RPG Fighting In A Nintendo DS Package - Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Fighting Fantasy Novels
Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain for the Nintendo DS is based upon the Fighting Fantasy novels, yet lacks the main ingredient of these great adventure stories - the ability to choose your own story line. Despite this major change should you pick up this title or leave it on the shelf? Let’s see where the ratings lie.
Story Line (2 out of 5)
You begin this rpg games title as an adventurer wandering into a small town to try and loot the nearby dungeon. Firetop Mountain is known throughout the game land as a grand place, full of loot, yet guarded by a warlock. The problem with the story line is that there is no real challenge to it and you can pretty much determine where it’s going to go. If you are a fan of the novels, you will be sorely disppointed with the Nintendo DS version, as there is no way for you to choose your own adventure and go your own path. This makes the story line fall flat and get a bit old pretty quickly. You can, however, choose your own class - but these are the basic rpg games classes and nothing really new: rogue, warrior, or wizard. The only good thing about the different classes is that you can upgrade and grow your character to create a unique toon. Other than that, the story line is really basic and falls down without much help.
Game Play (1 out of 5)
The game play in Fighting Fantasy for the Nintendo DS is really basic as well, and I would say that this is more of a child’s rpg games trainer than anything else. You are confined to one single dungeon in the whole game, and you have to learn to use the compass (mini map) to get around, even though there is really only one way you can go.
You also fight monsters along the way, but again, this is extremely basic fighting with some bad glitches. It’s actually funny to fight any monster in this Nintendo DS title as eventually they will probably get caught up on something. The mobs that you come up against aren’t really anything close to unique or imaginative, and are the basic monsters that you’ve encountered millions of times in other games.
When it comes to the actual combat of the game, well, there isn’t much more than just the basics again. It almost makes the game even more boring as there are no really great combat sequences to try or combos to learn or anything really. And, the bosses in the game - well, what bosses? I found that all you have to do is stand behind a broken pillar or some other type of wall that allows you to toss fire at them, and they’ll just die as you don’t lose a single health point because they get stuck on the wall.
Graphics (3 out of 5)
The graphics are actually decent in my opinion, which makes up a bit for the horrible story line and *yawn* completely boring combat. They are the basic rpg games graphics, but they do offer some good detail. Although, they do remind me of some of the top end games from the old school Nintendo… hmmm.
Overall Impression (2 out of 5)
Really I would steer clear of this one. If you are a big rpg fan and you want your kids to start learning how to play them too, maybe wait until this one is in the bargain bin and pick it up for basic training. Other than that, well, it’s not really worth much.
This post is part of the series: Final Fantasy XIII - Mission Guides
A series of articles that relate to specific missions found during the main game of FFXIII. In total there are 64 Cie’th stone missions the player can undertake, each ending in a boss fight against a mighty foe.
