Review
Mazes of Fate (GBA)
In a way I regret ever playing Final Fantasy VII, in the same way I regret ever watching Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. After experiencing both, everything before them seems outdated and everything after them is essentially ruined. Now, in the future, there will probably be quality movies in the genre that rival Lord of the Rings as there will be games that surpass the excellence of FFVII. But for me, they were defining illustrations as to what movies and RPGs should be.
That said, a game like Final Fantasy VII makes Mazes of Fate look like a polite fart. In a way though, this is like comparing an indie film to a blockbuster; it's possible to do, but perhaps a little bit unfair. You can't fault the game's developer Sabarasa Entertainment for trying – the game was in development for 2 ½ years and created by a team with a small track record in a region of South America where no console games have ever been developed. It's also no secret that smaller developers are finding it harder and harder to compete in an industry where it seems the only way to succeed is to merge with a bigger company or invest millions in the hopes a fickle gaming market will buy your games.
If you want to honestly compare this game to another, you'd better start thinking old school. Think back to the late 80's and early 90's when American RPGs were blossoming and the games weren't all about cinematic cutscenes and angsty anime characters in love. We played games like Wizardry, Stonekeep, Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back. Some used text-based commands and others allowed the player to use the cursor to directly manipulate objects in the environment to add to your inventory or cast spells.
Mazes of Fate is a love letter to PC RPGs from the past. The game is a real-time first-person action title that favors grid-based dungeon fighting over long-winded CGI scenes of things exploding. The user can choose from a magician, warrior, or rogue with fully customizable skills that change based upon gaining experience points from battling in monster-infested dungeons.
You start out in small towns occupied by people with problems that only be solved by traveling strangers – killing giant-sized basement rats, finding items that villagers have misplaced, and finding lost treasures for incompetent village security forces. Your character can visit local shops, taverns and houses where token helpless citizens need assistance. Once inside, rather than being able to walk around to talk to people or find items, the player is faced with a cartoon image where he can use a cursor of sorts to point, click and communicate with inhabitants. Conversations result in clues to where you should go, gear you can purchase, sidequest missions, and other tasks you've seen in every RPG ever made. Once you leave the cities, you travel in even bigger overworld maps that give you enough linearity to not get lost in your mission but at the same time give leeway for exploration. Regardless of the beauty of the overworlds, it's the dungeons that can make or break this game to most buyers.
First off, I have to say that these types of dungeon-crawling games do not work for me. Moving back, forward, left and right on a grid-based map without the ability to travel diagonally is annoying to me. The first-person style of the dungeons are clunky, frustrating and become even more so when your character becomes surrounded by enemies on all sides. Now, if you are someone who enjoys being stuck in a dungeon for an hour flipping wall switches, pressing weighted floor panels, finding invisible walls and battling hordes of creatures trying to tear you to pieces, all in a first-person real-time setting – well then this game just may make you wet your pants.
In addition to the cumbersome controls, even more irritating is that there is a been-there-done-that feel to everything. The storyline itself has some twists and turns, but the in essence it's a mish-mash of played out characters, missions, spells and locations that have been done before – and much better in other RPGs that have obviously influenced it..
Those complaints aside, the character design, illustrations, and artwork are simply great. Although there is a dark quality to the designs of the villages and characters, there is also a brighter cartoonish aspect to them that combines the more dour Western approach to fantasy with a romantic and fun Eastern design that mixes quite well (and since the game technically is born and bred in South America, perhaps Sabarasa is looking to carve a style all its own). There are some spots where illustrations are questionable, but they are few and far between and hand drawn by people who know what they're doing.
What I think could definitely use further work graphically are the dungeons themselves and the character animations. Whoever came up with the title "Mazes of Fate" wasn't kidding. Whether you're in a cave, a haunted crypt or a magical tower, everything takes place in a maze: hard corners, repetitive walls, dead ends with generic tree stumps and block-angled corridors more akin to Doom than Golden Sun. Also the animations during battle could have been much more refined in the sense that attacks occur in one or two frames, making physical attacks and spells look terribly choppy and poorly done.
Other aspects of the game had potential, but came up more than a bit short. Travel in an overhead map or into a city and you'll hear atmospheric tunes ripped straight from the loins of the most talented lute and crumhorn players in the King's court, but it's when you get into a quieter dungeon that you wonder what in the hell happened to quality control. The sound quality for this game is dismal; sound effects are grainy and washed out while the voices you do hear are harsh and annoying. One of the things I pray the developer works on fixing in later sequels is never again allowing for random screams of pain, especially in a dungeon that has already been cleared. Are there still people to save? Is the place haunted? Was this a stupid idea? Even a castrated lute player knows that the answer is "yes".
Considering Sabarasa is planning the sequel as a Nintendo DS game, you may want to wait until then to see if they have plans to change their approach to the role-playing genre. Still, if you answered yes to any or all of these questions, your fortune may be in buying Mazes of Fate.
Then again, maybe not.
That said, a game like Final Fantasy VII makes Mazes of Fate look like a polite fart. In a way though, this is like comparing an indie film to a blockbuster; it's possible to do, but perhaps a little bit unfair. You can't fault the game's developer Sabarasa Entertainment for trying – the game was in development for 2 ½ years and created by a team with a small track record in a region of South America where no console games have ever been developed. It's also no secret that smaller developers are finding it harder and harder to compete in an industry where it seems the only way to succeed is to merge with a bigger company or invest millions in the hopes a fickle gaming market will buy your games.
If you want to honestly compare this game to another, you'd better start thinking old school. Think back to the late 80's and early 90's when American RPGs were blossoming and the games weren't all about cinematic cutscenes and angsty anime characters in love. We played games like Wizardry, Stonekeep, Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back. Some used text-based commands and others allowed the player to use the cursor to directly manipulate objects in the environment to add to your inventory or cast spells.
Mazes of Fate is a love letter to PC RPGs from the past. The game is a real-time first-person action title that favors grid-based dungeon fighting over long-winded CGI scenes of things exploding. The user can choose from a magician, warrior, or rogue with fully customizable skills that change based upon gaining experience points from battling in monster-infested dungeons.
You start out in small towns occupied by people with problems that only be solved by traveling strangers – killing giant-sized basement rats, finding items that villagers have misplaced, and finding lost treasures for incompetent village security forces. Your character can visit local shops, taverns and houses where token helpless citizens need assistance. Once inside, rather than being able to walk around to talk to people or find items, the player is faced with a cartoon image where he can use a cursor of sorts to point, click and communicate with inhabitants. Conversations result in clues to where you should go, gear you can purchase, sidequest missions, and other tasks you've seen in every RPG ever made. Once you leave the cities, you travel in even bigger overworld maps that give you enough linearity to not get lost in your mission but at the same time give leeway for exploration. Regardless of the beauty of the overworlds, it's the dungeons that can make or break this game to most buyers.
First off, I have to say that these types of dungeon-crawling games do not work for me. Moving back, forward, left and right on a grid-based map without the ability to travel diagonally is annoying to me. The first-person style of the dungeons are clunky, frustrating and become even more so when your character becomes surrounded by enemies on all sides. Now, if you are someone who enjoys being stuck in a dungeon for an hour flipping wall switches, pressing weighted floor panels, finding invisible walls and battling hordes of creatures trying to tear you to pieces, all in a first-person real-time setting – well then this game just may make you wet your pants.
In addition to the cumbersome controls, even more irritating is that there is a been-there-done-that feel to everything. The storyline itself has some twists and turns, but the in essence it's a mish-mash of played out characters, missions, spells and locations that have been done before – and much better in other RPGs that have obviously influenced it..
Those complaints aside, the character design, illustrations, and artwork are simply great. Although there is a dark quality to the designs of the villages and characters, there is also a brighter cartoonish aspect to them that combines the more dour Western approach to fantasy with a romantic and fun Eastern design that mixes quite well (and since the game technically is born and bred in South America, perhaps Sabarasa is looking to carve a style all its own). There are some spots where illustrations are questionable, but they are few and far between and hand drawn by people who know what they're doing.
What I think could definitely use further work graphically are the dungeons themselves and the character animations. Whoever came up with the title "Mazes of Fate" wasn't kidding. Whether you're in a cave, a haunted crypt or a magical tower, everything takes place in a maze: hard corners, repetitive walls, dead ends with generic tree stumps and block-angled corridors more akin to Doom than Golden Sun. Also the animations during battle could have been much more refined in the sense that attacks occur in one or two frames, making physical attacks and spells look terribly choppy and poorly done.
Other aspects of the game had potential, but came up more than a bit short. Travel in an overhead map or into a city and you'll hear atmospheric tunes ripped straight from the loins of the most talented lute and crumhorn players in the King's court, but it's when you get into a quieter dungeon that you wonder what in the hell happened to quality control. The sound quality for this game is dismal; sound effects are grainy and washed out while the voices you do hear are harsh and annoying. One of the things I pray the developer works on fixing in later sequels is never again allowing for random screams of pain, especially in a dungeon that has already been cleared. Are there still people to save? Is the place haunted? Was this a stupid idea? Even a castrated lute player knows that the answer is "yes".
Closing Comments
An A for effort, but very behind the times.
Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself before purchasing this game:
- Would I enjoy an old-school first-person RPG that would have rocked my PC's world in 1994?
- Do I like spending hours in dungeons solving puzzles, fighting demons and looking for items to help me on my quests?
- Would I enjoy a fantasy RPG with engaging, if not overly clichéd storylines with customizable characters?
- Can I handle random screaming from my DS speakers?
- Do I support our wonderful budding South American game developers?
Considering Sabarasa is planning the sequel as a Nintendo DS game, you may want to wait until then to see if they have plans to change their approach to the role-playing genre. Still, if you answered yes to any or all of these questions, your fortune may be in buying Mazes of Fate.
Then again, maybe not.
