DEVELOPER: Crescent, with writing and ideas by imascribble and proofreading by Tarq.

STORY: Yeah, there's a story here, but the game really doesn't need one; it's a straight-forward dungeon crawler. You're on the moon, in a temple. A dragon has kidnapped a pair of sisters. That's not good for reasons. So basically, you need to enter the temple, clear it of monsters, have conversations that do absolutely nothing for the game, and beat the dragon. Cool beans!

WRITING: Okay, I'm sorry, really, but this game was better off without writing. I know there was an effort to make the game better. I don't want to discourage the writer, because there really is potential for a neat story in this. It's just not very well fleshed out, and to say what's there is cheesy is a bit of an understatement. There are only a few instances of dialogue, and it is really bad. That's not taking into account the poor syntax and the parsing errors. There are a few lines in this text that are in the realm of so-bad-it's-good, and those gems are definitely worth reading, preferably out loud so they can be heard out of context by other people, thereby thoroughly embarrassing you. Still, most of this text was just better off not being shown.



What's really bad is that this game has useless exposition, which is definitely not a good thing in a story with this little dialogue. You already don't have a lot of room for your story; filling that space with pointless information is not the way to go.



I would comment on the lack of character development, but seriously, I'm glad that this game didn't have it. Now, that's all the bad stuff out of the way; rejoice! The rest is good...mostly!

GAMEPLAY: This game is a lot of fun. The first few enemies are insanely easy when you realize that not only can they all be easily put to sleep, but they lose a full turn because of it, even if you wake them up, meaning sleep = automatic two free turns + however many turns sleep lasts if you don't wake them up! Thankfully, this is where the ease of gameplay ends. Now, very few enemies are actually challenging, but you will find that you have a much easier time with them if you use some kind of strategy. Balance is in favor of the player and it is nearly perfect, letting you defeat the end boss almost exactly as you run out of tricks to pull out of your hat.



There's also a modest amount traps to challenge you if the enemies don't. The final boss presents the only real challenge in the game, as he can kill all four of your characters in a single turn, most of your attacks don't work, and he has ridiculously high hitpoints. Don't lose heart. As long you stick to certain patterns of attack, you can take him down. Really, this game is a lot of fun. Take away the dialogue and the lacking story, and there really is a great game here. Make no mistake, the gameplay is the reason to come here. Just shift+skip your way through the text. Equally pointless are the cats. They give you information that you can easily figure out for yourself. The only cat you need to ever talk to is the one on the second floor.

GRAPHICS: Uses the RPG Maker DS Resource Pack to great effect. This game has a nice retro feel to it with some excellent scenery. No eyesores to be found in this game.

MUSIC: Also from the DS Resource Pack, the music fits the scene perfectly. Everything has a very nice vibe, and this game is actually a very nice showcase for the fantasy/sci-fi elements of the DS Resource Pack.

CONCLUSION: Once you get past the bad dialogue, this is really a fun little title that will only take about half an hour out of your life. I very much recommend it. Just make sure you set your brain to "ignore" for the story text.