Author Topic: Lost Magic  (Read 2189 times)

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Offline Shecky

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Lost Magic
« on: May 01, 2006, 04:37:37 PM »
In particular, I had the chance to run through the downloadable demo from a friend who had purchased the game.

I'm not one for lengthy reviews, but I'll just highlight some of the good and bad.

The demo is really good in giving you a feel for the game.  It starts off with just some basic plot background, and then introduces the spell casting system.  It then introduces commanding multiple units and finishes with dual spells.

Spell casting was cool.  Push L or R, draw spell, release L or R, and touch the screen to launch the attack.  The way you touch the screen depends on the spell.  Fireballs you touch to aim... perhaps needing to lead a moving opponent in order to connect.  AOE spells might require you to draw a line.  Other spells, such as healing, require you to tap a unit.  Spells can also be doubled... draw one spell, and instead of releasing L or R, just lift your stylus.  The first spell fades slightly and you transcribe your second spell.  Depending on the combination and order, you get different effects.  I wasn't able to determine if doubling the same spell made it more powerful (ie: double fireball or double heal).  I tried a double head a few times and it seemed to heal more than normal, but it could just be my eye deceiving me.

The spell circle has all 6 elements laid out with each spells of a certain element starting in the same location.  Thus, all of your fire spells will start in the SW corner.  This helps when trying to remember the spells, and I'm sure it doubles as a good way for the game to distinguish which spell you wanted to cast (good design IMO).  Spells are done in one stroke of the stylus, and your accuracy determines how powerful the spell is.  Unfortunately, there was no clues as to how well I was drawing, or if there are discrete levels of accuracy.  Certain weak enemies would fall after one hit, while others of the same type would be left with a slight amount of health.  Did I not draw accurately? Did the enemy 'saving throws' protect him more from this attack?  There's no good way of telling.

Movement and the manipulation of multiple units is where things get a bit hairy.  To move, you select a unit and then where you want that unit to go.  If you want to further that movement, you need to first reselect that unit.  Moving multiple units is done by touching the stylus and moving in a direction.  This draws a perfect circle and any allies in that circle will be selected when you release.  The perfect circle is annoying in it's own right, but there is also no way to cancel a selection.  Forcing you to move them even if you selected the unit on accident (Which happens a lot if they're in close proximity).  Navigation is also poor in that there is no autopan of the screen.  Thus if you select the main character and move him, his new location does _not_ become the new center point of the screen.  Rather all panning of the screen is done with the Dpad, the input of which is very rapid.  Thus a simple tap of UP on the Dpad will move the screen a fairly good distance.  This setup forced me to move towards an edge of a screen and then pan, although you could conceivably select a unit, pan the screen and then select the destination (this may also be where you run into pathing issues).

Offline couchmonkey

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RE: Lost Magic
« Reply #1 on: May 15, 2006, 10:43:42 AM »
Hmm, interesting.  I keep hoping for one of these DS RPGs to be really great, but it seems Mario & Luigi is still the only great one available..  Still, this game sounds interesting.
That's my opinion, not yours.
Now Playing: The Adventures of Link, Super Street Fighter 4, Dragon Quest IX