Reviewed: February 6, 2007
Reviewed by: Justin Nixon
Publisher
Graffiti Entertainment
Developer
Sabarasa Entertainment
Released: December 4, 2006
Genre: RPG
Players: 1
ESRB: Teen
7
9
8
6
7.6
Supported Features
Will the Game Boy Advance ever die? Developers are stilling pumping games out for this little handheld like there is no tomorrow. No matter how bad the games are people will still buy them because they don’t want to dish out the cash for the next generation, Nintendo DS. The DS has been out for a few years now, but that hasn’t stopped those developers from making GBA games.
When the Xbox 360 came out, Microsoft pretty much declared the original Xbox dead. Just over a year after the launch of the Xbox 360, original Xbox game production has nearly stopped. The new releases are becoming harder and harder to find at retailers.
Nintendo always likes to be different. They are actually competing against themselves by keeping the GBA on the market. The resiliency of the GBA makes me question which will die first, the GBA or the DS.
Mazes of Fate is yet another RPG GBA game. The GBA is already flooded with these types of games. This one is a little different than most games that are released now days for the GBA. It’s not bad!
Mazes of Fate features:
- 5 chapters of a deep history.
- 3 preset characters plus the ability to create a custom one.
- 5 secondary characters that can join your party.
- 3 different magic schools.
- 45 magic spells.
- 20 skills for customizing your characters just as you like.
- 100+ interactive, dynamic and animated dialogs.
- 500+ different items.
- 60+ enemy types.
- 50+ levels.
- 30+ hours of play!
This is your typical dungeon crawling RPG. You go around a village, look for things to do, and then you do them. Yeah, it’s that simple. As you explore the different villages throughout the game you will come across people with problems. Everyone has problems. You solve them, and then the people are happy. This continues for 20 hours or so and then it’s over. There’s more to it than just that though.
What makes this game different than most other RPG games for the GBA is that this game is actually good. The story in this game is quite good, although, it does take a while for it to get rolling. It isn’t as good as some other RPG’s like the Final Fantasy games or Pokemon but it does beat most of the other garbage that GBA games have for so-called stories.
The dungeons are huge mazes, just like the title implies. You explore the dungeons from a first-person perspective. Yes, that’s right, FIRST-PERSON exploration on the GBA. This is unheard of. The out-of-dungeon gameplay is just a basic top-down view.
The cons of this game are that it may be too simple. The action is about as dumbed-down as it gets. Attacking is as simple as hitting the A button and choosing the attack command. This does not change throughout the entire game, and can get repetitive.
No RPG would be complete without its fair share of puzzles and Mazes of Fate is no different. Some of the puzzles require backtracking which can be tedious as in most games, but over-all the puzzles will fit right into the gameplay and add some complexity to the game, not that this game is that complex anyway.
The story, although good, is never the real focus of the game, and occasionally leaves things out. For example; you may get a new party member but you may have never seen or met this person before. They just start fighting on your party. This kind of thing occasionally happens and may catch you off guard, so be prepared.
WOW! This will be your first response when you start playing. This game looks great for a GBA game. The dungeons are very detailed, and the character designs are interesting. The first-person perspective gives the game a Doom-like style in the Dungeons. Don’t get too excited because it is still basically a 2D game, but by making it first person in the dungeons it gives the feel of being 3D with an interactive environment.
The character designs are not animated, but they are done very well none-the-less. Each character has their own unique look. No two characters look a like. This could possibly be one of the best-looking GBA games that you ever play.
Just like the graphics, the sound is nearly perfect. Because there are no voice-overs, the music must set the mood for each stage of the game, and it does just that. When you are in one of the many dungeons the music is just what you would expect for a dark creepy place. When you are talking to bartender the music is light and lively like you might imagine. For each scenario the music is just right. It is so good that sometimes you may forget it’s there because it just matched the environments so well.
The one thing holding this game back is the fact that it is on the GBA. I felt that the developers could have done so much more if they would have made it for the DS. Although you can play this on the DS, it’s still a GBA game, and it is hard to recommend any GBA game at this point. Although this game is good there are still a few problems with the story and simplicity of it.
If you own a GBA and don’t plan on buying a DS anytime soon then go buy this game. If you own a DS then you may want to rent it first. There are better handheld RPG’s out there also, like the Final Fantasy series. If you are just looking for a good simple dungeon crawler for your Game Boy then give this one a try. You shouldn’t be disappointed.
I can’t say that I was looking forward to this one. Mazes of Fate is the ultimate proof of why Nintendo should just kill the Game Boy. This game could have been so much better if it would have been for the DS. The limitations of this game are most likely caused by the sheer limitations of the GBA. The graphics are good but could have been better. The story could have been more filled in. The GBA is showing its age, and should be forced to retire into the archives gaming history forever.
