This game definately won't appeal to everyone, but there's some people out there who will love it.
The game starts you out with a short cutscene (which actually looks pretty good) depicting you and your family getting sucked into a portal hidden away within a mansion. Shortly thereafter you get a sword and begin your quest to find your parents and your dog inside the 'labyrinth' you've landed in. Each floor of the labyrinth has its own theme to it, and after defeating a boss you'll descend to a different floor.
This is pretty much your typical dungeon crawler. You kill monsters to level up, you find new armor and spells, you proceed to new areas of the labyrinth. Again, for fans of the genre this is perfectly OK, but to everyone else this is going to seem boring. Your character levels up based on how you play as well, meaning that if you're a tank your HP will increase more and if you're a magic user your MP will increase more. You're probably not going to go through the game five times just to create different characters, but it does add little replay value. Most of the levels in the labyrinth are laid out pretty well. Each has its own set of rooms, and by the time you've seen all there is to see in one area you've picked up a key or a new spell that will lead you to a new one. Most of the music in the game is pretty good too, even if the quality isn't that great. The soundtrack is diverse and epic, and even though the tracks are all repeated too often they still work well.
The interface also works well. You're given icons on the screen to toggle between your sword, magic, and shield, and its actually very easy to switch between any of these quickly. The magic system is simplistic, but very effective. While in your magic mode you draw shapes to cast spells and press an attack icon to use them. After a little practice you will become pretty adept at using the game's numerous magics. A few parts of the game also have you blowing/shouting into the microphone, and although this isn't all that relevant to the gameplay, its still fun. There's also a second quest in the game that's a little harder, but the same basic rules apply.
Getting your character around takes some getting used to. Controlling with the D-pad and attacking with the stylus is too reminiscent of the FPS's of old. That scheme was great a decade ago, but now it feels clunky. The lock-on system is weird too, since you can only lock-on to an enemy at very close range, and if you back up too far you'll lose your lock. This mostly presents a problem while casting spells, since many spells will miss without being locked-on to a target. However, while maintaining a lock your control switches and allows you to strafe around your enemy. This seems whole scheme seems broken at first, but after about an hour you should have it down and movement/combat won't be a problem.
The game's graphics are very much like those you would expect from a cell phone port. The textures and environments all look a little sad and repetitive, and many of your enemies are simply recycled with new colors. Fortunately the character models have been touched up and look nice, and the FMV sequences are easy on the eyes. The sound effects are also a pain to listen to, and take away from an enjoyable musical score. I should mention, although it really makes no difference to me, that the story in the game is stupid, although it won't ruin your experience with the game.
When you put everything together, Deep Labyrinth really comes out to be pretty fun. There's nothing original here, except that it's the first first-person RPG on the DS, but it brings all the elements of a good RPG together and makes it entertaining. Anyone out there who's a sucker for games that take advantage of the DS's unique features (like me) might be interested in this. People who are looking for a straight up dungeon crawler are going to be able to look past all of its flaws and have a great time with it. Everyone else just isn't going to get it, but that's fine. Deep Labyrinth is obviously geared towards fans of the genre, and in that respect, it doesn't disappoint.