Avalon Code bears the potential blueprint for the future of all RPGs, but suffers from flaws far too great to overlook.
The studio responsible for the DS ports of Final Fantasy III and IV come back in full-force with their own unique role-playing game for the handheld that combines traditional story elements with some very unique gameplay to create a highly-original, albeit flawed experience. You take on the role of a young child, either male or female by your decree (though whatever you choose makes no difference, as your character remains silent throughout the game). At the onset you are charged with the well-being of an ancient text known as the "Book of Prophecy," and greeted by the fire spirit Rempo, a guardian of the book.
To say the book holds special potential would be an overstatement; consider it to be like an Atlas of the world, containing information about everything and everyone. You see, the world is ending, and rather than try to save it, your job is to go around - using this book - and scan certain objects you wish to replicate in the new world. Everything in the world has a specific code assigned to it - which I will discuss in more detail when we come to the Gameplay section; in short, your character can manipulate the codes of anything you scan - either remove them entirely, add new codes to existing ones, or change the entire code makeup completely - and through this method of code distribution, your character can strengthen his or her own weapons as well.
The blueprints have been laid out for a truly one-of-a-kind experience befitting Nintendo's handheld; however, the faults of the game are far too great to overlook, and unfortunately hold Avalon Code back from being a truly remarkable title.
Rempo, I Choose You!…
Combat is played in real-time on the top screen, though you can pause the game whenever you wish by accessing the book using the touch screen. You can assign any weapon to either your left, right, or both hands, and you'll use the Y and X buttons to control each hand, respectively. The variety of weapons is grand; from traditional swords, hammers, and shields, to bombs, crossbows, guns, and more. Each weapon will learn, or comes standard with, a special attack, which you must hold down its assigned button to use. The sword, for example, unleashes a tornado-like spin for several seconds. Overall combat is very simple and enjoyable.
One minor frustration arrives when you learn an ability called "Judgment" fairly early on in the game. The A button is designated as "inspect." However, the Judgment skill - otherwise termed Juggle for its practical purpose of juggling enemies in the air - is also assigned to the A button when learned. When pressed, the character makes a quick motion as if to juggle an enemy, even if the enemy is not there. This makes exploring the landscapes in battle-ready maps a hassle, for reasons I'll explain later.
The Fire Spirit Rempo, among the three others - representing forest, ice, and lightning - are not purely superficial characters. They can be used in combat, as well, by selecting their specific tabs from the Book on the bottom screen. They come with one standard area-of-effect spell, but it is devastating when performed. The cost is 50 MP, or Mystic Points. The character's health isn't the standard hundred-point system, but rather above the MP bar in the top-left of the upper screen is a red/orange stem icon with leaves on it. Each leaf represents one point of health. Enemies attack in single-digit numbers, and early on will hit for no more than two, so this system is balanced nicely.
The Beautiful World of Avalon…
The DS is not a powerful system. But for its weight, it packs quite a punch. Avalon Code is presented in wonderfully vibrant colors and caricature sprites. The world is vast and full of life. The entirety of the game is displayed cinematically in fully-3D environments. Limitations aside, the game is gorgeous.
The Book of Prophecy Isn't All It's Cracked Up To Be…
The Book of Prophecy is your guide to everything in the world of Avalon Code; it contains a map of your current location, though not a world map, so one can get lost very easily; a collection of all codes scanned thus-far, arranged appropriately into their respective categories: People, Weapons, Items, Accessories; tabs for each of the four spirits, ready at your beck and call; the character status menu, where you can observe your HP/MP and equipped weapons; and the save/load menu. It's convenient, but it works better in theory than in practice.
In trying to provide a concise and organized listing of your codes, there is no table of contents, per sé. What I mean by this is that if you wish to retrieve a code from a townsperson in Rhoan, the first town you come to in the game, you must manually go through every character page before this person before getting there - you cannot simply select him or her from a list of all Rhoan townsfolk. It's a timesink that could have been completely avoided.
Possibly the biggest issue I encountered in the game was the context in which mystic points were used. In addition to spending 50 points per summon of one of your spirits, the manipulation of any code in the Book of Prophecy will expend one mp. This may seem trivial, especially considering your mp will increase over time as the story progresses, but what makes this matter so detrimental is when seen juxtaposed with the terrible organization of the Book I previously mentioned. Your character can only hold four codes in his or her inventory at any time, not including whatever codes are attributed to equipped weapons or armor. There is no one-for-one quick swap, either.
So, for example, should I have four codes sitting in my inventory, and I want to exchange one of the codes on my sword - which has no room for any more codes - for one in my possession, I must first remove the code from the sword and then place the code from the inventory into its slot. In this scenario, that would not be quite as simple as it sounds. I have no room in my inventory, so first I must find an object, or a person, in the book that has space where I can dump one or more of my codes not being used to free up my inventory. Then I'd return to the sword and do the exchange. But there's also one more thing to keep in mind.
All objects and people have a specific amount of slots that can hold codes, which the game labels "Mental Maps." All codes come in various shapes: I may have a Fire Code that takes up three squares, and another one that takes up four. The latter would have a greater effect when used, but perhaps I have no room for it, so the three would suffice. However, when combining codes together on weapons, armor, or anything else for that matter, you can create new objects. A simple sword can turn into a Rune Sword provided with the correct combination of codes. Should it require a four-code, but you only have a three, the item would not be created. There is no way to tell the effect of the codes when combined together unless you actually combine them, either.
And throughout this distribution and redistribution of codes, you'll be spending one mp every single time. This, altogether, makes for a terrible process of trial-and-error that seems more of a sloppy gameplay concept when put to practice then anything else, when in reality the potential is there for something truly original and revolutionary.
There is no traditional level system in the game for your character, but rather the Book itself levels up based on points earned from scanning objects. Likewise, this is the means by which you can increase the space available on Mental Maps - they do not raise every level, only at specific intervals. Every map location has a set amount of points as well, (generally, 1000), and you are automatically awarded 500 simply for entering the area. The remaining 500 must be gained by inspecting objects in the environment, which may or may not be obvious enough.
The problem is, as I mentioned earlier, once you learn Judgment, you're A button is compromised as being used for both inspection and juggling enemies - even when there are no enemies in sight to be juggled. So when trying to inspect an object, you'll see, and hear, your character make the motion. Previously, you could simply run around pressing the A button to inspect everything in sight without pause. Now, when your character performs Judgment, he or she will stop in movement for a second to use the ability. It's a minor nuisance - and thankfully one that does not occur in towns where combat is prohibited - but simply another case in a long line of flaws that seems completely absurd to have left in.
There is one practical purpose to using Judgment, however, and that is the regeneration of HP/MP. The higher you manage to hit the enemy, the more you'll regain when the enemy is killed. It's also fun to send the enemy launching into orbit and then watch it explode in a fireworks-like-demonstration.
A Sound To Bring To The New World…
A game's soundtrack is something that can compensate for quite a bit of its shortcomings. Luckily, Avalon Code boasts a remarkably catchy orchestral score befitting the game's tone. You'll find yourself inherently humming the themes of several towns during your travels, as I did, specifically for Rhoan, whose melody is quite literally a remix of "Another Termina" from Chrono Cross, a tune I am very fond of. Voice acting is frequent and often very well done. Overall the soundtrack is inspiring and does, in fact, beg forgiveness for some of the game's glaring flaws - but not all of them.
And The Verdict Is…
Avalon Code bears the potential blueprint for the future of all RPGs, but suffers from flaws far too great to overlook. The concept is there, but it's hiding for the moment. If it had been given the dedication that the Final Fantasy remakes had received, perhaps the achievement would've been much more grand. As it stands now, Avalon Code is simply an impressive and bold experience that's just waiting to be improved for consoles in the future.
Pros: Impressive visuals and music; engaging gameplay in theory; endearing story with some characters to empathize with; will last anywhere from 20 to 30 hours.
Cons: Book of Prophecy becomes too much of a timesink and a nuisance to maintain; shortage of player-inventory space and lack of a quick-swap make code manipulation a chore; the context in which MP is used becomes too much of a burden
The Final Verdict: 8/10
Perhaps with some more tender loving care, the guys over at Matrix Software can only improve upon this otherwise brilliant concept for a future sequel.