Bill asked me to post this.If you have any questions e-mail him. He misses and loves all you guys.
Have had this on my radar ever since it was first announced, and picked it up the other day...
The visuals and art design are really top-notch, as is the music, in which I've stopped on multiple occasions just to listen to it...I haven't really delved that deeply into the story yet, I don't think, but you first start off by going around trying to find the other three spirits that are part of the Book of Prophecy that the main character stumbles across (or maybe it's the other way around...) Anyway, the game revolves around the Book of Prophecy, but I'll come back to that in a second...
First, let's get the relationship system out of the way...Basically, you can get to know certain characters and improve your standing with them (or get them to fall in love with you) by giving them presents or doing sidequests for them, which has so far consisted of finding an item for them (which you make by finding the right "codes" and applying them to another item...I'll explain in a minute)...It's fairly simplistic, considering you can give the same item over and over from the Book, but it's still a cute addition, and there's nothing wrong with more character development...
Okay, now let's get into the gameplay, which is fairly simple...As an ARPG, you get points for attacking enemies and level up...That includes leveling up the weapons that you get (with a max of level 10, I think) You can have a different weapon in each hand (swords, hammers, shields, etc) and use each one separately with the X and Y buttons, and the shoulder buttons are used to roll out of the way...To mix things up, you'll eventually learn the Judgement Link, which is relegated to the A button...If you manage to get behind an enemy's defenses, you can send them up in the air, and when they come back down you can hit them again with the X or Y button, in which they'll go higher...Keep repeating this process and you keep sending them up to the sky...If you can continue this until their HP runs out, you'll get some Mystic Gems (basically the game's currency) or health (if you finish them with a special attack) as reward...
But, of course, the game revolves around the Book of Prophecy...When you run into something new, be it a character, enemy, or even a flower sitting on the side of the road, you can use the B button to stamp the info into the Book...From then on, you now have access to that item or character's "codes", which is basically the data that makes it up...Here comes the meat of these "codes"...You can move data around in order to change its characteristics, which can be used to make new items or to make enemies weaker...For example, the first enemy you meet is a Stone Goblin...Once you smack the Book on it, you can access its data...If you remove the "stone" attribute, you make it less durable against your attacks, and can defeat it easier...However, you can only store four extra attributes on your person, so you must eventually stick these attributes somewhere else (such as on another character or enemy)...When it comes to items, you can stamp the info of a weapon or piece of armor, and then you can equip it from the Book...These items appear on the character in-game, which is a nice touch that I wish was in ALL RPGs...
As you begin to unlock things, you start leveling the Book up...Everything you do gets points, even just examining things in a room (which you should do, because if you find everything in a room, you may discover a new recipe)...Once you level the Book up, you will have a vision of something that happens in the game world...Go there and you'll find a new event to take part in...
Further explaining the codes, each code on a character or item is of a specific shape, be it a single square or a big square consisting of 4 smaller squares, or L shapes, etc...First you only have access to 9 squares on any person or item in which to administer attributes, but you will open up more over the course of the game...Also, if an item requires a recipe of 2x Fire, for example, then you need to find a code of 2x Fire, be it two single square Fire codes, or a single rectangle made of 2 Fire squares...You cannot break, say, a 4x Fire into smaller pieces, which forces you to Book things until you find what you need...
Then comes the complexity...As you start getting more and more entries into the Book, you come to realize that you have a shitload to wade through to try and find the right code that you need...And since you can only store 4 codes (I'm hoping you can eventually store more, but I sort of doubt it), you are constantly swapping codes around until you find the ones you want...It's a real mess, and I wish you could have organized things by codes so you didn't have to go through your entire Book trying to see if you have the one you want or not...
The dungeons are basically huge challenge halls..."Defeat the enemies!" or "Hit all the switches!", etc...It gets a little tedious, but the challenges HAVE been kept interesting for the most part...The game doesn't even give you hints as to what you should do (like for one example, there was a green crystal, and I couldn't do anything to activate it...Turns out I had to put a Forest attribute on my weapon to activate it), which should make some people happy, though I know others could become frustrated at the complete lack of direction...
That said, I'm having a hell of a lot of fun with this game...Enough so that I stayed up all night playing the damn thing and looked over at my clock to find out it was already 6 in the bloody morning! It's definitely a game that you'll either love or hate, but if you love ARPGs and are willing to be patient with an experiment on the genre, do yourself a favor and get it...
Topic: Avalon Code (ARPG) (Read 19244 times)
