Dungeon & Hero – Review

Our rating:

By: Dungeon

Version #: 1.0

Date Released: 2009-01-04

Developer: Chillingo Ltd

Price: 4.99

User Rating:

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It’s finally time boys and girls! Everyone has been waiting since my first look last week for my official Dungeon & Hero review. Is everyone good and excited? We all ready? Good! Unfortunately though, thanks to my mid-life crisis at the tender age of 21 I am unable to deliver on my promise of a full review this week. Oh fine, I’m just kidding! Here we go!

Dungeon & Hero is a fantasic game. It’s a game that easily impressed me and I look forward to finishing it and playing more games like it. Graphically, D&H looks like the older fashioned Final Fantasy games. They are good graphics, and do the game justice, but don’t expect any twenty minute cinematics like you have in FFX or XII. My thoughts on that? GOOD! Hated having to sit around and watch them things, I just wanted to kill stuff! On the left side (or right side, you can move it) of the screen is a dpad type deal that moves your character around. The opposite side of your dpad is a talk/attack button based on whether you are in a city or an area with monsters. There are three buttons upward and to the side of the action button that can be customized with abilities or items. A “quickbar” if you will for potions or special abilities.

D&H gives you the option to choose from three characters to play: Sian who is your basic warrior, Shana is an archer/ranger class, and Irene picks up the slack as a mage/wizard. Each character has their own story that somehow ties into the entire plot of the game. I have to be honest in a situation like this, and even apologize to the developer a bit in this regard, but I’m not much of a story guy. I read the text that comes up when talking to an NPC, but right after reading it, it is pretty much forgotten. I mean let’s be honest here. What is more important to a game like D&H, killing stuff, or reading a good book? I want to kill stuff! I want to level up, get money, gain new abilities, buy armor and weapons, and stab and shoot my way through missions. The storyline has got something to do with a main force and some fire wizard, that is all I know. Sorry folks, if you want to know the story guess you will just have to buy the game. And by all means, buy it! It’s more than worth it.

Gameplay itself is entertaining, and can tend to get addictive. Just like any other RPG you run around and kill the bad guys, get experience, they drop stuff every once in a while from money to items, sometimes even armor or weapons. After accepting a mission and completing it you turn it in and get whatever reward designated. Missions are a requirement in this game however. There are a few RPG’s out there that you can just run around and kill things randomly and never have to do any talking at all with NPCs. D&H however, you are required to do missions to keep the storyline moving along. Enemies in the game range from porcupines and wolves, all the way up to wizards and some weird red bird called a kasa. Enviornments include towns (although I haven’t found a building yet that you can actually enter), basic fields, caves, and even dungeons.

I’m not really sure what else to say about D&H. I’ve stated countless times that it is indeed a fantastic game and a should buy. Before I depart you on your merry way to buy it however, might as well throw in a few tips & tricks I picked up while playing it.

If you are new to RPG type games, or just want to have a simpler time getting used to this one, your best bet when first starting is to make an archer or mage. Both characters have the ability to attack from longer range thus giving you an advantage on melee enemies. They are forced to run towards you before they can attack you while you get to wail away on them. Usually it’s possible to kill them before they get to you, and if not you can simply run away and build some more distance between you and the enemy and turn and begin killing it once more. This technique is known as kiting with anyone in the RPG world. Attacking an enemy you couldn’t kill head on by leading it around the map and slowly taking it out. Fighting harder opponents means more experience from the kill and better drops. Kiting is only possible with the mage and archer though, because the warrior can’t attack from range. Also, use the quickbar to your advantage. I placed my healing potions directly beside my attack button so that if I was mid-fight and about to die before him I could simply move my thumb less than ¼ inch and tap that potion, giving me an extra boost of life to finish the fight. This method is also useful for taking out enemies much higher level than you, although it costs a lot more to keep buying potions. Each character comes with one special ability at the beginning of the game called ‘Defend’. Place it on the quickbar directly above your attack button and anytime you get low on health, and are out of potions hold your finger on it. It basically sets up a impenetrable wall in front of you that your enemy can’t break. If you keep that shield up for an extended period of time, your character will slowly restore it’s HP and MP as you stand there and get pounded on. The only downfall to this method is the fact that it only blocks attacks from the front, so if you are mid-fight with two mobs and one is beside you, it won’t help. Also keep an eye on your surroundings when doing this, it will help you stay alive but if another mob walks up beside you, it WILL start to attack you and throw off everything. Also, be careful when you save if you are playing multiple characters. I started warrior and made a archer just to try it out. My first time saving I didn’t bother to pay attention enough to change to slot B before hitting save, and lost my level 17 warrior. I was quite unhappy as you can imagine.

D&H does have it’s downfalls as well however, it’s not all perfect. And this tends to be a huge pain. If you are in the middle of a game, and have been sitting there playing for a good hour or so, leveling up and doing missions. You have got a lot accomplished, right? Well guess what? As soon as you get all those things accomplished and feel like you’ve made a lot of progress, you will get a phone call. Everytime you receive a phone call with D&H open, it closes your current game, thus, losing all of your progress. What I am saying here is save frequently, otherwise you will lose progress everytime someone calls you. I would assume (and hope) that the issue with losing progress because of phone calls will be addressed and fixed in a future update but who knows. Just like any other RPG as well, if you die, it’s game over and back to your last save point. So you should be saving every chance you get anyhow.

QUICK TAKE

Value: High

Would I Buy Again: Definetly yes!

Learning Curve: None if you’ve played an RPG before, medium if you’re new to it.

Who is it For: RPG lovers everywhere, or anyone interested in becoming one.

My Likes: Everything about it!

My Dislikes: Progress being lost thanks to phone calls.

Final Statement: What more is there to say? Go buy it! Play it! Love it! Enjoy it!

Rating: 5 stars