not So Good
1) It may not encourage you to play it again once you have beaten it.
2) The dungeon may get repetative.
3) Swords cannot cast magic.
4) Casting spells takes awhile (maybe 10 to 15 seconds)
5) At the save point to your Inn, two guys keep talking, which gets annoying.
6) It requires too much use of the stylus. Only movement may be used with buttons.

Overall
Overall this is the RPG to get. It will be a fine expirience and should last awhile. I liked it a lot and you will too. Happy gaming!

4 stars!

If you are a huge RPG fan, and like many secrets and quests within a game, you might give Tao's Adventure: Curse of the Demon Seal a try. I have always been a RPG fan, and while games like Magical Starsign, Lunar Dragon Song, and Children of Mana are more popular than this game, I think those games are simply boring 2D games with dull combat. Many people are likely to ignore Tao's Adventure just because it is not popular, or has the curse of bad reviews. But for me, it is one of the most fun RPG in DS that dosen't include guns in battle.

Tao is a young Bente, a group of magic users, gifted with magical powers. His whole island turns into stones by a giant bird, and its up to hime to save his family by going to the Monster Tower, located on a desert city. The whole point of this game is to get to the top of the Tower by leveling up and fighting monsters. However, it's not like a straight path that requires little thinking. Floors have mechanisms, traps and other objects, testing your navigating ability. Since it's hard to get to the top, beating the game will require quite a time. That is one of the reasons I like RPGs. Games like Mario Kart DS, to me, gets extremely boring after few hours or so.

Maybe you are a person who starts the game, and say, "This game is so boring, and it only has like 30 items to buy," and sell it on ebay right away, maybe you should go on farther. There are more items, and stores keep updating their items if you get to higher levels. The magic becomes far more powerful, with awesome graphics and damage. There are quests that are fun, and you can even upgrade weapons. This game has definitely more than what you look at.

This game has awesome 3D graphics, not like those horrible 2D graphic games like Children of Mana. The only things I didn't like is the music and the way you cast spells, pick up items, and the old turn-based battles in the Monster Tower. The music is always the same, and it makes you tired and gives you boredom. You might as well listen to your iPod while playing the game. The way you cast a spell is to draw a symbol, and press "Trigger," and it activates, which can be time-consuming. When you pick items, it can take about 1.5 second. But overall, Tao's Adventure: Curse of the Demon Seal can be hours of fun:

Graphics: A+

Music: C

Story: B

Multiplayer: B

Fun: A+

Quests/Sidequests: A

A Grade of a DS RPG: A+

This is the sort-of sequel to the PS1 game Azure Dreams. I loved the dungeon crawler growing up, so I decided to pick this game up. The story seems interesting and true to the original, the dungeon changes every time you enter it, adding another level of challenge.

Unfortunately, they tried to use the DS touch screen as the only method of moving or acting in game. The lower screen has a circle with arrows which will make you walk in different directions, and buttons you can use to open spell and attack menus. While this sounds exciting, they also installed a delay in controls so you cannot act smoothly, you must tap, tap, tap arrows in order to move, while watching the map on the upper screen. This only serves to make an already semi-slow dungeon crawler feel even slow and clunky.

The game has some interesting and very fun features, unfortunately I could not get past the painfully slow chore of just walking from place to place and did not get very far in the game.

We all know that Online RPGs are much better than DS RPGs, and I would not pick this game if you are looking for a RPG that is like the online ones, I don't recommend this game. Tao's adventure has some great graphics, but some features are very unconvenient to use. First, there is only one town you can travel around, making you bored every time you start the game. The music is not that great, and you'll be tired if you listen to the music. To get experience points, you have to go to the Monster Tower, but the thing is, when you attack or use magic, it is SO slow to activate. You use the stylus to press USE MAGIC, and then you draw a symbol, and it activates 1~2 seconds later. And the attack is turn - based, giving the monster a chance to attack and kill you. There is no job system, and when picking up items, it shows: YOU GOT A ..... and you can't move for 2 seconds, which is SO annoying. Because of the SLOW activation, you hardly LVL up. There are side quests, but those are not great either. There are so FEW items to buy and use, yet you can upgrade weapons and armory. Also if you die, it is simply GAME OVER, ruining all your progress. For example, if you were lvl 5 and you lvl up to 11, but died, you become lvl 5 unless you save your game, which you have to go to the hotel and save, takes a lot of time. If you are looking for an interesting, fast attack, wide-mapped game, I would look elsewhere.

If you loved Azure Dreams on PS1 (which I spent hours and hours addicted to that simple yet tasty game) then you will adore Tao's Adventure: Curse of the Demon Seal!
It starts a little slow because it has to teach you how to draw some basic, simple symbols but only at the beginning & all are quite easy to master. Also you have a little book in case you feel stupid and forget how to draw a square (it also tells what spell it creates).
Once you get to the city where the monster tower looms, the fun begins! There are lots of characters to meet and loads of monster eggs and other fun items to collect in your treasure box. I only wish that the game allowed you to 'pimp your house' like Azure Dreams did. Oh and did I say pimp? Doesn't that remind you of all the girl friends you could collect in Azure Dreams? Of course you had to impress them first...
What fun! I spent over 20 hours playing Tao's Adventure. The only reason I stopped was because I dropped my DS and broke it. Otherwise I would be writing this review as a spoiler to tell you all about your happy ending, if you can make it there, of course ;)

Well, here's a remake with a whole new story line taken from Azure Skies (PS1). The controls could be way better, however I think the spell controls fit it well. Just hope you have a good memory or you'll be opening your spell book constantly. I will admit it can get pretty hard, but what game doesn't (Unless you cheat, FOR SHAME!)? I think this would be better geared towards Teens just getting into RPGs. Then again if you fell in love with the original then by all means, do buy!

This game is nothing more than a neat gimmick, and that's about it.
Don't get me wrong. I have a huge DS library full of completely awesome games. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Mario Kart, Final Fantasy 3, Contact, Metroid Hunters, Sonic Rush, etc.

But this game completely blows. It looked interesting and unique when I saw it in the store, so I tried it.

Tao's Adventure proved to be one of the worst games I've ever had the displeasure of playing in my entire life. I enjoyed SUPERMAN for Nintendo 64 more than this, if that helps to explain it.

You would have to pay me play this.

It turned out to be the only game I've ever played that I actually wanted my money back, just because it sucked so bad. I took it back after 3 days and exchanged it for another.

The game itself is kinda neat and the graphics are okay, but gosh. It's just so boring. So. Unbearably...boring..

The entire game consists of you transversing a 50 floor tower, with each floor looking just like the last, except bigger, and more boring.

And yes, I gave this game a chance. I played it for at least 4 hours, though I had to push myself through the last 2 hours to see if it would improve.

The bottom-line: This game is a waste of money. Overlook this one, and pick out some better titles for the DS.

This game is a weak attempt at an RPG. I was highly unimpressed with the graphics, music, and the storyline. You're basically a young kid whose gifted with magic, and you're family is turned to stone by a giant crow. You need to travel to the Monster Tower (yes, it's actually called that) to find the monster that turned your family into stone. The dialog quickly (first 5 minutes) becomes tiresome, and the fight sequences are sadly put together. If you're a small child, and you haven't played the quality RPG's like Final Fantasy you may think this game is good. I can tell you that as an adult this game was a waste of money. Avoid it, unless you really enjoy completely monotonous gameplay, with bad music and terribly translated Japanese (your companions are called Familiars).