Gaming The Dark Spire!

[tsol]

I just wish it had 6 playable characters as you traveled the dungeons. When I played all those old Gold Box D&D games on the C64 ~20 years ago, they had six character parties. Why can't these new-fangled systems handle that?

*reminisces of the good old days*

I miss those old gold box games.

 

[Porkdish]

Pfft gold box, Bard's Tale was where it was at. Preferably the Amiga or Apple IIGS version.

Thou art in the Guild of Adventurers...

 

[sillypatterson]

Less talk more dump, let's go

More talk. Less dump.

This is an incredible game. It presents a very fine-tuned, hardcore take on the old dungeon crawls. Whereas in the 80's, these CRPGs were hampered by computer limitations and bad programming, Dark Spire re-writes the book, keeping it hardcore through intention and design rather than sloppy or limited programming. Rather than bad balancing issues, Dark Spire is difficult and punishing in a wonderfully ecstatic way. While not being a Roguelike nor featuring randomly generated dungeons, the challenge is quite similar: without careful planning, you will fail and fail again, but with time, you learn to think on your feet and employ situation management effectively enough to survive enough to die... a little less.

I was surprised at how moody the 'classic' version is. The default (modern) style is great in its own right: great takes on the 8-bit soundtrack of classic, a wonderfully conceived artstyle, and a very stark color scheme are too good to miss out on completely. The classic version, however, really does evoke stronger feelings in the imagination. It brings me back in ways that other "retro" RPGs haven't.

The soundtrack is really, really nice. It comes with every copy of the -first run- of this game. It's limited and a pretty small run, so if you're gonna get it now's a good time. 25 tracks, over an hour long, featuring nineteen 'modern' tracks, which are basically really well done arrangements of the 8-bit soundtrack, with lots of well-sampled instrumentation and really nice, varied aesthetics, fleshing out the definitely-brilliant classic soundtrack. As a musician and composer, this is a soundtrack that I actually enjoy listening to.

I bought a copy from GameStop this morning, it was only $30 with the special edition box and soundtrack CD included. It was the only copy my store got in

I've dumped a personal copy so I don't have to worry about my boyfriend accidentally saving over my file, but I'm not spreading it any further than that. This is an amazing game from a -very- niche genre and I want there to be more games like it made, taking as many risks and chances. I was surprised at just how narrative and engrossing the old-school mode can be with its Spartan aesthetics, and the modern version is very well-done and pretty intense itself, employing a different form of minimalism. Even though it's GBAtemp and some of you folk just don't buy very many games, I encourage anyone interested to pick up a copy. It's a humongous value, games like this don't come around very often.

 

[Porkdish]

I get chills from the interface sounds.

The japanese website (I don't know if its the same on the english website) has background music from both the modern and classic display modes for comparison.

http://www.success-corp.co.jp/software/ds/...wnload_bgm.html

 

[Bleedingelite]

So psyched!

 

[Rayder]

Pfft gold box, Bard's Tale was where it was at. Preferably the Amiga or Apple IIGS version.

Thou art in the Guild of Adventurers...

I played all those too. I liked the Gold Box games more.

 

[Porkdish]

Which version though?

The Amiga and IIGS versions where drop dead gorgeous in revolutionary 16 bit colour and the sound, god the sound. I still have the little ditty the bard in the guild plays/intro music in my head. I hear the atmospheric audio that occur every step in my head whenever I played Etrian Odyssey.

Did you see on the success website you can download PDF character sheets, and map grid paper!!!

 

[Maz7006]

From Atlus....gonna try it

It looks great been waiting for a another RPG

, and yes i know there has been a few released lately.

 

[Rayder]

Which version though?

The Amiga and IIGS versions where drop dead gorgeous in revolutionary 16 bit colour and the sound, god the sound. I still have the little ditty the bard in the guild plays/intro music in my head. I hear the atmospheric audio that occur every step in my head whenever I played Etrian Odyssey.

Did you see on the success website you can download PDF character sheets, and map grid paper!!!

Played them on an Apple II.....something or other. Mainly though, I was a C64 man back then. I played all the Phantasie games, Questron games, there was one called Legend of Blacksilver (which was a lot like Questron), a couple of the Bard's tale games were on C64 too. There's those ones I can't seem to remember the name of right now.....made by Origin and that "Lord British" dude......ULTIMA, that was it. The only Wizardry game I ever played was Wizardry 8, the graphics were a little too minimal for my tastes on most of the older ones.

Back in the day, I was big into RPG's and mapping dungeons on graph paper......glad we don't have to do that anymore. Nowadays, not so much. I burnt myself out on them and they can never seem to hold my interest much anymore.

I'm just hoping that Dark Spire might spark that old feeling I had back in the C64 days. Probably won't, but I can't try.


EDIT: Gamestop is showing as actually having the game in the stores now. I'd go buy it and dump it, but I was laid-off and am running purely on bank account money, so I ain't buying anything I don't absolutely have to.

EDIT2: The game is out in the scene if you know where to look.

 

[Bloodangel]

Its been about since last night... the dump is 32Mbit

Im still looking for dokopan journer

 

[Bleedingelite]

Which version though?

The Amiga and IIGS versions where drop dead gorgeous in revolutionary 16 bit colour and the sound, god the sound. I still have the little ditty the bard in the guild plays/intro music in my head. I hear the atmospheric audio that occur every step in my head whenever I played Etrian Odyssey.

Did you see on the success website you can download PDF character sheets, and map grid paper!!!

Played them on an Apple II.....something or other. Mainly though, I was a C64 man back then. I played all the Phantasie games, Questron games, there was one called Legend of Blacksilver (which was a lot like Questron), a couple of the Bard's tale games were on C64 too. There's those ones I can't seem to remember the name of right now.....made by Origin and that "Lord British" dude......ULTIMA, that was it. The only Wizardry game I ever played was Wizardry 8, the graphics were a little too minimal for my tastes on most of the older ones.

Back in the day, I was big into RPG's and mapping dungeons on graph paper......glad we don't have to do that anymore. Nowadays, not so much. I burnt myself out on them and they can never seem to hold my interest much anymore.

I'm just hoping that Dark Spire might spark that old feeling I had back in the C64 days. Probably won't, but I can't try.


EDIT: Gamestop is showing as actually having the game in the stores now. I'd go buy it and dump it, but I was laid-off and am running purely on bank account money, so I ain't buying anything I don't absolutely have to.

EDIT2: The game is out in the scene if you know where to look.

Ultima FTW! I just got Ultima VII and Ultima 8 running on my work computer the other day. I'd forgotten how awesome those games were. Ultima VII is like the first game to really showcase total freedom.

 

[Link5084]

Is anyone else eagerly waiting for the dump?

 

[Bleedingelite]

YES

 

[darksun45230]

Yes.

 

[tsol]

So i remember reading about a homebrew that was made awhile back that was an engine for making your own games like this, but i couldn't find it. Anyone know what it was called?

 

[darksun45230]

How is this on topic?

 

[Gyoru]

I guess people don't read edits

 

[demitrius]

Yeah it's out there already.

That said, I prefer EO after 15 minutes playtime.

 

[CJL18]

it's been dumped
The_Dark_Spire_USA_NDS-XPA

 

[Bleedingelite]

This game is awesome. It's exactly what I expected.