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Mazes of Fate: Official Thread (GBA 1st Person RPG)

M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Dragona Akehi said:
I never had a chance to get Mazes of Fate GBA... let's hope this one gets a wider distribution.
Click to expand...

It will. The first one came out way, way, way too late. The GBA was already largely immaterial, especially for niche games brought out by tiny pubs. Securing some DS shelf-space shouldn't be too tough, however.
 
Turnip Truck

Turnip Truck

Member
I'm looking forward to the DS remake myself. I bought the GBA version early this summer and it was one of my best game purchases of the year. I'm working through a second play through and just coming up on the Underground Temple. Finding this wonderful, old school, western style dungeon crawler for the GBA was quite a pleasant surprise.
 
W

White Man

Member
Dragona Akehi said:
I never had a chance to get Mazes of Fate GBA... let's hope this one gets a wider distribution.
Click to expand...

I've been looking for it pretty thoroughly since it came out, and I have yet to find a single copy :( This was right up my alley, too.

Is there a date on the DS remake yet?
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
The GBA version was never released to retail. It was online only. Probably still available too. The publisher was selling it directly from eBay, and had (still has?) a semi-permanent auction page for it. Last time I looked, they still had 830 or so copies available for direct purchase.
 
D

Deku

Banned
Thanks for the bump. DS version coming too?! Good stuff.

Unfortunately Amazon.com doesn't ship to Canada.
 
bengraven

bengraven

Member
I had this game sitting in my DS for a few months and just picked it back up.

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, I'm addicted! I can't believe a certain gaming site gave this a 6.5. It's basically a western RPG with some clever JRPG disguises to fool the Japanophiles.

It's like the world's best portable Elder Scrolls/Shining in the Darkness/Phantasy Star 1 clone. I've put in like 7 hours in three days while trying to maintain my life. :lol

I still may end up picking it up for DS, despite hearing this game is really long.
 
D

Dalauz

Member
hey, i did a interview with the game director (in spanish of course!) and got some tidbits about NDS version.
If anyone feel like a translator ill pm it
 
bengraven

bengraven

Member
Dalauz said:
hey, i did a interview with the game director (in spanish of course!) and got some tidbits about NDS version.
If anyone feel like a translator ill pm it
Click to expand...

Well, you did the interview, could you give us some bullet points in English? Like if there's new things in it? I saw the UI looks cleaner and there are some new graphical effects (like no more black backgrounds on the map screen).
 
Turnip Truck

Turnip Truck

Member
I noticed that Graffiti Entertainment has updated their website with info on Mazes of Fate DS. They have fleshed out the product info page, and there are three downloadable game play videos.

Product Info Page: http://www.graffitientertainment.com/content/view/58/80/

I've watched the first game play video (153 MB AVI) and here's my impression so far. The automap is on the top screen, and the action in the bottom. The overworld isn't dissimilar from the GBA version, though the artwork is slightly different. But the dungeon crawling aspect now uses a 3D graphics engine. It looks like control is stylus based in the emulation, and the graphics appear to allow 360 degrees of movement and viewing. More than just a simple port, this is a pretty major change.
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Yeah, I heard a few months ago that this would be a full on 3D remake. Hopefully they get a new translation too.

Hey, Dalauz, I can translate from Spanish to English if need be. Feel free to PM me the interview.
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Holy shit. Why would they put those videos up? Graphically and musically, it generally looks and sounds better than the GBA original in the 2D maps and towns, but the second the 3D engine kicks in, the game completely falls apart. That 3D engine is BARELY running. It must be REALLY early, but even now, it looks like there won't be much hope in getting a decent draw distance and framerate. And the new 3D monster designs are so much uglier than the old 2D ones.
 
Turnip Truck

Turnip Truck

Member
I'm going to be cautiously optimistic and assume that these are development videos and that the 3D frame rate will be optimized for the DS before they ship. I just finished watching the second video (272 Megabytes) and clearly this is running on an emulator on a PC. There's also some debugging information on the top of the upper DS screen. I agree that they probably shouldn't have put these up for general download as it may give a very poor first impression. Stilll, it is nice to have a sneak peek at what is coming.

As to the positives, what I do like is how the stylus can be used to look not just 360 degrees, but up and down as well. It appears that movement uses the D pad, but you can look and steer with the stylus. And the character sheets and inventory screens are nice too, though I would like to see what the equipment screens look like. I wonder if they will show equipped items on the character in this version, or stick with the paper doll model. It is fun to see some familiar faces too. That's clearly Mardred in one of the screens, and although the hair color is darker and she's dropped the pigtails, I'm guessing the lady is Katja. I'm especially happy to hear they've kept the excellent music.
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Yeah, until the 3D gameplay was demonstrated (which clearly looks like it's running as an early developmental version), I was pretty happy as well. But that 3D stuff should not be shown off to the public.

Also, I'm not too optimistic about their ability to get things optimized and running up to speed. The GBA game was pretty effin' laggy.
 
T

ToastyFrog

Inexplicable Treasure Hate
Mejilan said:
The GBA game was pretty effin' laggy.
Click to expand...
Not to mention buggy. I bought a copy out of pocket to review for 1UP but never finished the game because I encountered what turned out to be a reproducible game-breaking bug toward the end of the quest. Screw framerates, I just want that glitch to be resolved.
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Yeah, I plowed through a surprisingly large number of relatively minor bugs, so I'm not surprised to hear that there are some game-breaking ones. I'm pretty sure at least one or two of the ones I encountered broke some (optional) sidequests that I never managed to finish.
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
The GBA game didn't have 3D graphics like that. And the menus for the 2D portions look different.
 
Turnip Truck

Turnip Truck

Member
Looks like they took down the three huge, slow AVIs and put up a new, 20 MB combat video fighting brutes in El Paso. This time it looks a lot better. The movement is actually pretty smooth, and there are new environmental features like bones on the ground, waving plants in the rock walls. The GBA version did a real nice job on the navigation through the mazes, and it looks like the DS version will continue that trend. Again, it looks 360 degrees of movement and looking, plus at least the ability to look down. The Elite Brute in the video doesn't move his feet when walking, but otherwise looks pretty decent.

Anyhow, the graphics aren't really what sets this franchise apart. The thing I liked most about the GBA version was that it crammed so much of the western RPG experience into a handheld game, and so the limited combat graphics didn't bother me. The free exploration of the overworld and dungeons, NPC interaction that affected the story, recruitable NPCs, extensive array of weapons, armor and spells, and especially the flexible leveling system whereby you could focus on being a fighter/mage/thief/cleric (cleric by proficiency in El and later Daim magic), or go multi-class/jack of all trades were what made this game impressive.

Other than the rather dull Dungeons and Dragons: Eye of the Beholder, this is the only real western dungeon crawler on the GBA. Pretty impressive considering it was made not by one of the big publishers, but a small developer in Argentina. I'll be buying this on launch day if for no other reason than to support the little guys who have big enough stones to try something different than the some old recyled formula games. That's the same reason I like Atlus titles. Originality and a willingness to take the risk of trying something different.
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Not surprised. I know that the publisher used to follow this thread. Probably still does, since it's been recently bumped.

And yeah, this new video is much better, and presumably from a build that's quite a bit further along.

However, it looks like the melee vs magic balance is still totally shot, and I can't help but think that the incredibly crude 3D graphics are a step down from the surprisingly decent 2D sprites from the GBA game. Also, the new graphics clash with the rest of the 2D artwork.
 
Turnip Truck

Turnip Truck

Member
Mejilan said:
However, it looks like the melee vs magic balance is still totally shot
Click to expand...

I'm inclined to disagree with you on that one. Yes, the power of magic spells early in the game is pretty low compared to melee weapons, but on the other hand the spells are pretty much a guaranteed hit. There were a lot of battles where the fighters were doing nothing but creating breezes with their wild swings while my mage was chinking away at the foe bit by bit. By the last third of the game, magic totally owned. Spells like creeping fire, punishment and life drain doled out impressive damage. My favorite was probably Iceball because it packed a solid punch while being relatively mana efficient.
 
P

Prime crotch

Banned
eww that 3D engine looks something out of a crappy PSX game, I'm not a big graphics whore on my DS but that's simply awful

and ordering the GBA game trough ebay is nuts, twenty fucking dollars for shipping?!
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Turnip Truck said:
I'm inclined to disagree with you on that one. Yes, the power of magic spells early in the game is pretty low compared to melee weapons, but on the other hand the spells are pretty much a guaranteed hit. There were a lot of battles where the fighters were doing nothing but creating breezes with their wild swings while my mage was chinking away at the foe bit by bit. By the last third of the game, magic totally owned. Spells like creeping fire, punishment and life drain doled out impressive damage. My favorite was probably Iceball because it packed a solid punch while being relatively mana efficient.
Click to expand...

With my main character, I pretty much spent all of my points leveling up 1 weapon skill and 1 magic skill, and magical spells were never a particularly viable strategy for offense, in my experience. As long as you don't scatter your points over multiple weapon types, you will NOT be missing a lot in the late game, and most enemy encounters end with a couple of rapid swings, whereas leveraging spells always took a lot longer (which meant that they were around longer to hit you).

From what little we see in that video, things don't look too different.

And yeah, magic is particularly useless in the early game, which also does much to quell any desire to invest in those skills fully. Melee ALWAYS works, and relatively quickly. Magic? Not so much. Thus, the balance is shot. IMHO.
 
J

Jenga

Banned
Hmm. First time I've ever heard of this. Looking for a good handheld RPG fix, I'll be sure to pick this up.
 
Turnip Truck

Turnip Truck

Member
Mejilan said:
Melee ALWAYS works, and relatively quickly. Magic? Not so much. Thus, the balance is shot. IMHO.
Click to expand...

This morning I was having trouble with Fungoids in the Underground. Naveral's fireballs and lightning bolts were doing a lot more for me than either my fighter's axe or my thief's knife. And Fungoids need to be taken out quickly or you risk getting nailed with their rather fast acting poison. So in this instance, magic seemed to have the advantage. But that's just my opinion. Focusing on magic for the protagonist or an NPC is not an unviable strategy, and that's why I disagree with calling it unbalanced.

Also, don't overlook the various support spells available. The offensive and defensive buffs can be cast outside of battle. Throwing an armor spell on your mage or strength on a fighter and then wandering in to a fight can make a big difference. Casting weaken on brutes softens their blows considerably, and it appears to stack with multiple castings. Clearly I lean more toward magic than melee in RPGs, but it works well for me.
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Bumping this thread in honor of the impending release of the DS port/remake.
I'm still incredibly pissed off that I lost my entire OP due to a corrupt edit.

If it actually does come out this week, I'll be picking it up as early as tomorrow (alongside Dragon Quest IV and Yggdra Union PSP... what the HELL are Graffiti thinking?)

Once I have some solid impressions, I'll probably create a new OP in honor of this remake.
I hope I'm not alone in picking this new version up!
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Awesome. Hopefully you won't hit another show-stopper bug, like last time!
That was you, right?
 
W

whiterabbit

Member
I saw this was coming out when I was looking for Dragon Quest IV at Gamecrazy, where they seem to get games a day early. Anyway, it looks sort of similar to Etrian Odyssey and I'm interested in finding out more about it. It's made in South America isn't it? Let us know how it is please! Will watch thread.
 
J

jarosh

Member
hm, i always meant to get the gba version. i'm really curious how the ds remake turned out. as soon as you play it, mejilan, you're gonna have to tell us how it compares to the original... so i can decide which version to get :p
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Will do. And the game was developed in Argentina, btw, by a studio named Sarabasa Entertainment. I might be missing an 's' there somewhere.
 
T

ToastyFrog

Inexplicable Treasure Hate
It's "Sabarasa." I think this is the first Argentinean game ever to reach the U.S. market.

I'm not sure I'm entirely sold on this version. It controls a bit like a DS first-person shooter, using the stylus to turn, which is kind of a pain in the wrist after a few minutes. I was hoping you could use the shoulder buttons to turn, and you can...but only in 180-degree increments.
 
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