Away: Shuffle Dungeon

[G.Silver]

Away: Shuffle Dungeon is coming out next week, is anyone getting it? If you missed the news on it earlier, it's a Zelda-like dungeon crawler with a screen-shifting gimmick and some big names attached, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Nobuo Uematsu, and most importantly, character designs by Naota Ohshima. Despite the big names I haven't noticed a huge amount od media attention, but it just came out in Japan and Majesco is on the ball with a speedy western release, I was thinking this one might not make it out over here after all.

The gimmick is that the dungeon rooms come to you instead of you going to them, the only transition the player can make is between the top and bottom screens, and each screen is a "room" that periodically slides out and is replaced by a new one, so the player has to decide which rooms are worth clearing out completely before a room slides away.

I'm picking it up as a gift for my brother, but only because I'm going to steal it back as soon as he's done with it.

[P.P.A.]

Hironobu Sakaguchi,

!

Nobuo Uematsu,

!!

Naota Ohshima

!!!

I shall pick it up. Not only because Oshima, but also because the gameplay sounds rather interesting.

[Protodude]

So it's safe to assume it's by Mistwalker then? I remember barely glancing at some screens with a passing interest, but the way you described the gameplay makes me want to try it out. I have to many other games on my plate though, so I'll probably play a little bit of the rom to see if I like it.

[Ngangbius]

This was one of the games on my radar since the concept sounded interesting. I was planning in picking this up next week or so, but unfortunately it's been delayed until late 2008/possibly early 2009. :(

http://ds.ign.com/articles/920/920807p1.html

[G.Silver]

Goddamnit. Now I have to pick out something else.

[gr4yJ4Y]

The first article I read about it mistakenly made it sound like a rougelike dungeon crawler, but seeing video of it and hearing more about it, it sounds like something worth getting eventually.

[G.Silver]

I got it!

It feels a lot like Rocket Slime in that it's an RPG with a gimmick and a town where you ultimately need to rescue every single inhabitant. I don't mean anything negative by that, just maybe I don't play enough of these games, I was just thinking "Rocket Slime!" as soon as it started.

Not a whole lot to say about it at this point but the game is pretty fun so far. The dungeon shifts way more rapidly than I expected, so moving through them really is pretty exciting. There's a limited number of "parts" on a given floor of a dungeon (one part will have the stairs to the next level on it) so you are free to explore the level fully, because if you miss an item, it will come back eventually. There's a lot more tension in the game than you'd get from just killing monsters. Something I really like is the speed of the character, I don't have a lot of patience when it comes to RPGs so slowly trolling around town and dungeons and the like really grates on my nerves, not gonna be a problem with this one.

One odd thing about the game is that when exploring other people's homes is that the only object that Sword can interact with/look at is the bed, where Sword will creepily make a remark about how it smells (accompanied with a voice sample "Smells good!" for some beds, particularly those owned by females).

[Protodude]

It feels a lot like Rocket Slime

Pretty much had me sold here. Rocket Slime is one of my favorite DS games.

Sword will creepily make a remark about how it smells (accompanied with a voice sample "Smells good!" for some beds, particularly those owned by females).

And this only sweetens the deal.

[Zeta]

Pretty much had me sold here. Rocket Slime is one of my favorite DS games.

Ditto!

[G.Silver]

I should emphasize that even though it reminds me of Rocket Slime, they are completely different. xD

Of additional note for Sonic fans, there are these little slime-like creatures you find in the dungeons who'll help you out with magical abilities and things. You can level them up by talking to another slime-like creature in the village, and when you do, he makes the exact same sound it makes when Sonic gets a Blue Sphere.

I'm loving the characters, but that probably goes without saying.