Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts

Dungeon Explorer: Warrior of Ancient Arts--bland name? You bet, but we'll let it slide since the game is a sequel to 1989's TurboGrafx-16 action RPG, Dungeon Explorer.

Distinct from the identically-titled DS game thanks to centuries' difference in setting, you'll start your demon-throttling adventure by choosing a male or female from one of three different races: the Izark, Ist, or Olff. Plot-wise, it's clear everyone has to overcome racism to defeat whatever lurks in the dungeon separating the nations. Standard jobs are available right away, like Fighter, Shaman, Thief, with others unlocked later. Lots of ranks here: character level, job rating, guild rank, and a grade for each type of weapon your character can wield.

From the get-go things feel awfully generic. A guild! Better take some quests: fetching, training, rescuing, "subduing" of dungeon levels that just get longer and more tedious the further down you go. To advance, the key is taking out monster-spewing generators. Party-based missions are nice because you can command the computer controlled characters, e.g. to focus on healing you or attacking generators. That said, though, maybe we're spoiled by FFXII, but it'd be nice to at least assign your Bishop to heal and your Fighter to destroy things instead of having to give one umbrella order.

And thus we arrive at some frustrations. Unless part of your party is healing, you're going to have to hold R to get a magicky reticule for aiming a potion with the analogue nub. Trying to actually hit someone while they all run around doing their thing is nearly impossible-so impossible you just always pack Bishops or rely on the bizarre L button salute where all party members agree to use soul energy to cure someone. The same reticule control, though, is also used to perform your "Big Bang Arts" but they don't seem that powerful anyways. I stuck to basic attacks and the quicker, easier to pull off Weapon Arts.

Graphics are decent, but the sound is obnoxious. You're going to be sick to death of the sonic snails you fight over and over (since missions constantly send you back to do practically the same thing every time) with their ear-drum piercing screeches. No significant voice acting, either, which could've livened things up a bit. Co-op games are great, but Dungeon Explorer failed to excite us.

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