Avalon Code is an action RPG from the devs that brought you the recent Final Fantasy remakes on the DS. You can tell that much just be looking at the graphics – these guys know how to make the DS hardware work for them. However, they don’t seem to know how to make a game that isn’t based off an existing title.
The story is bland and uncreative. I don’t even remember all of the details, because the motivation to continue slogging through the repetitive landscapes is practically nil. There’s something about elemental spirits, and there’s probably a dragon or two in there as well. The only really creative hook story-wise is the fact that your task in the game is not to save the world, but rather take stock of all its inhabitants, both flora and fauna, before the planet’s inevitable demise.
Unfortunately, the novelty of running around and slapping things with your book quickly grows old, and the rest of the gameplay can’t make up for it. The game is an utterly confusing mess of impossible-to-navigate menus, and although it contains a tutorial, offers no explanation on how to do what should be the simplest of things, such as equipping a weapon. It took me quite some time to figure out how to equip things, and I never fully grasped the Code system.
You see, each item or person you compile in your book has a unique code; a strange take on genetics where people are made of three parts sick, one part hope, or two parts evil and two parts… fire? You can rearrange anyone and anythings’ codes, although 90% of the time this seems to be pointless. If I add hope to bread, it makes Hope Bread. But what does this Hope Bread do that regular bread does not? The game won’t tell you, and good luck figuring it out on your own.
Dungeons are interesting only because each room contains a single challenge, such as defeating all enemies or hitting a switch, that you must pass to move on. However, these challenges are mostly unoriginal and repetitive.
Sadly, the unique ideas that seemed so promising in Avalon Code ultimately fall short, creating an ambiguous mess of tangled cliches. I’m sure some people will find something to love here, but I really can’t recommend it to anyone but the diehard RPG fan.
