About This Place

First started in late 2007, Kasey's Mobile Game Review (then just a regular feature of Kasey's Korner) started as a simul-post between here and IGN. Later I realized there's no reason to post it twice, when I can use the traffic on my own site. so, here we are, in 2010, and the mobile game industry has grown a bit. What do you think?


Mobile Game Review of "Dungeon & Fighter: Gunner"

For those who don't know, Dungeon & Fighter is a free MMORPG available in Asia, and one of the classes available is "gunner" (yes, this fantasy RPG has firearms), AND magic and all that. I had to look that up as I did say this is one of the worst titles for a mobile game in recent years. I still say it is, but now I know why. But how does it fare as a game? Not too bad, actually.

First of all, D&F:G is a cut down version of the full MMORPG game. And it's fully single player. There's a fixed plot, and only ONE class to play... the gunner. (In the full game you have 5 classes, each with different skills). However, this one class is already complicated enough.

It is a typical "Asian" style RPG, with small almost comical sprites in the main screen, semi-isometric view, then in the bottom 1/4 of the screen you'll get the dialog with a portrait of the character speaking. Then when you do combat, you see the damage taking place with numbers and status and EXP racking up above the respective characters, like "3 Combo hit!" "-124 damage!" and so on. The game has a lot of "options" as there are FIVE types of firearms (revolver, automatic, bow gun, musket, hand cannon), and there are even plenty of martial arts skills and supplemental skills to back up your firearm prowess. Use your "skill points" to get training from the teacher in town to upgrade those skills.

When you get to level 18 or so (7th primary quest), you can chose a specialization, which allows you to pick the specialist skills that were previously locked up.

The town also has alchemy stores, weapons stores, armament stores, provision stores, and more (actually, they are just shopkeepers who stand in town, but you get the idea). Some will give you "fetch" quests, as they require certain items dropped by monsters as random loot. It is perfectly possible to go gather a lot of loot, then come back and take the specific quests that require them. Rewards vary from gold to various energy cube pieces to experience points and skill points.

Your avatar can equip up to six distinct items: weapon, grieves, necklace, ring, body armor, and shoes. Each of the items can be further enhanced by the alchemist with the proper amount of gold and ingredients. In fact, more items NOT available in markets can be synthesized if you gather enough ingredients (and/or do enough quests with the ones who give you energy cubes as rewards). You probably won't get to synthesize a very powerful weapon till near the very end.

The story is a very sad one... Ecole, who used to be co-leader of the Dark Army with Lord Arak, turned on Arak and defeated him, but the damage was done to the realm, and weakened to almost death, he wandered for a long time, blank, until he met Seria. Now all he had in mind was redemption, but there are those who remember his past, and he can sense something in the dark stirring yet again... threatening the peace and tranquility. You, of course, play Ecole, and you need to defeat Lord Arak's minions (and your former colleagues) in order to save the world and your love. However, you find out that it may not be as simple as that... As you are somehow linked to Arak...

The actual play style depends on your skill allocation. I specialized in revolver, so I basically do run and gun, as the bullets are pretty weak, but I can pump out six of them pretty quickly. If you have a more powerful but slower weapon like hand cannon or musket you can shoot at longer ranges or take down more enemies in one shot. However, the idea is you need to clear room to room, every dungeon, of enemies. You get to the boss room, and you kill him (or her) too. There's always several monsters in the room, and some are fast, some are slow, some can even cast spells (which can hit you from a distance).

This game should keep you busy for a couple days as you fight through a dozen or so dungeons, some multiple times, just to collect enough loot and items to assemble some uber-items. It's a bit too sentimental / melodramatic for me, but the ending is kinda cute with a twist.

Graphics are a bit on the low end, but it's exactly what you'd expect with a Japanese-style RPG like Zelda. And they are big enough to be quite playable. Music is tolerable. The good part is this game offers quite a bit of gameplay, the baddies are different enough, though the play does get a bit repetitive. Still, it's a lot of game for a few bucks. If you like this style of play, I'd give it a try.

Overall rating: 7.5 out of 10
Pros: Japanese style RPG on a phone, proven balanced system, guns!
Cons: melodramatic script, gameplay a bit TOO repetitive

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

4 comments:

  1. Just asking, How do you equip the items you obtain? I'm really getting confused and I wouldn't want to Translate it myself. Just asking

    ReplyDelete
  2. From the English version I got, you go to the equipment screen and select the item, and that should be it. However, the version I played was for a feature phone, so I don't know which version you're playing. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. can you email the english ver of dungeon and figther?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nope, played that over a year ago, deleted LONG since.

    ReplyDelete