Gameboy Color - Azure Dreams Review

Azure Dreams is the gameboy colour version of the Playstation game of the same name. Like the Playstation game, this is a monster RPG and tower crawl. This version of the game covers the main story of the Playstation game but goes beyond it. This is probably the third best tower/dungeon monster collection crawl on the gameboy colour next to the Dragon Warrior Monsters series and Pokemon series despite some flaws.

Gameplay and interface: 9/10

The game takes place in Monsaibaya, known for its Monster Tower and that is where you'll spend most of your time, in the monster tower fighting to get to the top and later to the bottom. Gameplay in the tower occurs from a top down view and is really a turn based-game on a large square board. What happens is time proceeds only when you move or attack. So when you move, your monsters and the hostile monsters move or attack. Facing doesn't take up time which can only be a good thing. You can perform a number of other actions common in all RPG such as using items and checking status of yourself. Picking up stuff is easy, simply walk over it and it'll automactically be added to your inventory.

Your standard RPG weapons are there too such as the sword, shield and wand. Equipping them provides bonuses to your character as expected. Perhaps one of the more interesting options is to throw item as enemy monsters. This might sound redundant but it works Being a human however, you have no spells of your own. What you do have however are magical orbs as well as wands. The more powerful swords and shields will also have an elemental type associated with it.

Speaking of elements, the three elements, fire, wind and water, play a fairly major role in this game. Fire is good against wind, wind against water and water against fire. Using the right element will give you the advantage although physical strength is usually more important. Having a higher level or statistics than the opponent is what will usually win the battle.

Using monsters or Tameons as they are called to aid you in your battle is fairly easy as well. Initially you start with only one collar which means only one monster can accompany you on the outside to fight, that is occupy a space on the tower floor. You can still carry other monsters in your bag however and later on you get another collar allowing two monsters to accompany you on the floor. Ordering the monsters around is fairly easy. There are five possible commands for them from being aggressive to standing still and you can dictate where they will stand respective to you. For example, you might want a weaker monster to stand beside you while the stronger monster stand in front of you. Monsters can also cast spells which can for example, enhance your attack or do something else such as blind the enemy.

Raising and capturing monsters is really the focus of the game rather than hacking and slashing your way through the dungeon. You see, the monster tower exerts a strange effect on humans which prevents them from carrying more than five items into the tower and reduces their level to 1 when they exit which is downright annoying. The number of monsters is in included in the item count by the way which further compounds the problem. This means that obtaining powerful monsters and raising monsters' levels are very much more important than raising your own since monsters keep their levels. However, there is very limited room in your monster stable so fusing or selling weaker monsters is a must. There is also a monster book which you can use to check up on monsters and their descriptions.

Another important piece of information about the tower is the fact that you always start from level 1 which means you have to traverse through all the levels before being able to proceed further up the tower. This is both a curse and boon as all your monsters are hatched from eggs and must be trained from level 1 so you'll be getting experience as you do so.

There are a few other annoyances which should be mentioned. Occassionally your monsters wander off and get lost while at other times having to set monster behaviours can get tiresome as you deal with different enemies. There is also a spell which can lower your monsters' levels permenantly which is at times unfair because you might encounter groups of monsters able to cast the spell. Finally, the fusion system in the game is rather limited. Fusing monsters will give offspring their skills but more often than not, you'll get the same monster rather than a different one. Unlike Dragon Warrior Monsters, the resultant monster does not get any bonuses although it starts off at the same level as the monster which had the higher level before you fused it. All in all however, the gameplay and interface is fairly solid aside from these few quirks.

Storyline: 3.5/5

Well, the storyline is fairly typical. Your father went missing in the tower and now that you're fifteen, you're going in to find him. Although the town's folk do provide you with some information in the beginning, it's really in the tower that you'll glean more information about your father and the main plot from your father's friends. I think this really helps break the sense of monotony in the game when you've been up the tower for the twentieth time. You do get to feel the personalities of the various characters but I feel that there's a lot that's been left out and sort of wish there was more dialogue.

Graphics: 4/5

The graphics are clear and crisp both in the tower and in the menu screens. Monster pictures are also drawn well although not all the designs are cool. There could have been more variety in the graphics and spell effects but that's probably my only complaint.

Level design: 3.5/5

The contains really small levels and there aren't really any massive huge levels which is a good thing because this means you can reach the elevator easily and save the game since you can only save game between levels. The levels are randomly generated each time you enter the tower but what this really means is that the template which is used for each level is randomly selected except for certain levels such as the boss levels. If you travel through the floors enough, it's not surprise that you'll eventually come across a level identical to one you've travelled before. It does get repetitive but as this is a dungeon crawl it isn't too bad. Traps, items and elevator locations are randomised so the map is somewhat different even if the layout is the same. Naturally, as you travel upward, the items or eggs that you can pick up will usually be more powerful or expensive than what you find below.

Music and Sound: 4/5

Music isn't particularly great in the tower itself and gets rather boring after awhile. That being said, the music tunes in the various buildings in the game are fairly interesting and tend to reflect the personalities of the inhabitants. Sound is fairly minimal in this game but it's unintrusive. All in all the music and sound don't really detract from the main game.

For: Solid gameplay, many monsters.

Against: Can't carry more than five items or monsters into the tower, somewhat repetitive, may not appeal to everyone, fusion system isn't that great.