Itšs coming to something when I can barely bring myself to pick up a video game to review. Therešs supposed to be some pleasure in their deconstruction, whether in a positive way or negative. But in the case of Taošs Adventure Curse Of The Demon Seal, therešs nothing there to keep coming back to.
Regardless, Taošs Adventure has a fairly intriguing storyline, whereby the local townšs attraction is an enormous tower, home (or prison, if you like) to a whole slew of nasties. The trick here is that their eggs are worth a few bucks; so sneaking in and out has become quite the draw for the locals and visitors alike, especially considering some of the harder to reach ones are like the proverbial henšs teeth, and could make its poacher (ha!) filthy rich.
Having your potential offspring stolen constantly must be quite the bummer, so itšs no surprise that given the chance, these monster guys would have an issue with mankind. Lucky for them then, lightning strikes the tower, releasing the monsters - allowing them to unleash all that pent up anger on the locals turning them into stone.
Enter Tao, a young boy and magician in training. If he could just get that one special egg from the tower, it would turn everyone back to normal. And as luck would have it, right before everything went pear shaped, Tao picked up one or two tricks from the local magician school. Known as air spelling, his technique involves waving the wand in a particular fashion in order to conjure up various powerful spells.
Enter the DSšs touch screen and stylus. Drawing a symbol in a particular way strikes a particular spell. In fact most of the game is controlled from the touch screen, as dragging the stylus in a particular direction moves Tao through the environments played out on the upper screen. Therein lies one of Taošs major flaws as a game. Because almost everything can be controlled from the touch screen, that small area grants precious little real estate for all the commands and buttons, meaning great care and attention is required to make sure you perform the correct stroke or click the right button which is way too much effort than ought to be required for such a game.
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Entering the tower (finally, for the pre-game setup is incredibly long) reveals a maze like scenario, and the visuals provide more than adequate detailing. Encountering enemies prevent from Tao otherwise roaming freely, as the combat is played out in a kind of turn based system. Using spells, striking and dodging all take up one turn, but little strategy is required so the lack of continuous action becomes tedious very quickly.
As such, as a title, Tao doesnšt seem to know what it is. Itšs no action game, but requires a lot of moving around, but itšs not really intelligent enough to be a worthy opponent of a turn-based classic like Fire Emblem.
Sure it covers the most basic checklist for any successful RPG; monsters, dungeons, spells and what not, but the pacing is so slow that trawling through the usual scenarios is completely unrewarding. Itšs not particularly bad, just boring.
WHAM! Rating: |
4.5 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
E (Everyone) |
Official Web Site: |
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