Should have started this thread three years ago...but I didn't had the game three years ago! As a way to test my new PC and capture/editing programs, I decided to pop Labyrinth no Kanata in my 3DS last Sunday. I bought this game during my last trip to Japan, and from the screenshots on the case I thought it was an action game...honestly!
Instead I get a dungeon crawler with NES (or better, Famicom) level graphics. Alright, I just hope that this isn't an other Dark Spire (not because it's bad, but because it was like the old Wizardry games).
You don't get to create a character, you just chose your name and set foot in a dungeon, where you are soon joined by three other members. Party members and enemies are colour-coded based on their elemental affinity: red, blue, and green, arranged in a rock-paper-scissor mechanic for weaknesses and strenghts. Encounters are turn-based, and you can select the strenght of your attacks; more powerful attacks will force a party member to wait more time between attacks, and the turn progression is indicated on the lower screen. Every time you (or your enemies) exploit an elemental weakness the damage dealt will be added to a pool, shared between you and enemies, that will be used by the next attacker to heal itself, as long as elemental affinities match.
For example: one of your red characters strikes one blue enemy; blue is weak against red, the enemy takes damage and the same amount is added to the red elemental pool; next a green enemy attacks, dealing damage to one of your green characters; nothing is added to the green pool and the red pool is not used because there was no affinity; now, let's say that one of your red characters attacks: he depletes the red pool and heal himself. If, in place of your red character, a red enemy would have attacked, the enemy would have depleted the red pool, healing himself.
The available items aren't your usual collection: instead of healing potions and such, you have items to skip one turn (if you want a certain character to benefit from an elemental pool), items that change a character's affinity and so on. Judging by the available item slots, there are only few item types in the whole game, and the battle system largely rests on your ability to exploit the elemental triangle.
This system takes a while to get used to, but it's kinda nice, as it gives battles a strategic layer seldomly seen in recent dungeon crawlers; it can be unforgiving, and even basic encounters can turn out disastrous if you mismanage the elemental pool. This is particularly true against bosses or stronger-than-normal encounters, that degenerate almost immediately in a slugglish match where you try to have a character with the enemy's elemental affinity act before the enemy to keep it from healing.
Monsters are visible and move around the dungeon, and it's possible to initiate a battle from afar, giving your party a turn advantage; some enemies can only attack at close range, and even ranged enemies have shorter ranges than your party (that, BTW, is apparently composed only by mages).
As said before, the game starts out with 8-bit aesthetics, but then switches to modern graphics when you meet The Girl. I don't know her name, I call her The Girl or Kanata. The switch in graphics also means that your party gets transported into this new dimension with "real" graphics, but being the text completely in Japanese, details of the story are obscure to me. TG serves as your proxy in this new labyrinth, as only she is able to pick up items and interact with doors, elevators, and levers. Your characters can still attack, and for a while they'll be the only one able to; as you progress through the game TG gets the ability to attack with untyped/grey magic, as well as healing powers, though you can't control her actions during battles.
Experience is shared between your party members, and can only be assigned at rock slabs found at every 4/5 floors: you can upgrade health (10 pts per 50 HPs increase) or attack (500 pts per level increase) for each party member. Health is self-expliantory, but attack doesn't increase the overall damage, it adds a third (and so on) attack level to deliver a stronger attack for a longer wait to the next turn.
When TG gets her attack/healing powers, you can also switch how party members contribute to her exclusive untyped/grey pool. The mechanics behind that are still a bit unclear, but you can switch between adding to her pool or multiply that by some factor (I think based on the elemental triangle).
The game controls are somewhat different from what I'm used to: you can control your point of view with X and B, L and R (up, down, left, right) and you can move at 45 degrees rather than being constrained to 90 degrees increments; strafing is linked to left and right on the analog nub, which I find rather strange, but that's due to all those hours spent with Etrian Odyssey. Moving at 45 degrees is a nice addition, but you are still constrained by imaginary tiles, and movement sits uncomfortably between "constrained" tile-based and completely free roaming. Holding the analog nub in one direction for a long time isn't particularly comfortable either, and you can't use the d-pad as that moves the map, displayed on the lower screen.
As a whole, Labyrinth no Kanata is an interesting title, worth checking out if you like dungeon crawlers.
And...some footage.
Instead I get a dungeon crawler with NES (or better, Famicom) level graphics. Alright, I just hope that this isn't an other Dark Spire (not because it's bad, but because it was like the old Wizardry games).
You don't get to create a character, you just chose your name and set foot in a dungeon, where you are soon joined by three other members. Party members and enemies are colour-coded based on their elemental affinity: red, blue, and green, arranged in a rock-paper-scissor mechanic for weaknesses and strenghts. Encounters are turn-based, and you can select the strenght of your attacks; more powerful attacks will force a party member to wait more time between attacks, and the turn progression is indicated on the lower screen. Every time you (or your enemies) exploit an elemental weakness the damage dealt will be added to a pool, shared between you and enemies, that will be used by the next attacker to heal itself, as long as elemental affinities match.
For example: one of your red characters strikes one blue enemy; blue is weak against red, the enemy takes damage and the same amount is added to the red elemental pool; next a green enemy attacks, dealing damage to one of your green characters; nothing is added to the green pool and the red pool is not used because there was no affinity; now, let's say that one of your red characters attacks: he depletes the red pool and heal himself. If, in place of your red character, a red enemy would have attacked, the enemy would have depleted the red pool, healing himself.
The available items aren't your usual collection: instead of healing potions and such, you have items to skip one turn (if you want a certain character to benefit from an elemental pool), items that change a character's affinity and so on. Judging by the available item slots, there are only few item types in the whole game, and the battle system largely rests on your ability to exploit the elemental triangle.
This system takes a while to get used to, but it's kinda nice, as it gives battles a strategic layer seldomly seen in recent dungeon crawlers; it can be unforgiving, and even basic encounters can turn out disastrous if you mismanage the elemental pool. This is particularly true against bosses or stronger-than-normal encounters, that degenerate almost immediately in a slugglish match where you try to have a character with the enemy's elemental affinity act before the enemy to keep it from healing.
Monsters are visible and move around the dungeon, and it's possible to initiate a battle from afar, giving your party a turn advantage; some enemies can only attack at close range, and even ranged enemies have shorter ranges than your party (that, BTW, is apparently composed only by mages).
As said before, the game starts out with 8-bit aesthetics, but then switches to modern graphics when you meet The Girl. I don't know her name, I call her The Girl or Kanata. The switch in graphics also means that your party gets transported into this new dimension with "real" graphics, but being the text completely in Japanese, details of the story are obscure to me. TG serves as your proxy in this new labyrinth, as only she is able to pick up items and interact with doors, elevators, and levers. Your characters can still attack, and for a while they'll be the only one able to; as you progress through the game TG gets the ability to attack with untyped/grey magic, as well as healing powers, though you can't control her actions during battles.
Experience is shared between your party members, and can only be assigned at rock slabs found at every 4/5 floors: you can upgrade health (10 pts per 50 HPs increase) or attack (500 pts per level increase) for each party member. Health is self-expliantory, but attack doesn't increase the overall damage, it adds a third (and so on) attack level to deliver a stronger attack for a longer wait to the next turn.
When TG gets her attack/healing powers, you can also switch how party members contribute to her exclusive untyped/grey pool. The mechanics behind that are still a bit unclear, but you can switch between adding to her pool or multiply that by some factor (I think based on the elemental triangle).
The game controls are somewhat different from what I'm used to: you can control your point of view with X and B, L and R (up, down, left, right) and you can move at 45 degrees rather than being constrained to 90 degrees increments; strafing is linked to left and right on the analog nub, which I find rather strange, but that's due to all those hours spent with Etrian Odyssey. Moving at 45 degrees is a nice addition, but you are still constrained by imaginary tiles, and movement sits uncomfortably between "constrained" tile-based and completely free roaming. Holding the analog nub in one direction for a long time isn't particularly comfortable either, and you can't use the d-pad as that moves the map, displayed on the lower screen.
As a whole, Labyrinth no Kanata is an interesting title, worth checking out if you like dungeon crawlers.
And...some footage.
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