MeiQ: The Labyrinth of Death (PS Vita) Review

When I first saw MeiQ: The Labyrinth of Death, I figured it for another dungeon RPG that I should pass it off to my wife for review.  However, before I do that, I still try the games out for myself.  I had some hope for MeiQ after seeing the character designs, and the fact you get robotic guardians in your party sounded really cool.  After a few hours, I decided to keep playing the game myself!

The game is still a first person dungeon RPG, but seemed to do away with the parts of the genre I really didn't like.  The only gimmick panels are movement related, like sliding or teleporting.  No damage floors, no dark zones, and no anti-magic nonsense.  There are hidden doors in false walls, and of course mimics, but it is easy enough to figure out where they are.  Since there is no real formation, there aren't enemies that mess it up and destroy your carefully laid out party.  While there was some grinding (discussed more below), it took several hours before I actually had to do it, a welcome reprieve in this type of game.

You start out controlling Estra, the main character, and her first guardian.  Each of the girls and guardians represent one of the five elements - earth, water, metal, fire, wood.  Estra and her first guardian are earth.  Once you complete one of the towers, Estra gains a costume that is affiliated with one of the other elements, allowing her to more easily switch her elemental type.  This really helps when you give her different guardians, so they get bonus stats.  Besides the mages and guardians each having levels independent of each other, the forms also have their own level, which increases with being in battle.

The way stats work in MeiQ is also different from other games I've played.  Your main stats aren't too high, but seeds and stones that the mages and guardians equip will increase the percent that the stats are multiplied by.  Plus, each mage's proficiency (number) of any element is added to the percent of any guardian paired that shares that element.  If Estra has an earth proficiency of 120, this is added as a percent to the guardian's stats, on top of whatever it gains from its own equipment.  Granted, the guardian parts will actually have to give the stat, since any % times zero is still zero.  The numbers are very fluid, since you can change parts and equipment so easily, but it really pays to toggle them around to find the best bonuses you can get.  It really helps, especially in the late game.

Battles are mostly random as you move around the maps.  You can have up to three teams, made up of one mage and one guardian, in battle at a time.  If a guardian falls (runs out of HP), the mage can continue, but the opposite is not true.  The mage is also predictably squishy, so you don't really want them in the front lines.  Each turn, one member of the team can act.  A guardian's available attacks are based off what parts they have equipped.  It actually shows your guardians in battle, and they have many attack animations.  There are some really cool stones that will even allow multiple attacks in a turn.  Mages can also attack and use magic spells, which are use-based instead of MP-based.  I am more used to an MP-based system, but this works out better as you level up because you get so many uses of the basic spells.  I tended to save their spells for tough enemies and bosses, since they could do decent damage and the buffs they gave are really handy.  The spell Estra gets at level 40 is especially powerful!

I do have some problems with the battle system, though.  While the game says that a mage is protected by the guardian even if they use a spell, this wasn't always the case.  There were plenty of attacks that targeted them when it shouldn't have.  The game does state that some attacks can target the mages, but if the attack hits the mage that cast and the other two guardians, that doesn't seem like it's an attack that would target the mage.

If a mage or guardian dies, you are pretty much stuck waiting until after battle to fix it.  There is a resurrection spell for guardians and one for mages, but only two characters each have one and they are gained at higher levels.  There are also items that can resurrect and heal, but they strangely can't be used in battle.  Granted I didn't need them very often, but it still seems like a bad choice.  If one of my guardians or mages died, I would just warp out of the dungeon to heal, and use one of the shortcuts to quickly get back to where I was.

Lastly, battles can be really inconsistent.  Even in the first dungeon, there are the rare enemies that are really tough but run away.  Some enemies are a lot tougher than all the other ones in the dungeon.  There are even mutant enemies (shown by the energy circle at their feet) that have much higher stats than their brethren.  When defeated, enemies can vary drastically in the amount of experience, gold and aether they give.  Some harder enemies give very little, and some give enough to level you up several times.  It's not always a bad thing, but it can make grinding a lot more random than you would think.

The Seiruy body is super cool.  Robo-dragon!

MeiQ isn't a very hard game overall.  There are harder parts, usually because the boss' level is higher than yours.  The hardest boss fights are the few times you have to fight two in a row.  Even so, if your party wipes you are just sent back to the town with all of your experience, money and progress.  That's barely a punishment.  While I didn't have to grind really at all in the first 8 hours of the game, there were several parts later where I did.  Only characters in the battle party get experience, so if I switched it up for a new dungeon with new elemental weaknesses, I had to do some grinding to get people up to speed.

It took me almost 29 hours to finish the main story.  I could have shaved off a few hours by not trying to complete every side quest (stupid rare drops from stupid rare enemies), and if I had switched it to hard mode while grinding (for the extra experience).  I also spent a lot of time filling out every map, checking for all the sealed doors, and grabbing every treasure chest.  After beating the main story, a bonus dungeon unlocks if you still have the need to go dungeon diving.

Admittedly, when I first saw MeiQ: The Labyrinth of Death, I thought "Oh, girls and robots!  Sounds cool...oh, it's a dungeon RPG."  While it does have many similarities to Wizardry and its ilk, I actually had a lot of fun playing MeiQ.  It is a dungeon RPG, but forgoes a lot of the gimmicks and other things that keep me from liking that genre, while having a robust equipment system that is very fulfilling to take advantage of.  I think that fans of DRPGs might find the game too easy, but RPG fans should definitely try the game out, especially if you have wanted to get into usually unforgiving world of dungeon RPGs.


The Good:
A dungeon RPG that cuts out (or delays) a lot of the stuff I don't like about DRPGs.  Also a very useful and fulfilling equipment system.

The Bad:
Enemy strength, experience gain, money gain and aether gain can vary wildly within each dungeon.

The SaHD:
Considering how many of the females are scantily clad and busty, I thought the game would have fan service, but there really isn't any.  Except for that sweet mouse pad in the limited edition.

(Review code for MeiQ: The Labyrinth of Death was provided by the publisher)

Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library and the Monster Seal (PS Vita) Review

By Tina Hand

Dungeon Travelers 2 is, in many respects, typical for its genre.  Like the old Wizardry, Might and Magic, and Bard’s Tale games from the 80’s, it is a first-person dungeon crawler.  Unlike those old games (and more like its contemporaries) it has benefited from a more modern perspective.  Instead of the carefully crafted party of eight player-created characters, there is a collection of truly lovely female party members to choose from, each distinctly unique in her own way.  Unfortunately, the player is restricted to five, but they can be arranged in a true formation rather than simply putting them in a line-up and hoping for the best.  A wide range of items, equipment and skills allows the player to customize each character as desired.  While the class system is limited in that there are only four base classes (fighter, mage, scout, and a class called spieler) they branch out into a tree of other available classes, making it possible to have multiple beginner classes become different things.

The game has a number of dungeons to explore, and as is usual for the genre, an incessant amount of grinding for better equipment, more money, and experience.  The first-person battle system harkens back to the nostalgic days of old PC games, but with far better graphics.  Though this game is technically a sequel, playing the first is completely unnecessary for understanding the plot.  There are numerous playable characters, and what is surprising for this type of game is that each one has a plot that is more than just paper-thin.  The characters all have personality and history—sometimes with each other and sometimes not—that make them more realistic.  There is humor present as well, sometimes at the expense of the characters, but always tasteful and in many cases subtle rather than blatant.

There is a lot to like about this game.  Though the main character—the only male in the entire story as far as I can tell—is not actually playable, he acts as a general for the rest of the party, giving at least the pretense of the characters doing what the player commands because they are meant to, and not just because a button got pushed.  Dungeons are artistically appealing without being overly-detailed, and monster graphics have a great deal of uniqueness to them.  After all, it isn’t every day you end up fighting fruit.  Also, there are extra rewards to fighting enemies that otherwise would be better avoided.  Once you have beaten a certain amount, you “seal” a monster inside the main character’s tome, allowing you to create a tome based off that monster later in town.  Those books can be equipped to improve a character’s stats and bonuses.

Menus and the interface are all very simple and easy to understand, with everything laid out logically and easy to access.  Of all the controls, a particular favorite is the right trigger, which displays the level and any status effects on enemies.  This is extremely useful when fighting enemies that cast spells, as you can see them “chanting” and it makes interrupting them easier.  Experience and money are on the low side, which forces a player to grind considerably.  Perhaps the only down side in this is that bosses are typically overpowered compared to the enemies in the dungeon surrounding them.  For example, if the dungeon has level 15-20 enemies, the boss is more likely to be 25-30 than something more reasonable.  Enemies also are unaffected by area issues.  If you are in an anti-magic area, the enemies will still be able to use spells.  Unfortunately, this renders pure magic classes practically useless, something that is actually irksome when your healer is unable to heal.   The ability to save in dungeons and exit quickly means that despite its disadvantages, it is still a fairly easy game to pick up and play.

The game also provides the player with the ability to reset a character’s levels.  This makes it possible to change classes and increase stats for a particular character without harming the entire party.  While it adds to the time spent grinding for experience, it also allows the player to reset a character’s skills, so if you accidentally purchase a skill you find yourself not using, or end up thinking is useless, you can reset their level and start again.

There are also extra dungeons that can be unlocked by performing quests.  The more quests a player completes, the more dungeons and additional options are unlocked, increasing playability as well as improving the player’s experience.  While these side-dungeons are not necessary for the plot, they provide another useful place to grind for money and experience.  On a side note, the addition of not one, not two, but twenty extra characters available via downloadable content—while not absolutely necessary to the completion of the game—gives a player the opportunity to build multiple parties, so it becomes possible to handle nearly any circumstance.  [Editor's note: You do get many party members through the game.]

Overall, the game is clear enough to be easy to play, complex enough to keep a player engaged, and fun enough to be worth the price of admission.  With multiple characters, multiple classes, and a barrage of beautiful enemies there is enough playable content to keep even the shortest of attention spans interested.  This is easily a game that can be played by casual and dedicated players alike, and all without massive DLC additions.  It was enjoyable, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes dungeon crawlers.  Just be aware of all the fan service in this game, as there is a lot.

Criminal Girls: Invite Only (PS Vita) Review

Criminal Girls: Invite Only is a dungeon crawling RPG where you play as a teacher in Hell that must reform seven sinners so that they may be reborn.  Reforming requires you to lead them through four trials.  In order to make them stronger, you must "motivate" them.  Did I mention the seven sinners are all female?

It's hard to look at or talk about Criminal Girls without seeing or mentioning the fan service.  The premise of the game is to reform the girls by "motivating" them with a whip, shock stick and even mystery liquid.  Each of these motivations translates into a mini-game where you use the touch screen to either rub or move something (that sounds worse than it is).  As you do so, the pink fog covering the girls will partially disappear, allowing you to see them in some raunchy poses.  The game is very suggestive, which will, of course, turn some people off of trying it.  This is the slightly censored version, which is sadly a point of contention for fans of Japanese games.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand.  Each session costs a certain amount of points (which double as currency) to do, and successfully completing it will give some experience that the girls use to unlock new skills.  As the level rises, the cost of each session goes up and the amount of clothing they wear goes down.  This is the only way to get them their solo battle skills, so you can't avoid the raunchy fan service.  It wasn't a big deal to me, as it's a portable game, so I won't get children running up and asking why the lady is sitting like that.  At its heart it is just a game mechanic, and viewing it as such can alleviate some of the awkwardness you might feel.  Also, you will only need to do it so many times, since there are only so many skills each girl learns.

As far as the RPG elements go, you walk around a dungeon floor and get into random encounters.  Instead of choosing actions for your team members, they suggest an action, and you pick one to be carried out that turn.  At first it was off-putting to only get one action a turn, but the game is balanced for that (for the most part).  Unfortunately, you are at the whim of a random number generator if they will do a particular action, so fights can take longer or use more MP than they need to, simply because you can't choose exactly what they do.  This problem only gets worse as you get farther in the game and unlock more skills for each of the girls.  Thankfully, the game knows when you need to block or heal, so having the appropriate person out at the right time will have that choice.  There's also not much in the way of animation in battles, but at least the artwork looks nice.

Each of the girls has different skills from each other, and several of them are like classes in other RPGs.  You have the defender, the healer, a mage or two, a thief and some fighters.  Experience is shared equally among all members whether or not they participate in battle.  You can switch one person per turn, so it's easy to shift in who would help best in each situation.  There are even some team up skills that each girl learns that can lead to some big damage, or a string of buffs.  Using an item won't use up your action for the turn, but you can only do it once each turn.  I rarely had to buy an item, since you get a lot from enemies and treasure chests, but money isn't a problem if you do need to purchase some.

Each trial has its own themed dungeon and four floors to get through, culminating in a boss fight.  While not the most interesting thing to look at, at least they aren't all linear.  The layouts are pretty simple, too, consisting of rooms connected by narrow hallways.  The simplicity made me think they were random dungeons, but they aren't.  At least the themes are pretty different from each other.  Most floors have a portal that allows you to recover HP and MP, save, motivate the girls and teleport to any other visited portal.  It's very handy, especially when you need to jump around to a previous floor at various times throughout the game.  I do wish there was some kind of dash or a run button for the maps, since it can be pretty boring to walk through them.

For most of the game, the difficulty is good.  As you make your way through the game, your attacks become less effective and you start to rely on your mp-using skills to get through fights.  Boss fights are suitably challenging, up until the final boss.  Then the game turns on the cheap.  You only get one action per turn, but the final boss gets two.  They will likely paralyze a character every turn.  They can hit your whole party with a bunch of status ailments, or even do an attack that hits several times on random targets.  It's pretty unfair unless you grind up your level or blow through your good items.  Needless to say, it's pretty annoying.  It felt odd to me to not have any real problems going through the game, only to hit a big roadblock right at the end.

It took me over 30 hours to get through the main story.  There is a good chunk of extra stuff to do afterwards, like recruiting the two new characters and gaining knighthood for the rest of the group.  You'll only be able to get the ending for one of the girls, though, and there is sadly no new game +.  If you want to see them all, or get all of the trophies, you will have to make separate saves near the end, or go through the game all over again.  The game will remind you more than once that you should make a separate save at the point where it splits.  Good thing it is right before the end of the game, too.

Criminal Girls: Invite Only is a competent and fun turn-based RPG.  Granted, you will have to either enjoy or not be bothered by the fan service.  There will come a point where you won't need it anymore, but you won't get far if you ignore it completely.  The final boss is really annoying, but you will get your money's worth by completing the story, and more so if you do some of the optional stuff.  The lack of new game + is unfortunate, but I still enjoyed the game and would recommend it to RPG fans that are fine with all the risque elements.