Lately I?ve been exploring the more obscure Nintendo DS titles that are capable of entertaining at least teenagers or people with competence beyond that of a mongoloid toddler. I?ll get into a couple of Flash games later because it turns out a DeviantART user had the soothing cream for my Golden Sun blue balls after Golden Sun: Dark Dawn was made for ages 10 and below, but enough of that, let?s talk this one.
Avalon Code is an obscure little DS title made by Marvelous Entertainment, the group that helped Grasshopper Manufacturer with Contact. They already made one handheld game that I loved, so I decided to give Avalon Code a try in memory of Contact.
The basic plot of Avalon Code is that the world will end in a couple of weeks and you must use an item called the Book of Prophecy to record information on the things that are worthy of existing in the new world, but as you progress you find out this apocalypse is premature and that someone intimately familiar with the books nature is trying to exterminate humans, so there?s a story campaign in addition to NPC side quests.
You control either a boy or girl that you get to name. Deciding to try and inspire some lesbian fan fiction out of myself after realizing it was possible to get elemental spirits to fall in love with you, I went with a girl. Completely lacking imagination as far as names are concerned though, I decided to name her Jasmine after my cat who was at the time head butting me, trying to get me to feed her. FUCK OFF JASMINE, I GAVE YOU A CAN OF FOOD TWO HOURS AGO!
Sorry. One thing you?ll quickly notice while playing is that the voice acting is absolutely horrible and there is no language control options. To make matters worse I swear the female protagonist and Princess Peach have the same voice actor, so the ear sodomy begins the moment you start dodge rolling.
Now one thing I noticed while strolling through Avalon Code reviews is that the game is reportedly difficult. Is that true? Not really. Not unlike Shadows of the Damned, a game I?ll review very soon, Avalon Code?s difficulty lies in the fact that you can?t take a lot of damage early on. It?s hardly Devil May Cry 3 though. DODGE ROLL AND COMBO ATTACK! Honestly.
Anyway the major gimmick of Avalon Code is that the Book of Prophecy doesn?t simply record information but actually allows you to create items based on data recorded and adjust the nature of the data through the use of codes. This means you can at any time rewrite the code of your weapons in order to turn them into highly powerful artifacts or simply give them an elemental touch for certain puzzles but it also means you can rewrite the code of ANYTHING you scan including friendly NPCs and hostiles alike. This means that at any time you can add detrimental items like a Fate or Illness code in order to weaken enemies or you can strengthen them by giving them elemental properties or metal or stone codes to boost their defense and HP, and this also applies to bosses.
Call me crazy, but I actually like systems like this. A similar system was in The World Ends with You where you could adjust Neku?s level at any time giving you either higher HP or lower HP but a higher bonus for defeating enemies. The ability to toughen up enemies or weaken them at will strengthens the feel that you are basically the God of a world that will soon be replacing the one you?re already in.
But there are some gripes. The game has 3D graphics but is played entirely from a top-view camera you can?t adjust, like Contact and like Harvest Moon, the franchise Marvelous Entertainment is most known for. The problem with this is that if you are watching your character rather than her shadow, platforming is difficult as her hit box isn?t always apparent. This got especially annoying during ice levels, but fortunately if you die you have the option of restarting the room you were in.
But the combat at platforming actually aren?t the major focus of the game. Because combat is actually extremely elementary with the ability to do a toss-up combo called a ?Judgment Link? in which an enemy is thrown into the air and kept afloat by carefully timed attacks until they eventually explode (IN SPACE!!!) the game focuses on challenge maps. Important dungeons are divided into rooms with challenges in them ranging from puzzle solving to mass murder. The dungeons are on a timer and have a variety of switches that respond to either attacks from specific weapons or elements or that cause enemies to continuously respond until you destroy the switch, but the room doesn?t end if the time runs out. All you actually have to do is clear a room, that?s it. If you?re determined though, the actual challenge of the dungeon is getting a high score in order to earn a medal, which sometimes also unlocks what is called a ?Metalisize,? a page from a previous life of the Book of Prophecy that gives you a recipe when scanned that can be used to convert a standard item into an artifact or that will boost your characters maximum HP or MP.
NPC interaction is also a major part, with Avalon Code feeling kind of like a sandbox game. NPCs generally have a locked-in code that you are only able to remove once they open up to you. The problems range from curing a terminally ill girl to removing a seal on a witches magic powers to even magically making a princess behave like less of a *****. No seriously, you actually have to help a princess named Dorothea by removing a locked in ?Selfish? code by showing her the horrors of war and getting her to build up the cajones to sign a peace treaty with a warring nation. This also ties into an affection system. Every page has a score at the bottom, not unlike the dungeons, that increases either the more you kill an enemy, the more an NPC likes you and the more their code fits with their aspiration, and the more you?ve explored an area. NPCs with high scores may fall in love with you if you give them gifts and help them with their problems. After I found out you couldn?t spark up lesbian relationships for some stupid reason I decided to court a swordsman named Anwar whose emotions were being consumed by a cursed sword, and who weirdly had purple hair and loved cookies.
This turned a little strange when Anwar started to like me and greeted little Jasmine with a creepy laugh that reminded me of Wiseau?s performance in The Room, but I got weirdly involved when
Befriending NPCs isn?t without reward. One NPC named Lauca who you encounter midway through the story campaign gives you access to the ability to pull hunks of raw meat out of the book. Later on you?ll find a Metalisize that allows you to apply certain codes to turn said meat into a steak that heals as many as 18 HP. Competing in Judgment Link Tournaments also unlock Metalisizes that let you turn your character into a furry with the right animal codes, so I decided to spend the last half of the game after the book had given me a second upgrade to the size of the code map with Jasmine wearing cat ears and a tail which eerily enough perfectly matched her hair color. Kind of cute, but it was like the creators of the game knew the audience members would be twisted perverts naming the main character after a pet.
But enough of that. Is Avalon Code good? Well like most RPGs it?s niche appeal. Avalon Code feels more like a western RPG with no turn based combat and weapons that level up as you use them, it?s difficulty is based almost entirely on trying to precisely controlling your character, but once all is said and done I?d say it?s good for a handheld. The biggest frustration was the fact that the most valuable Metalisizes are sealed with a sliding tile puzzle that can range from 3x3 to 6x6 size. If you struggled with the sliding block puzzle in RE4 this game will have you ripping your hair out. Maybe that?s why it?s optional?
Characters can get to be annoying but aside from a few whom I?d like to beat to death Mortal Kombat 9 style right up to using Smoke?s fatality and cooking them from the inside out they actually can get to be somewhat interesting in some cases, and always remember to reward you for putting up with their bullshit with either free scratch and win cards or special formulas. Voices are annoying but cinematics can be skipped and voices can be turned off from the settings. I wouldn?t say Avalon Code is better than Contact, but it?s definitely a game worth checking out if you like handheld RPGs and can stomach a little grinding. I bought my copy used for $10 and while it might get to be around $20 or more online, I?d say go ahead and spend it if you?re a fan of Marvelous Entertainment?s previous work.
You can?t have a lesbian relationship and you can?t turn grass to marijuana. What a gyp?
--Pyramid Head
Avalon Code is an obscure little DS title made by Marvelous Entertainment, the group that helped Grasshopper Manufacturer with Contact. They already made one handheld game that I loved, so I decided to give Avalon Code a try in memory of Contact.
The basic plot of Avalon Code is that the world will end in a couple of weeks and you must use an item called the Book of Prophecy to record information on the things that are worthy of existing in the new world, but as you progress you find out this apocalypse is premature and that someone intimately familiar with the books nature is trying to exterminate humans, so there?s a story campaign in addition to NPC side quests.
You control either a boy or girl that you get to name. Deciding to try and inspire some lesbian fan fiction out of myself after realizing it was possible to get elemental spirits to fall in love with you, I went with a girl. Completely lacking imagination as far as names are concerned though, I decided to name her Jasmine after my cat who was at the time head butting me, trying to get me to feed her. FUCK OFF JASMINE, I GAVE YOU A CAN OF FOOD TWO HOURS AGO!
Sorry. One thing you?ll quickly notice while playing is that the voice acting is absolutely horrible and there is no language control options. To make matters worse I swear the female protagonist and Princess Peach have the same voice actor, so the ear sodomy begins the moment you start dodge rolling.
Now one thing I noticed while strolling through Avalon Code reviews is that the game is reportedly difficult. Is that true? Not really. Not unlike Shadows of the Damned, a game I?ll review very soon, Avalon Code?s difficulty lies in the fact that you can?t take a lot of damage early on. It?s hardly Devil May Cry 3 though. DODGE ROLL AND COMBO ATTACK! Honestly.
Anyway the major gimmick of Avalon Code is that the Book of Prophecy doesn?t simply record information but actually allows you to create items based on data recorded and adjust the nature of the data through the use of codes. This means you can at any time rewrite the code of your weapons in order to turn them into highly powerful artifacts or simply give them an elemental touch for certain puzzles but it also means you can rewrite the code of ANYTHING you scan including friendly NPCs and hostiles alike. This means that at any time you can add detrimental items like a Fate or Illness code in order to weaken enemies or you can strengthen them by giving them elemental properties or metal or stone codes to boost their defense and HP, and this also applies to bosses.
Call me crazy, but I actually like systems like this. A similar system was in The World Ends with You where you could adjust Neku?s level at any time giving you either higher HP or lower HP but a higher bonus for defeating enemies. The ability to toughen up enemies or weaken them at will strengthens the feel that you are basically the God of a world that will soon be replacing the one you?re already in.
But there are some gripes. The game has 3D graphics but is played entirely from a top-view camera you can?t adjust, like Contact and like Harvest Moon, the franchise Marvelous Entertainment is most known for. The problem with this is that if you are watching your character rather than her shadow, platforming is difficult as her hit box isn?t always apparent. This got especially annoying during ice levels, but fortunately if you die you have the option of restarting the room you were in.
But the combat at platforming actually aren?t the major focus of the game. Because combat is actually extremely elementary with the ability to do a toss-up combo called a ?Judgment Link? in which an enemy is thrown into the air and kept afloat by carefully timed attacks until they eventually explode (IN SPACE!!!) the game focuses on challenge maps. Important dungeons are divided into rooms with challenges in them ranging from puzzle solving to mass murder. The dungeons are on a timer and have a variety of switches that respond to either attacks from specific weapons or elements or that cause enemies to continuously respond until you destroy the switch, but the room doesn?t end if the time runs out. All you actually have to do is clear a room, that?s it. If you?re determined though, the actual challenge of the dungeon is getting a high score in order to earn a medal, which sometimes also unlocks what is called a ?Metalisize,? a page from a previous life of the Book of Prophecy that gives you a recipe when scanned that can be used to convert a standard item into an artifact or that will boost your characters maximum HP or MP.
NPC interaction is also a major part, with Avalon Code feeling kind of like a sandbox game. NPCs generally have a locked-in code that you are only able to remove once they open up to you. The problems range from curing a terminally ill girl to removing a seal on a witches magic powers to even magically making a princess behave like less of a *****. No seriously, you actually have to help a princess named Dorothea by removing a locked in ?Selfish? code by showing her the horrors of war and getting her to build up the cajones to sign a peace treaty with a warring nation. This also ties into an affection system. Every page has a score at the bottom, not unlike the dungeons, that increases either the more you kill an enemy, the more an NPC likes you and the more their code fits with their aspiration, and the more you?ve explored an area. NPCs with high scores may fall in love with you if you give them gifts and help them with their problems. After I found out you couldn?t spark up lesbian relationships for some stupid reason I decided to court a swordsman named Anwar whose emotions were being consumed by a cursed sword, and who weirdly had purple hair and loved cookies.
This turned a little strange when Anwar started to like me and greeted little Jasmine with a creepy laugh that reminded me of Wiseau?s performance in The Room, but I got weirdly involved when
Someone stole the Book of Prophecy but couldn?t control it and wound up destroying half the fucking city and killing Anwar, making it necessary for you to strengthen yourself to the point that you could perform a miracle and use the full power of the book to bring him back to life
But enough of that. Is Avalon Code good? Well like most RPGs it?s niche appeal. Avalon Code feels more like a western RPG with no turn based combat and weapons that level up as you use them, it?s difficulty is based almost entirely on trying to precisely controlling your character, but once all is said and done I?d say it?s good for a handheld. The biggest frustration was the fact that the most valuable Metalisizes are sealed with a sliding tile puzzle that can range from 3x3 to 6x6 size. If you struggled with the sliding block puzzle in RE4 this game will have you ripping your hair out. Maybe that?s why it?s optional?
Characters can get to be annoying but aside from a few whom I?d like to beat to death Mortal Kombat 9 style right up to using Smoke?s fatality and cooking them from the inside out they actually can get to be somewhat interesting in some cases, and always remember to reward you for putting up with their bullshit with either free scratch and win cards or special formulas. Voices are annoying but cinematics can be skipped and voices can be turned off from the settings. I wouldn?t say Avalon Code is better than Contact, but it?s definitely a game worth checking out if you like handheld RPGs and can stomach a little grinding. I bought my copy used for $10 and while it might get to be around $20 or more online, I?d say go ahead and spend it if you?re a fan of Marvelous Entertainment?s previous work.
You can?t have a lesbian relationship and you can?t turn grass to marijuana. What a gyp?
--Pyramid Head