Why do I like this game so much?!

User Rating: 8.8 | Other Life: Azure Dreams (Konami the Best) PS
Azure Dreams. Set in the desert town of Monsbaiya at the foot of the Monster Tower, you as a young monster hunter follow the footsteps of your father as you ascend the tower, fighting and capturing all manner of imaginative and weird creatures.

Should you find an egg you can bring it back to town and hatch it, and hey presto you will have a familiar monster, who can accompany you on your next run into the tower, and grow in power. Later in the game you are able to fuse familiars and create ultra-powerful creatures.

This game is not a standard RPG - every time your character leaves the tower, all the experience and levels he gained will be lost. It is through manipulation of your familiars, who do gain levels, and through wielding progressively more powerful arms and armour, that you will be able to defeat the higher-levelled monsters and reach the top of the tower.

A very interesting sidegame is the improvement of the town Monsbaiya. As you collect money on subsequent visits to the tower, you will gain the ability to commission new buildings or improvements to existing buildings in order to make your hometown thrive. You can also try your luck with lady love, with about eight young lasses to seduce (it's all very clean, don't worry).

What the general gameplay boils down to is going into the tower, finding items, levelling up your familiar/s, hoping that you will find red or blue sand to upgrade your gold sword and mirror shield, getting as far up the tower as you can without dying, then using a blue emerald thing to go back to town. In town you will commission buildings, talk to all the girls to see if you've got any further with them, select familiars to breed and avoid the theatre and it's ghastly comedy routine at all costs. Then go back into the tower.

Sounds repetitive, you might say. Well, it is. But the tower levels are randomly generated each time (much like Diablo's but on a more basic level), the graphics are colourful enough to hold the eye, and the basic gameplay good enough to keep your attention.

At the end of the day, I would recommend Azure Dreams but I wouldn't be able to say why. I've spent a good chunk of my life on this game but still haven't got much further than level 20 of the tower. It's just a very strange, unique, fun little game and I'll always be strangely fond of it.