Ore ga Omae o Mamoru (I Will Protect You)(NDS, 2009)
Graphics-7 Sound-7.5 Control-6 Challenge-8/7.5* Story-6
Level Design-5.5/6* Frustration-8.5/8* Fun-5/6* Originality-5
Overall Score-6
*After getting the upgraded roll, a decent sword and the critical hit skill
+
Almost fully voiced
Dawn of Sorrow/Portrait of Ruin-like platform adventure gameplay elements (separate town connecting to a large dungeon, gear crafting (items/tools, materials, weapons and sub weapons, accessories; use materials found in the dungeon), ability gating, shops, save points, some hidden items and breakable walls, some strategy in which skills to equip, optional side quests, etc.)
Large character portraits with different expressions during dialogue (no animation though)
Warp between found save points (but not back to town for some reason - weird since the first one is almost right next to the entrance), Teleport back to village item (can be bought, fairly expensive in the early game)
Charge attacks with large swords
Find additional lore via journal pages in chests
Quick item slots (assign inventory items to either face button then press L+that button to use them without going into the menu)
Decent map system (shows the layout, which room you're in, which rooms you've explored and room connections; always shown on the lower screen) - can also place markers on the map with the stylus (default symbols for save, key, boss and question+4 more colored ones you can use for whatever). Can't write notes however
Can run from the get go (hold R)
Shows enemy health bars by default
Quest log (can only have one quest active at a time though)
Some neutral/friendly monsters in the dungeon which can be talked to if their quest is active
Smart bomb items (can buy or find them though they are pretty expensive for the damage they do)
Some decent puzzles (spatial awareness puzzles, door switches you can hit from afar)
Some shortcuts (locked doors opened from the other side)
The small hop when using a sub weapon in mid-air can be used to reach certain chests before you're supposed to
Certain sub weapons have a high chance of dizzying (longer stun) or paralyzing enemies - chicken knife is pretty OP because of how long the paralysis lasts+you can buy them at a fairly low price
Dodge roll move (no invincibility time during it until you upgrade it after the first boss however; also used to pass some narrow paths)
Up to 5-hit sword combos
Eventually quite fast movement speed if upgraded
One good boss (ancient giant/boss 6 - just a bit drawn out and the slowdown is a minor issue)
Optional post-game area with stronger monsters
+/-
Somewhat infrequent save points in the dungeon at 3 per area (one save slot per game, shows various stats) and the first one is placed too close to the entrance. Save points also heal you
Enemies generally don't drop health items
Mostly linear structure (linear boss and area progression?, 5 different optional side quests are available from the get go and about 4 more are added as you get closer to finishing the current list (75 in total) however the selection also seems tied to boss progression (if you don't progress the main game then eventually you only get to pick between 1-2 at a time), can't talk to NPC monsters before unlocking their quest in the guild, no story choices to make, can cancel a quest and keep going but it just appears back in the selection menu with no effect on the game world - you do lose the money paid to start the quest however)
Crafting replaces leveling up (only certain found skills can increase some stats besides better gear - there's a slot system where you can equip up to 5 assigned skills/buffs at once and which is upgraded at certain points to allow for more at once+permanent skills which don't require slots such as HP increases)
Can get a quick additional strike in if you attack again right after landing though your timing needs to be pretty precise (if you do it too late the attack is canceled)
Menu-driven town exploration (guild - quests, blacksmith - forge or enhance weapons, item shop - buy/sell/craft)
Sometimes ridiculous clothing for the characters
Find crafting materials at certain points (similar to Secret of Evermore, however the game makes it a bit too obvious where to look with pop-ups when near a material spot; can farm material spots by re-entering the dungeon)
Enemies often aren't stunned by your attack when you hit them (not even from a charged attack)+they don't become non-solid after a successful hit so it's easy to get hit yourself from attacking (contact damage)
Some safe spots
Pretty small hit boxes (goes both ways though)
Random element to materials gathering (can find about 3 different ones in the same spot)
Enemies respawn when re-entering a room
Roll cancel however there are some annoying quirks to it (see below). You can't jump cancel out of or simply jump during an attack+the jump press doesn't register until after the animation is completely finished
Auto-heal from going back to town
Can't roll cancel a charge attack or lunge attack
Enemy drops take 10+ seconds to disappear
Weapons are much less common than in the Igavanias and you generally buy or craft rather than find them
Spike floors don't do much damage
Can't use sword combos in mid-air or while crouching
Partial control config (can only switch two buttons around - would've been good to be able to map roll to a shoulder button)
Can upgrade the lunge attack to a triple hit combo but each hit then does less damage (about 2/3) and you still can't roll afterwards - it does have a higher stun rate however so can be useful against knights for example
Whether or not you can perform a combo with a sword depends on the sword rather than your skills
Revival items that trigger upon death (ys 1 or zelda 3?)
Have to find the skill to deal critical hits in the second area (about halfway into the game)
Health ring lets you regenerate HP while moving around however it's too slow to be of much use - there's also a skill for this but it's also rather slow (and only works if you're not jumping)
Pretty easy to stock up on the level 2 healing items/supplements (blue mint is easy to find and the other ingredient can be bought cheaply, can also farm them from kobolds in area 1, in area 3 you can also farm level 3 healing from the kobold variant there which is 4x as good) - this lets you tank most enemies and bosses
Defense skills replace armor gear
The whole room is shown as explored on the map when entering a new room
Not much romance despite the game's title (something starts to develop but it feels cut short before anything actually happens)
-
Can only harvest material spots across the whole dungeon according to your skill level with that spot type per visit (meaning if you search the first grass spot the maximum amount of times then you can't search any other spot) - bug? if not it should've been changed so that you could at least harvest each spot each visit
Heavy slowdown whenever there are 2+ medium-sized enemies near each other in a room (with a few exceptions) or when there's a large one like the ogres on screen
The first boss can stunlock you to death unless you have a stun immunity item active
Some trial & error (don't buy any expensive items before making some money from quests early on - you'll have to grind for a while to make enough money from sold materials to even go on any quests! - you also get a very steep difficulty curve if you just explore instead of doing quests early on and you don't gain that much in terms of materials/gear/skills either, fast attacks from off screen - kobolds and bats+falling gels in some rooms, unforgiving hit detection when the murmur enemies do their dive attack, no location hints for find and kill or harvest quests, can't roll through larger enemies, no location clues for ingredients you haven't found and some are too rare, some cheap enemy placements, leap of faith to progress at one point - have to redo a room if you fall down)
Various control/interface issues (can't roll cancel out of a running/lunge attack (considering the slow walk speed you want to always be running pretty much) and you can only do it at the beginning of a sword swing - do it too late and it doesn't register, vertical focused jumps (see Contra) - have to run to get past most enemies, can't turn around nor steer your jump while attacking in mid-air+mid-air control in itself is so-so - , if you attack right before landing from a jump then the attack is canceled, fairly long delay after attacks even with small swords (especially after doing a lunge attack - these also don't do more damage so there's no point in using them until you get the triple hit skill) - this along with the previous point means it's often better to jump attack to skip the delay after swinging, longer delay between attacks if you crouch - weird!, can't skip/speed up some instructional text, move a lot slower as soon as a charged sword attack is ready+there's some delay after a charge is ready until the swing happens when you let go of the button, the map doesn't distinguish between a one-way vertical path between rooms (such as a pit) and a staircase, unforgiving hit detection in that only the sword swing will hit and not the sword itself during a jump attack so if you attack too soon then you won't hit - Ninja Gaiden, the yes/no prompt after reviewing a finished quest or leaving town defaults to no, some delay after rolling before you can attack/move/roll again, a charge attack is canceled if you fall off a platform while performing it+if you try to use it in mid-air+if you crouch (wtf), high default jump height, harder to hit with the second swing in a combo (sometimes the fourth as well), if you run out of a quick slot assigned item then you need to remap it again once you get more of it, the 4-hit combo makes you jump at the end - makes it impossible to dodge roll right after it, the optional somersault attack skill causes a long delay after landing - makes it very situational in use)
Random and low chance to stun when attacking enemies - should've been more reliable when using charge or lunge attacks
Various tedious aspects (various quests expect you to grind, have to pay to initiate quests at the guild (why?)+if you abandon a quest then the money is lost (why?), enemies don't drop any gold+you don't make much money from selling the materials that they do drop, can't teleport back to where you were in the dungeon (Diablo 1 - 1996), overly wordy dialogue, stats decide if an attack hits like in Secret of Mana and even charge attacks can miss+you can miss three times in a row (at least it goes both ways) - there are skills you can find that help with accuracy though, selling prices are much lower than buying prices, enemies sometimes don't drop anything (even if they're tough to beat) - leads to more grinding for crafting materials, have to take an ability's skill book to the guild to be able to learn it - pointless extra step, trial & error element to crafting accessories - shows materials needed only+you have to browse the full lists instead of the game just putting what you can craft at the top, can only grab one material item at once so you have to stand and use the search command over and over at material spots - the animation is also a bit slow compared to Secret of Evermore, weak default healing potions and the shop doesn't let you buy the next level, annoying how you're vulnerable to the front at the beginning of charge attacks and lunge attacks+in the middle of sword combos so you need to be placed precisely for it to connect instead of you getting hit, pillars take too many hits to destroy after getting the ability to - breaks flow, you won't find more of materials that you're low on at the moment or that you need for the active quest - leads to grinding, some one-way paths that force backtracking, some quest-related materials take too long to get to - ochre shell for example, some waiting for moving platforms, the third boss leans away from you when stunned so you can't get any hits in+you can't really use sword combos or lunging attacks against it, can't use weaker weapons as materials for crafting stronger ones, the weapon and material categories in the shop update too slowly - makes it so you have tons of surplus money in the mid-late game, too much grinding involved in most weapon crafting)
Most sub weapons are too similar (knives that fly straight forward) and too weak - weapons that let you attack up/down/back would've been more useful since you can't do that with your sword
Can't take on more than one quest at a time - would've helped the pacing
Kinda lame quests overall (some early ones just make you buy x number of y item - don't even need to deliver them to anyone in the dungeon, kill x number of y enemy or harvest x number of y materials (which often makes you kill one enemy type repeatedly as well) makes up the bulk of them, some mid-late game ones just make you refight bosses)
Can't play as the other two chars in the party (have to play as the youngest and most introverted and grumpy)
Same indoors background for the guild, blacksmith and shop locations
Too many palette swapped enemies (four of the bosses are as well, post-game area just has larger versions of the same enemies - no new ones?)
Some lame skills (forest lover/grass admirer/rock enthusiast - able to harvest from trees/grass/rocks one more time per dungeon visit, destroy columns and statues - more like a key+no puzzle element+takes too long)
Sometimes uneven difficulty (spikes: murmur quest, first boss, third area; dips: pretty easy second boss, pretty easy fourth boss (another dragon))
Some spongy enemies (especially the cyclops in area 3 and the fifth boss, the post-game area)
No non-sword main weapons and due to the delay after attacking even with small swords you might as well just use the large ones and jump or charge attack for the most part (sometimes a medium sword will do more damage and/or allow for a combo move)
Kind of basic looking 3D models
Your char finishes off bosses in an anime-style in-game cutscene rather than the game letting you do it
The hint for where to use the blue key is wrong (describes a long corridor when it's a small room). Same with the red beetle clue in its item description (find it near the beginning of area 2)
Only 4 different areas including the post-game one and that one is small (less than half the size of the others though the last area is also a bit larger than the others), knights can't climb stairs, unfinished looking jump animation, gain paralysis resistance and immunity in the same area, weird how enhancing a sword can lower its combo hit count, the "treasure" items do nothing gameplay-wise, a few wording errors (fan translation), some redundant stat items and sub weapons, pointless third roll upgrade? - still can't roll through large enemies and you already had invincibility time during one, repetitive music in the third area, some background hiss during voice clips, gain a weaker regen skill *after* the stronger one, Veres is basically the same boss as the ancient giant and you even face him in the same room
Bugs:
-Color code puzzle in the second area is bugged with the english patch/in emulation - the right sequence if playing this version in DeSmuME is: [GREEN] [LEAVE AS IT IS] [MULTI-COLOR] [BLUE] instead of green, "pink", yellow, blue
Level Design-5.5/6* Frustration-8.5/8* Fun-5/6* Originality-5
Overall Score-6
*After getting the upgraded roll, a decent sword and the critical hit skill
+
Almost fully voiced
Dawn of Sorrow/Portrait of Ruin-like platform adventure gameplay elements (separate town connecting to a large dungeon, gear crafting (items/tools, materials, weapons and sub weapons, accessories; use materials found in the dungeon), ability gating, shops, save points, some hidden items and breakable walls, some strategy in which skills to equip, optional side quests, etc.)
Large character portraits with different expressions during dialogue (no animation though)
Warp between found save points (but not back to town for some reason - weird since the first one is almost right next to the entrance), Teleport back to village item (can be bought, fairly expensive in the early game)
Charge attacks with large swords
Find additional lore via journal pages in chests
Quick item slots (assign inventory items to either face button then press L+that button to use them without going into the menu)
Decent map system (shows the layout, which room you're in, which rooms you've explored and room connections; always shown on the lower screen) - can also place markers on the map with the stylus (default symbols for save, key, boss and question+4 more colored ones you can use for whatever). Can't write notes however
Can run from the get go (hold R)
Shows enemy health bars by default
Quest log (can only have one quest active at a time though)
Some neutral/friendly monsters in the dungeon which can be talked to if their quest is active
Smart bomb items (can buy or find them though they are pretty expensive for the damage they do)
Some decent puzzles (spatial awareness puzzles, door switches you can hit from afar)
Some shortcuts (locked doors opened from the other side)
The small hop when using a sub weapon in mid-air can be used to reach certain chests before you're supposed to
Certain sub weapons have a high chance of dizzying (longer stun) or paralyzing enemies - chicken knife is pretty OP because of how long the paralysis lasts+you can buy them at a fairly low price
Dodge roll move (no invincibility time during it until you upgrade it after the first boss however; also used to pass some narrow paths)
Up to 5-hit sword combos
Eventually quite fast movement speed if upgraded
One good boss (ancient giant/boss 6 - just a bit drawn out and the slowdown is a minor issue)
Optional post-game area with stronger monsters
+/-
Somewhat infrequent save points in the dungeon at 3 per area (one save slot per game, shows various stats) and the first one is placed too close to the entrance. Save points also heal you
Enemies generally don't drop health items
Mostly linear structure (linear boss and area progression?, 5 different optional side quests are available from the get go and about 4 more are added as you get closer to finishing the current list (75 in total) however the selection also seems tied to boss progression (if you don't progress the main game then eventually you only get to pick between 1-2 at a time), can't talk to NPC monsters before unlocking their quest in the guild, no story choices to make, can cancel a quest and keep going but it just appears back in the selection menu with no effect on the game world - you do lose the money paid to start the quest however)
Crafting replaces leveling up (only certain found skills can increase some stats besides better gear - there's a slot system where you can equip up to 5 assigned skills/buffs at once and which is upgraded at certain points to allow for more at once+permanent skills which don't require slots such as HP increases)
Can get a quick additional strike in if you attack again right after landing though your timing needs to be pretty precise (if you do it too late the attack is canceled)
Menu-driven town exploration (guild - quests, blacksmith - forge or enhance weapons, item shop - buy/sell/craft)
Sometimes ridiculous clothing for the characters
Find crafting materials at certain points (similar to Secret of Evermore, however the game makes it a bit too obvious where to look with pop-ups when near a material spot; can farm material spots by re-entering the dungeon)
Enemies often aren't stunned by your attack when you hit them (not even from a charged attack)+they don't become non-solid after a successful hit so it's easy to get hit yourself from attacking (contact damage)
Some safe spots
Pretty small hit boxes (goes both ways though)
Random element to materials gathering (can find about 3 different ones in the same spot)
Enemies respawn when re-entering a room
Roll cancel however there are some annoying quirks to it (see below). You can't jump cancel out of or simply jump during an attack+the jump press doesn't register until after the animation is completely finished
Auto-heal from going back to town
Can't roll cancel a charge attack or lunge attack
Enemy drops take 10+ seconds to disappear
Weapons are much less common than in the Igavanias and you generally buy or craft rather than find them
Spike floors don't do much damage
Can't use sword combos in mid-air or while crouching
Partial control config (can only switch two buttons around - would've been good to be able to map roll to a shoulder button)
Can upgrade the lunge attack to a triple hit combo but each hit then does less damage (about 2/3) and you still can't roll afterwards - it does have a higher stun rate however so can be useful against knights for example
Whether or not you can perform a combo with a sword depends on the sword rather than your skills
Revival items that trigger upon death (ys 1 or zelda 3?)
Have to find the skill to deal critical hits in the second area (about halfway into the game)
Health ring lets you regenerate HP while moving around however it's too slow to be of much use - there's also a skill for this but it's also rather slow (and only works if you're not jumping)
Pretty easy to stock up on the level 2 healing items/supplements (blue mint is easy to find and the other ingredient can be bought cheaply, can also farm them from kobolds in area 1, in area 3 you can also farm level 3 healing from the kobold variant there which is 4x as good) - this lets you tank most enemies and bosses
Defense skills replace armor gear
The whole room is shown as explored on the map when entering a new room
Not much romance despite the game's title (something starts to develop but it feels cut short before anything actually happens)
-
Can only harvest material spots across the whole dungeon according to your skill level with that spot type per visit (meaning if you search the first grass spot the maximum amount of times then you can't search any other spot) - bug? if not it should've been changed so that you could at least harvest each spot each visit
Heavy slowdown whenever there are 2+ medium-sized enemies near each other in a room (with a few exceptions) or when there's a large one like the ogres on screen
The first boss can stunlock you to death unless you have a stun immunity item active
Some trial & error (don't buy any expensive items before making some money from quests early on - you'll have to grind for a while to make enough money from sold materials to even go on any quests! - you also get a very steep difficulty curve if you just explore instead of doing quests early on and you don't gain that much in terms of materials/gear/skills either, fast attacks from off screen - kobolds and bats+falling gels in some rooms, unforgiving hit detection when the murmur enemies do their dive attack, no location hints for find and kill or harvest quests, can't roll through larger enemies, no location clues for ingredients you haven't found and some are too rare, some cheap enemy placements, leap of faith to progress at one point - have to redo a room if you fall down)
Various control/interface issues (can't roll cancel out of a running/lunge attack (considering the slow walk speed you want to always be running pretty much) and you can only do it at the beginning of a sword swing - do it too late and it doesn't register, vertical focused jumps (see Contra) - have to run to get past most enemies, can't turn around nor steer your jump while attacking in mid-air+mid-air control in itself is so-so - , if you attack right before landing from a jump then the attack is canceled, fairly long delay after attacks even with small swords (especially after doing a lunge attack - these also don't do more damage so there's no point in using them until you get the triple hit skill) - this along with the previous point means it's often better to jump attack to skip the delay after swinging, longer delay between attacks if you crouch - weird!, can't skip/speed up some instructional text, move a lot slower as soon as a charged sword attack is ready+there's some delay after a charge is ready until the swing happens when you let go of the button, the map doesn't distinguish between a one-way vertical path between rooms (such as a pit) and a staircase, unforgiving hit detection in that only the sword swing will hit and not the sword itself during a jump attack so if you attack too soon then you won't hit - Ninja Gaiden, the yes/no prompt after reviewing a finished quest or leaving town defaults to no, some delay after rolling before you can attack/move/roll again, a charge attack is canceled if you fall off a platform while performing it+if you try to use it in mid-air+if you crouch (wtf), high default jump height, harder to hit with the second swing in a combo (sometimes the fourth as well), if you run out of a quick slot assigned item then you need to remap it again once you get more of it, the 4-hit combo makes you jump at the end - makes it impossible to dodge roll right after it, the optional somersault attack skill causes a long delay after landing - makes it very situational in use)
Random and low chance to stun when attacking enemies - should've been more reliable when using charge or lunge attacks
Various tedious aspects (various quests expect you to grind, have to pay to initiate quests at the guild (why?)+if you abandon a quest then the money is lost (why?), enemies don't drop any gold+you don't make much money from selling the materials that they do drop, can't teleport back to where you were in the dungeon (Diablo 1 - 1996), overly wordy dialogue, stats decide if an attack hits like in Secret of Mana and even charge attacks can miss+you can miss three times in a row (at least it goes both ways) - there are skills you can find that help with accuracy though, selling prices are much lower than buying prices, enemies sometimes don't drop anything (even if they're tough to beat) - leads to more grinding for crafting materials, have to take an ability's skill book to the guild to be able to learn it - pointless extra step, trial & error element to crafting accessories - shows materials needed only+you have to browse the full lists instead of the game just putting what you can craft at the top, can only grab one material item at once so you have to stand and use the search command over and over at material spots - the animation is also a bit slow compared to Secret of Evermore, weak default healing potions and the shop doesn't let you buy the next level, annoying how you're vulnerable to the front at the beginning of charge attacks and lunge attacks+in the middle of sword combos so you need to be placed precisely for it to connect instead of you getting hit, pillars take too many hits to destroy after getting the ability to - breaks flow, you won't find more of materials that you're low on at the moment or that you need for the active quest - leads to grinding, some one-way paths that force backtracking, some quest-related materials take too long to get to - ochre shell for example, some waiting for moving platforms, the third boss leans away from you when stunned so you can't get any hits in+you can't really use sword combos or lunging attacks against it, can't use weaker weapons as materials for crafting stronger ones, the weapon and material categories in the shop update too slowly - makes it so you have tons of surplus money in the mid-late game, too much grinding involved in most weapon crafting)
Most sub weapons are too similar (knives that fly straight forward) and too weak - weapons that let you attack up/down/back would've been more useful since you can't do that with your sword
Can't take on more than one quest at a time - would've helped the pacing
Kinda lame quests overall (some early ones just make you buy x number of y item - don't even need to deliver them to anyone in the dungeon, kill x number of y enemy or harvest x number of y materials (which often makes you kill one enemy type repeatedly as well) makes up the bulk of them, some mid-late game ones just make you refight bosses)
Can't play as the other two chars in the party (have to play as the youngest and most introverted and grumpy)
Same indoors background for the guild, blacksmith and shop locations
Too many palette swapped enemies (four of the bosses are as well, post-game area just has larger versions of the same enemies - no new ones?)
Some lame skills (forest lover/grass admirer/rock enthusiast - able to harvest from trees/grass/rocks one more time per dungeon visit, destroy columns and statues - more like a key+no puzzle element+takes too long)
Sometimes uneven difficulty (spikes: murmur quest, first boss, third area; dips: pretty easy second boss, pretty easy fourth boss (another dragon))
Some spongy enemies (especially the cyclops in area 3 and the fifth boss, the post-game area)
No non-sword main weapons and due to the delay after attacking even with small swords you might as well just use the large ones and jump or charge attack for the most part (sometimes a medium sword will do more damage and/or allow for a combo move)
Kind of basic looking 3D models
Your char finishes off bosses in an anime-style in-game cutscene rather than the game letting you do it
The hint for where to use the blue key is wrong (describes a long corridor when it's a small room). Same with the red beetle clue in its item description (find it near the beginning of area 2)
Only 4 different areas including the post-game one and that one is small (less than half the size of the others though the last area is also a bit larger than the others), knights can't climb stairs, unfinished looking jump animation, gain paralysis resistance and immunity in the same area, weird how enhancing a sword can lower its combo hit count, the "treasure" items do nothing gameplay-wise, a few wording errors (fan translation), some redundant stat items and sub weapons, pointless third roll upgrade? - still can't roll through large enemies and you already had invincibility time during one, repetitive music in the third area, some background hiss during voice clips, gain a weaker regen skill *after* the stronger one, Veres is basically the same boss as the ancient giant and you even face him in the same room
Bugs:
-Color code puzzle in the second area is bugged with the english patch/in emulation - the right sequence if playing this version in DeSmuME is: [GREEN] [LEAVE AS IT IS] [MULTI-COLOR] [BLUE] instead of green, "pink", yellow, blue