Avalon Code
Score: 86% ESRB: Everyone 10+ Publisher: XSEED Games Developer: Marvelous Entertainment Inc. Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 Genre: RPG
Graphics & Sound: It feels like this is the season of the RPG's given the number of them that I've reviewed lately. Having said that, I had to wonder how the latest one, Avalon Code, would stack up next to the list of other really good RPG's I've played. Graphically, it is very beautiful. The opening and the cut-scenes are very fluid and smooth. The majority of the characters are a bit flamboyant and very colorfully done. I love the spirits the most. The level of detail that went into the character design is amazing. Even the backgrounds are detailed, which is good because finding all the hidden information is slightly easier when you can search the littlest differences in areas. One thing I really liked about Avalon Code that tends to be missing in a lot of DS games especially is the voice acting. Granted the characters don't speak all the time, but they do speak a lot of it. The voices are all very well done. The background music makes a nice addition to the game. It gets faster depending on whether or not you could be in trouble. The characters and monsters make cute little noises too. I particularly like Rempo's giggle when you click on his page. It's almost sinister, but yet still cute.
Gameplay: When you start a new game of Avalon Code, you get to choose to play as a boy or girl. Personally, I really like this option. Too many heroes are boys by default. Anyway, after you choose your character, you'll find yourself standing in front of a huge stone pillar. All of a sudden a huge book falls out of the sky and into your arms. As you can guess, anything coming from the sky like that has got to be important, and if it's important then someone else probably wants it. In this case, some big and ugly guys in metal suits show up to take it from you. Given that you're not a warrior, it's a really good thing that Rempo pops out of the book to teach you to fight. He can help you in battles too. Rempo is a fire spirit who's chained to the Book of Prophecy (the big book that fell out of the sky). He informs you that when the book appears, it signifies that the current world is about to end and a new one will begin. It is your job to record any and all information that will be needed in the new world. Sounds like a pretty daunting task to me! You've got to talk to everyone, search every place, and scan everything you can for the record. Then you learn that there are 3 other spirits that you need to find as well. They really do give you a lot to do in Avalon Code.
Difficulty: Avalon Code is not the quickest or easiest game to play, but I like it that way. First there's the information collecting. Each area gets its own page in your book. A new page is automatically created when you enter the area the first time. You'll see on the bottom right a score for the area listed as 500/1000 for example. This means that you've got 500 points of hidden things to find. Luckily they are usually around 100 points each, but that's still a lot to find. Some of them are obvious things, like examining a clock or a bookcase. Others though, like a tiny clump of mushrooms that you can't see, just require you to run around hitting (A) and hoping you find things. Unfortunately, this method gets a lot harder after you learn "Judgment Link," which is also called with the (A) button. You'll run around trying to bounce a non-existent enemy in the air when you don't find anything to inspect. Then there's the fighting to consider. Normal enemies aren't very hard to beat, especially after you take away their attributes. As I said before, you need to scan everything in the game. Everything that you scan, including people and enemies, has attributes. You can take away attributes to make enemies weaker. You can even add attributes to make people and weapons stronger. Some attributes can't be removed though. You'll need to figure out how to cancel those attributes out if you want to be rid of them. So you have some options as to how to play. You can run around and kill things as they are which means it might take longer to kill them, or you can edit them and then kill them, which does take a little more time to edit but less time to kill. You can also scan the bosses (which I highly recommend so that you can use their attributes) to make them easier to kill. You don't get very many hit points in Avalon Code though, so you will still need to be careful on some bosses even if you've taken their attributes out. Luckily, dying really doesn't hurt much in this game. The game autosaves at the end of boards, so if you die, you won't have to repeat very much at all.
Game Mechanics: Avalon Code has relatively complicated mechanics. Actually, my one complaint with the game is that they don't really tell you how to use them all during the game. Quite often, I found myself stuck and pressing buttons until I could figure out which one did what. Hopefully I can remember all of those times here for you, so you don't go through the same thing. I mentioned scanning things earlier to store them in the book. I love the way that you scan things! To scan anything, go up to it and press (B). Your character will then take the book and hit the characters on the top with it. I scanned people several times just because I thought it was so much fun. You can attack with both the (X) (right hand attack) and (Y) (left hand attack) buttons. As I said before, the (A) button lets you search places and lets you perform Judgment Link. But it also lets you push or pull objects and talk to people. One note on Judgment Link, make sure to clear the board of the rest of the monsters or you can end up being attacked by something else while you're performing it on one monster. The shoulder buttons (L) and (R) let you evade attacks. These can be particularly useful. Everything else is performed by touching the touch screen in the right places. Overall, Avalon Code has been a really fun game to play. It does take some time to get where you're going, but if you're looking for a game with some depth to it, you'll really enjoy Avalon Code. I recommend you go pick it up today.
-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl
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