First 5! Avalon Code DS

Avalon Code is seriously one of the most unique action role-playing game I have played. Now, the game starts off with the familiar story of chosen hero, sword of truth hero guardian thingy. Now the mechanics is also the familiar hack & slash thingy until an interesting NEW mechanic is introduced. The Book of Prophecy.

Now, the idea of The Book of Prophecy is that the world is dying. And you the lucky one get to record all the good stuff in this old world which can be copied over into the new and improved version. What's cool about this book is that you get to do what your teacher has been doing when you doze off. Smack yah with the book. Well, with the Book of Prophecy you get to smack everything from friends, gears, plants, enemies & weapons and then their data will be stored into the book. Once in the book you get to reorder it's "code" to make it better, weaker, flameable and what not. Which opens a new possibility of gaming! e.g.: A tough monster is giving your trouble, Smack the fellow, add an ILL "code" which will reduce its health and you get yourself a weaker version of the same monster. Cool eh?

Granted you can only set aside 4" code"s at one shot and each "code" can vary in shape and sizes which create a heck of a puzzle itself. Granted, the amount you can hold will be increased over time. Now, the book also act as the save file, load file, map, glossary, history book and all that - which is a pretty good way excuse of chunking everything into one area at the lower screen. Good use of space! Control of character is with D-pad and certain things require the use of touchscreen but generally the battle is done using the control pad and anything book related is touchscreened.

Summary

This game is a new an revolutionary way of changing the ARPG mechanics that have been around for sometime breathing a fresh breath into the otherwise simple hack and slash. I have yet to explore deep into the game but this is one of the more promising must get game available.
It is quite an injustice when you realise that this game is not that well known due to its lack of advertising. But don't let that deter you, so get this game at Play-Asia HERE.


-Because I Can-