Overall score on pook's 100-point system (TM): 79 rounded to 8. A surprisingly enjoyable game.
-the breakdown-
Graphics (26/30, judged by era)- Early on you begin to think that the main adventure area, a 100-floor dungeon and a single town are going to make up the entirety of this game. That would be a repetitive, but not ugly, proposition since most of the world is nicely drawn and interesting enough to look at. Right when this feeling is starting to sink in, however, the game world opens up for a time and you get to visit other towns and places and so the graphical variety comes to the fore. Couple this with interesting creatures and the rest and you have a solid if not mind-blowing package.
Sound- FX/Voice (6/10) The usual serviceable battle sounds are the primary vehicle for effects in this game, which is perfectly ordinary. The variety of weapons at your disposal however does allow for more than the single attack sound the entire game. This is definitely a game that you can play with the sound down and not run into any problems.
Sound- Music (4/10) Granted, this game was released earlier in Japan than here, so it's a bit dated. Still, the soundtrack is recorded in mono and for much of the game puts out music that seems like it could be easily played by the old Gameboy's soundchip. Add to that the simple fact that much of the music is forgettable and you get an unfortunate musical package. Apart from the theme and 1-2 other tracks, the music is just filler.
Gameplay- Length/Lastability/Replay (14/15) The main story happens to end with an extra 50 levels of dungeon left unopened. It sorta feels like the developers ran out of time to develop story elements to spread out to the further levels. Regardless, the game itself ends earlier than the 22 hours I clocked into this game. However, because it ends fairly quickly (I think about 16 hours) and because the collection/crafting aspect of the game as well as the battling is enjoyable, I found myself interested in the further dungeon and in filling out my armory.
Gameplay- Story: (3/5) Starting out as a simple competition among swordcrafters, the game quickly branches out into a larger more epic story. The characters are by-and-large interesting, with plenty of dialog. The storyline branches multiple times at the very start of the game, depending on if you pick a male or female protagonist, and depending on which familiar you choose. As well, at the end of each day, the story progresses along a slightly branching path depending on who you've spoken with. I wouldn't say it's compelling enough to replay for the story, but it's impressive to know it's all there.
Gameplay- Game Design (26/30)- This is really too simple a game to be rating this high, but the elements involved definitely added up to fun. At its base, this game is a dungeon crawler with random battles. The battles themselves are real-time side-scrolling, which was quite fun and well-executed. The meta-game involves crafting weapons to upgrade yourself rather than finding them. You find ores in the dungeons and use these according to "recipes" for making the over 100 weapons that are possible. This aspect has an addictiveness that similar crafting has in WoW, and makes something special of what otherwise might've been a fairly ordinary game. The story takes you here and there doing typical RPG things, but each day the main tournament you're in proceeds and you participate in an arena battle against another crafter. All in all it's plenty to do, you never really get lost as to what your present goals are, and the game moves along at a brisk pace.
**Final Thoughts- This is a game that has left me wanting to play its sequel, and I imagine it will do the same for you.
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