Fighting Fantasy successfully brings a 3D, first-person RPG to the portable age, pushing the DS past its limits. There had to be some sacrifices or trade-offs to be sure, but what it doesn't have is a lack of effort.
Ignore, for a second, that the Nintendo DS was never meant to accommodate the "western fantasy RPG". Forget that the hardware wasn't created in mind to produce fully 3D environments, replete with lush hi-res textures and moody lighting and fog. Disregard the lousy title name and the fact that it's loosely based off a popular “choose-your-own” adventure novel from out of the 1980s.
Forget all of that, and know this: Big Blue Bubble has pulled off an impressive feat on this aging hand held, as Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain successfully brings a 3D, first-person RPG to the portable age, and runs near a 60-frame clip. There had to be some sacrifices or trade-offs to be sure, but what Fighting Fantasy doesn't have is a lack of effort. The game pushes the system past its limits and still manages to pull off a solid, immersive dungeon-crawler. It's also one of the more refreshing challenges on the DS as you're constantly fretting how to best raise your character's skills and stats to survive the next set of rooms. Every little point spent towards development “now” could have drastic effects or consequences “later.” So choose wisely.
For a former novel, Fighting Fantasy is pretty light on plot: The dwarven stronghold known as Firetop Mountain has been ransacked by an all-powerful warlock and the underground estate is left with nothing but undead dwarves and surly orcs to protect his hidden treasure. Those who dare try to acquire said riches only get far enough in to set up shop, because the orcs have made it their home and don't take lightly to outside company. So it's no wonder the town folk are constantly reminding you of the horrible dangers in wait for you there as you set your sights on adventure and fame.
Fans of the book will note only a semblance of story choice during character creation, but there are some alternate outcomes at certain spots. (Taking the wrong path before getting the first key could have you locked out of town until late in the game.)
During character creation, specific scenarios present dilemmas where you must answer how you'd react. So taking the axe or the bow on the 'table before you' will tilt your stats toward a warrior or ranger respectively, but choosing to take both purely for financial gain will set you down the path of a thief. If you don't feel like answering all of these – there is about eight of them – you can simply blitz through it and choose to customize your beginning stats.
Points placed in STAMINA will give you a greater health pool and access to the heavier armors of the game, while focusing on SKILL increases critical chance and dodge, and investing in INTUITION will boost your magic and healing abilities. These three attributes directly affect what type of equipment you can use and dictate which special abilities can be learned.
Abilities are essential to the character you'll become. Mages may want to stick to the five spheres of magic but the thief will benefit more from lock-picking and poisoned-weapons. Should you wish to make a smack-talking, lock-defiling, spell casting swordsman, you're totally free to do so, it will probably just take a lot more time to balance out. But if you just want to spend all your points towards archery, you can do that too. (You're allowed seven abilities total, but only two slots from the start.)
The open character development offers seemingly limitless play styles, and is freely accessed at any time. You can save your points for later if you're unsure where to commit your growth, or if you're holding out for slick loot to convince you -- stumbling across an excellent item can threaten your former leveling plans.
Though mostly confined indoors, the entire dungeon map is actually very sizable and surprisingly varied. Some room layouts are repeated, but the themes and architecture – chapels, catacombs, spider caves, fountains... etc – are mixed enough to give you a sense of exploration. The dungeon is riddled with clutter that makes Firetop Mountain believable as both a fortress and hideout, as loot can be found in some very unexpected places.
Locked containers must be picked through a well-executed stylus mini-game, where you track a dot through a series of moving gears and traps within the time limit, attempting to latch all the pins; facing poison if you don't. Investing in lock-picking increases the timer, which would just be too fast for some containers. It's rewarding to shimmy your “lock pick” through all the obstacles successfully because the response feels so accurate.
Thankfully the controls are just as good throughout the rest of the experience, but DO NOT use the dual face-button setup if you can manage: its turning sensitivity is atrocious. A combination of D-Pad movement, with the stylus or thumb-strap for turning is appropriate; whipping your view from foe to foe as you strafe around, and hurling arrows and spells with the shoulder buttons (similar to Metroid Prime Hunters). It's also fun to fake-out enemies and make them hit each other. Finally, dragging and dropping to buy or equip is tailor-made to the stylus, and you can even mark your map for points of interest.
The center of the bottom screen is reserved for your view controls but surrounding that is a nifty quick-action bar, where you can link any ability or weapon to seven slots and access them at the tap of of a pen. Shoot an arrow, swap to a poisoned-dagger and finish with a fire bolt – all in realtime. Unfortunately, any swapped item does not become the “equipped” one, as pushing the main attack again will revert to your original – you have to tap a quick-slot to use one. This can occasionally see abilities accidentally activated as you learn to work your stylus within the cramped space on the bottom screen, so knowing when to lift and recenter your view becomes a necessity – an unfortunate drawback to the DS' lack of true analog control.
Fighting Fantasy is one of the most visually stunning DS titles ever – there simply isn't a prettier first-person experience on the system. Texture's are crisp with discernible minute details; architecture is strewn with objects like hanging chains and stacked containers and shelves; liquids flow and flames flicker believably and large character sprites, though sparsely animated, are full of rich color and a surprising amount of personality. There won't be anything that screams an identity outside of standard fantasy cliches but what's here is beautiful regardless.
But there has to be an unfortunate drawback somewhere when you're spitting out visuals like this so briskly, and that's where the soundtrack comes in – or better put – there is none (don't let the trailer fool you). Outside of little “quest complete” fanfares and the opening title theme, the game is devoid of any semblance of music or beat, and this indeed can create a strange empty feeling, as you're basically just going room-to-room killing things and finding treasure. Though there are some well placed immersive sounds like the crackle of torches or the rushing of waterfalls, without music, it's hard to create or indulge in an overall mood. (Putting on a CD in the background is advised.)
On top of this, the trite quests don't really deviate from “find-the-item” fare and there are many ways to exploit the memory usage of the game. You can come back to the same room a little later and entirely loot it again or roll a “nicer” enemy set if the previous one overwhelmed you. The basic A.I. has monsters occasionally stuck on structures or else unable to chase and retaliate – which especially feels cheap against higher-level foes – but Big Blue Bubble counteracts this by updating rooms with tougher monster assortments as you progress. Larger enemy sets do tend to bog the framerate and make it hard to aim your weapons however.
There are some disturbing bugs as well. At one point I became stuck between a bed object and the wall, forcing a reload, and experienced system crashes in certain rooms that I was later able to recreate – seems to point to corrupt auto-saves. Since saves occur after every door, any encountered bugs are a short-term problem, but nonetheless annoying. For the most part, the level designs are clean and open enough to get your brawl on just fine without a hiccup.
And really, that's what Fighting Fantasy boils down to: the fighting. Players who are expecting a world-spanning adventure full of plot twists and intriguing characters had best look elsewhere (or buy the original book); this one is for the hardcore stat-mangers and fantasy role-players who gleefully giggle like schoolgirls when they find a +10 blade equip-able at next level-up, or a cloak that boosts cross-class attributes. With thoughtful controls, functional interface and an open development system, individuals looking for a more streamlined, realtime RPG experience for their DS should give this one a thought for their collection. But if you didn't like first-person RPGs before, this certainly isn't going to convert you. There are some unfortunate bugs and I can see casual or “J-RPGamers” (or fans of the original novel) being turned off by the apparent mindless – sometimes repetitive – simplicity of it all. But the depth of the gameplay lies in the character building itself, and you'll be looking at about twelve hours-worth of it – more should you visit again as a different class.
