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Darkmoor Dungeon vs. TwinHamster
Darkmoor Dungeon Ha! HAHA! That's it? Six inferior minions of darkness? Haha! Bring it on!
Moogle1
Download: 574 KB
V.S.
TwinHamster
Play Time: I imagine at least one hours and a few minutes
Review # 2 for TwinHamster Ha! HAHA! That's it? Six inferior minions of darkness? Haha! Bring it on!
Them's Fightin' Words
    After hacking into Ekoss and Lash's e-mail conversation, I have learned all that is necessary to decimate the evil within the dungeon. Which heroes shall I choose to complete this task? PALADIN, BERSERKER, MAGE, and, uh, what the heck, NINJA!

May the epic journey begin!
Graphics
    I am tossed into a dark dungeon with brick walls and dirt floors. I am not impressed with the dungeon master's lack of graphical creativity; however, I soon find myself battling against colorful creatures...

The graphics aren't the most impressive I've ever seen, but that's okay, because they don't play too big a role in the game.

Walkabouts: These all follow a consistent character model and feature an adequete amount of shading, so they're all good and well. As for the enemies, they're monster heads (I think) that are either black or gold. I don't have a very high expectation for walkabouts in OHR game, so I found these quite good.

Battle: The hero graphics are the side images of the walkabouts. Frankly, I'm a fan of the FF6-esque battle sprites, so I enjoyed these. The quality of the enemy sprites ranged from mediocre to great. Such sprites as the Juggernaut enemy were nicely shaded and had great form;however, others like the Basilik were lacking in overall pixel art goodness.

Maptiles: It's obvious that not a lot of work was spent on these, but that's almost okay, because they don't play much, if any, of a role at all in the game. Altogether, you have three tiles: Dirt, Dark dirt, brick wall, and brick wall betwen wall and dirt. They're not very pretty, but they're not ugly enough to bring down the score by too much.

Other: I also feel that I should mention that Moogle1 actually played around with the OHR's default master palette (By playing around, I mean he swapped light blue for brown). This accomplishes a "You're not in some fairy world with blue text box outlines anymore, you're in Darkmoor Dungeon, Punk!" type of feel.
 
Storyline
    My fellow prisoners, Nat and Red, update my understanding of the Dungeon Owner's evil. I brave up to the challenge and fight for my escape...

From what I could gather, your character(s) has(have) been captured and thrown into the very back of the Dungeon Darkmoor. You can choose to play as a party of four out of six famed heroes (Paladin, Berserker, Ninja, Wizard, Priest, and Witch), or you can play in a single hero mode as a Civilian (who is faster, stronger, and overall better than any other character, but lacks the strength of a party). Anyhow, after a briefing from two fellow prisoners you decide that you should probably leave the dungeon. Upon the brawling with numerous foes, you decide that it is finally time to meet with the evil overlord of Darkmoor Dungeon.
 
Gameplay
    Gameplay is mighty straightforward: You've got the walking, the talking, the menu, and the fighting.
Battles are impressive, maps are ugly, and armor does nothing.
Bug-free due to a general lack of Scripts. Yay!
 
  Battle
    Battling is the very definition of Darkmoor Dungeon. You're given plenty of information about the enemies before every battle. And then you're given the option to cancel. Cancel? Never! We shall battle to the deaths! So you fight and get some tokens. Whoohoo! With these tokens, you can buy items to wreak havoc upon your enemies!

As the ReadMe says, some of these battles are based upon battles found in commercial games; however, many other battles are of Moogle1's own creation. All of them were very well developed.

Before each battle, the player is given all of the enemies' stats. Including weaknesses, strengths, health, and the likes. This is a huge plus, considering you'd die very easily if you had to figure everything out in battle.

Picking from a possible 127 parties gives you a lot of different strategies.

I actually would've liked the attacks to have descriptions so that I wouldn't have to switch between game and Readme to remember what every attack did. "Dispel? Is that like mute? Or does it cancel something? *Alt+Tab* Snaps! Game.exe closed itself! Bull poopy."
 
  Map Design
    Walking through parts of the game was just scary. There was one point where I had to travel through a screen full of brick tiles (with overhead on) in order to get to the next room containing the tokens I needed to get back to the other room. However, the walking distances between enemies got considerably shorter as you progress, so no other complaints there.
 
  Balance
    After each battle, your health is replenished *Thank goodness* and you're unchanged and ready for the next fight.

In my opinion, there are three types of battles: The first type were simply near-impossible and relied purely on luck. Such battles, such as the clone-warriors battle and the Necrolyte fight, would kill you within two seconds if you weren't quick enough to use the down-space-down-down-enter key combination. The second type, like the battle against vengeance, had you smiting the foe while praying to God that the foe didn't choose to use its 'instant death' technique. And finally, the last type, like the Quasar battle, was quite manageable once you got the hang of the battle's groove.
 
Music
    The battle musics were excellently ripped and placed and the title music was nice; however, I can't recall having heard background music on the maps to make the walking any more pleasant unless you count the continuing battle music from the previous battle. "WALK OR DIE, DAMMIT!"

 
Enjoyment
    After DESTROYING THE UNJUST ESSENCE THAT IS EKOSS, I take some time and decide that I enjoyed smiting evil and all, but I still want to be able to return my useless 'safe' which was unjustly purchased for 2 tokens.
 
Final Blows
    Superb graphics, balanced battles, nice musical placement, filling story. Hm. I think that makes for a great game.




Wh-what manner of wizardry is this that has blinded me with bricks? Where am I?

Wh-what manner of wizardry is this that has blinded me with bricks? Where am I?
Final Scores
Graphics: 8.5/10.0
Very nice, as long as you're in battle.
Storyline: 7.5/10.0
There's just enough dialogue for a decent story to develop.
Gameplay: 8.5/10.0
You walk in shoddy maps and then you fight magnificent battles. Enough said.
Music: 10/10.0
I don't mind ripped music, as long as it's placed well. And it is indeed placed well here.
Enjoyment: 9/10.0
The battles were captivating and enjoyable, while the walking was just...Blugh. -5 points for that, Perry.
Overall Grade: B+
Final Thoughts
    An excellent example of the potential of the OHR's battle system. And there are those who claim that it does not offere enough. HA! HA I say! Nice work Adam Perry, I look forward to playing the sequal. And while you're at it, you may want to spoof up the dungeon tiles a little.  


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