Away: Shuffle Dungeon (Nintendo DS)

Frantic action puzzle RPG, with a surprisingly engaging story. Mostly a combination of monster-bashing and switch-pushing, with various side quests and some blob-farming thrown in - the blobs help you through the dungeons, and I got very attatched to mine! I found that it got really hard towards the end, but the story kept me pushing through. Certainly worth a blast at under a tenner.

Good Game

This is one of the more unique Nintendo DS games out there. From Mistwalker studios headed by the creator of the Final Fantasy series, most famous for the Blue Dragon series and The Last Story comes this unusual entry into the sea of RPG's for the handheld.Given the title I was a little concerned at first that this was going to feature randomised dungeons, which I am not really a fan of, but suprisingly it doesn't. Well, not really.The main gameplay of this title is harder to explain that it is to play. It is one of the more effective uses of the DS's dual screens. In the eponymous dungeons you move you character between the top and bottom screens before a timer runs out and shuffles either one of the screens to give you a new bit of map. Invariably you must then move screens in order not to be caught in the next shuffle. This actually works pretty well. Combat is top-down action adventure style, kind of like Zelda, and the little bit of time pressure means you are always on the move until the shuffle bringing the exit to the next area pops up. The controls are pretty solid and apart from when you get ganged up on by enemies which can render you helpless it all feels like you are largely in control and can be pretty challenging. You level up with each certain number of enemies you kill, can use healing items and purchase new weapons and armour from shops in classic RPG fashion.Generally the maps are pretty well designed and it's rare that two bits of map will tessellate in an unhelpful way. The few times this happens it's very frustrating and reminds you of how much the designers got right. The main downside is in each dungeon there are usually screens have switches that activate something in another part of the screen, and you then have to wait for that screen to come back in the shuffle to get the item. This can mean that once you have cleared a dungeon level of enemies and most chests you just wait around hopping between screens waiting for an item to appear.And you will want to pick up those items because many of them are key to upgrading the shops and completing shops in your little village, although often you will put in loads of effort only to pick up a bit of currency or a paltry health item.The biggest drawback is the rubbish item management system as you will constantly be deciding which items to drop in dungeons so you can open new chests, frequently only to find that the new item is rubbish- but you gotta risk it in case it was one of those key items.This is also one of those games that is text-heavy in a bad way. Characters say then lines of dialogue when they could say two and this slows things down unnecessarily without adding depth to the characterisation. The story is also vaguely intriguing but developments are very weighted towards the end of the game when after lots of nothing all the explanations seem to come at once.There is also one character who is a man dressed as a woman with an unrequited crush on another male townsperson and this is played for cheap laughs in a cartoonish, juvenile and somewhat troubling way.The graphics are not going to stand out even for the DS. They are serviceable with a fully 3D fixed camera overworld that uses blocky sprites. Some of the character models have charm but the main character looks garish and particularly blocky. The dungeons are in 2D from a top down perspective but have a kind of smoothed-out look to them making it look kind of like a flash game.Similarly the soundtrack is serviceable but not stand-out.I was tempted to mark this as a three star for all the little frustrations that there are like needing a particular weapon for just one boss who appears twice in the game, having to hold certain items for a particular in-game event to occur (research it if you plan playing) when your inventory is so limited and having to re-do a dungeon effectively if, when you are on the way out with a rescued villager, you get caught in the shuffle.That being said I did have fun particularly with the dungeon and I feel like I have to give points for originality. I don't know of another game like this and with the Dual Screen era being over we are unlikely to see anything like it again. It seems to have sold poorly and I feel more people should give it a shot.I purchased a USA copy of the game, which will work on any DS including 3DS as the game is region free as all the European versions I saw did not have English on box art, but I'm afraid I cannot say what language options are included on PAL versions of the game.