Of all the retro dungeon crawlers, it had to be this one?

[JiggiUp]

I can't shake hands with a game that uses crowdsourced art assets (or at least, a million different artists). It looks like peac0ck vomit, or alternatively, someone's Deviantart frontpage. Overall it just exudes the idea that it's an RPG Maker game that all the members of some forum collaborated on. Some of the character designs, like Clunea, are just laughable. I'd rather browse someone's anime tumblr with the SNES Wizardry emulated in a window than play it.

I feel the Elminage dungeon crawler series would be far more deserving of XSeed's treatment. The games have fantastic, cohesive fantasy artwork reminiscent of Katsuya Terada. They're widely regarded by Japanese fans as the ultimate culmination of Wizardry-inspired design, with insane options for party development; sprawling, detailed dungeons that don't feel like lab rat mazes, and battles that can number up to 6 vs. 6. They go far more in-depth than Etrian Odyssey or The Dark Spire ever dared to. The entire series is available on PSP (with a fourth game on the way), and would be well suited to digital downloads.

Can't help but think this was a poor move on XSeed's part. Even 7th Dragon 2020 would have been a much better selection.

[Terro]

Do you ever have anything nice to say?

[JiggiUp]

Yes, but it would be uninteresting, redundant, and ultimately pointless.

[Terro]

Actually I find saying mostly negative things to be pretty redundant too...

[JiggiUp]

I'm bringing up points no one else has here yet. Hence, not redundant.

[Gintoki]

Do you like exaggerating that much? Meh, whatever floats your boat.

[Minneyar]

Do you have any opinions about the game itself, or have you not looked at anything beyond the character designs?

[JiggiUp]

I've played Wizardry clones before, they're all more or less the same. It comes down to how well they pull off the same things.

[Wyrdwad]

This is not the same.

Trust me, from a gameplay perspective, this is not a Wizardry clone. It's a first-person dungeon crawler, sure... but the things it does with the genre are quite unique.

You definitely shouldn't judge this book by its cover. You'll be missing out if you do.

...Also, I see a lot of people saying, "I don't get why you went after X game, when Y game is much better!"... but what a lot of people don't realize is that we most likely DID go after Y game. And X game. And a million Z games. We play and evaluate a LOT of titles, and when we like one, we pursue it. But 9 times out of 10, it winds up being out of our price range, or promised to someone else, or unavailable due to some other set of complications. It's not simply a matter of selecting a game, translating it, then releasing it. It's never that simple.

All I can really say, though, is that whenever we release a game, it's always a game we've played, enjoyed and can firmly stand behind. And Unchained Blades is no exception. Personally, I'd rank it as one of the best first-person dungeon crawlers I've ever played.

-Tom

[wrath]

Quite frankly I detested wizardry myself but am quite happily looking foward to this game as after waching gameplay features of it, it seems quite up my ally...Not to mention ive desperately wanted it since word of it first came about simply because of the artwork.
I also cant understand when people ask "Why choose this game over..." there are alot of games I personally find redundant that others love so why shouldnt those games get a chance to sell for better or worse? I hope this game does well simply because ive wanted it so badly but unfortunantly I tend to see that question alot on forums "Why choose this over that? That is sooooooooooo much better" sure mabey it is but its not the game we are to be getting so i'll just be thankfull for getting the games I can get and hope others in its vien follow.