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Fun, involved, expansive, and just better than DII, single p

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 25 / 27
Date: September 30, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Diablo II fans will love Throne of Darkness. The designer of Diablo moved onto work on ToD in San Francisco based Click in order to move some of his ideas along, I suppose.

The game plays very similar to Diablo II, but makes the game more customizable and gives the user more power to take different paths. My biggest problem with Diablo II was that players basically were forced along in their quests, and that there simply was a "best character." However, ToD will not have this problem since there will be four out of seven characters playing. This creates *infinite* possibilities.

An important note: the demo is quite fun, but does NO JUSTICE to the real game! There are many things missing in the demo that make it seem like a weaker game than it is.

In terms of graphics, ToD represents the samurai age quite well, considering the game is a fantasy game. The style is very fitting and look right. There could be some more detail in characters, but I'm not complaining :)

Listening to the game was pleasuresome to my ears. The music is generally good, and the fighting and speech sounds are also strong.

The tactics system really comes through, though it is a little bit annoying when your wizard runs out of ki (MP) and runs up trying to kill that massive elder kappa (a turtle?). However, death is by no means permanent, and really isn't that big of a deal, unless everyone dies. :)

The magic system doesn't really look that special, but I haven't really gotten far enough to tell for sure. My wizard has been weak, but he's definitely getting stronger with each level. I expect him to be a powerhouse pretty soon!

As for an item system, this is where ToD shines. There is so much customizability that its ridiculous. It's like Diablo II with up to 24 gem slots, but with a larger variety of gems :) I can't wait to have a 24 slot 75-150 damage sword with whatever customizing items in it... Also, no item is wasted. Junk is not junk anymore. These can be given or offered to the blacksmith or priest of your temple which then are put into a material point system which can be used in junction with gold to build up better items with more customizing slots. It makes you want to pick up EVERYTHING! :)

Well, I believe ToD is one of the most innovative games in it's genre since the original itself. I haven't anticipated a game this much since Diablo II! And I'm not disappointed either.

This game is damn cool...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 15
Date: September 13, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Okay, not only did they get me by the japanese setting alone, but once I got my Beta test CD in the mail and installed this game i was instantly blown away by the beautiful artwork that was put into this game... I still can't get over how pretty it is...

Anyway, eye candy aside, the game plays pretty quickly and most battles are just a bloody mess... It took me a little while to get used to switching through all my Samurai during a battle to make sure they all cast the right defensive or offensive spells, and then it's a clicking i go!!!

I love the death animations in this game... definitely lots of blood...

The thing that really got me though, is once I had enough money I could take all of these monster parts and gems and such that I had been collecting, and totally customize all my weapons and armor!!! I can't believe how hardcore some of these things can be!!! Can you make a weapon in diablo that inflicts 4 kinds of elemental damage while draining health and mana from your enemies as well as boosting your character stats?!?!! And that's stuff I made before I was even 10th level!!!!

Tons of monsters, more spells than I could ever use, plus the spell effects and sounds are great!

I'm so stoked I'm helping out to make this a better game, but I tell you now this game's gonna rock!!!

Nihon no Diablo

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: November 04, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game merges two of my favorite things on the world: ancient Japan and Computer RPG. Now that I've played it, I'm forced to wonder why it took so long. With a market saturated with sword and sorcery type RPG's, one set in ancient Japan seems like a pleasant alternative. The similarities are obvious enough. Ninja and Samurai are cool enough to stand on their own along with the Japanese derivatives of all those fantasy staples.

One reviewer noted that the demo version doesn't do this game any justice. I totally agree with that statement. It was that review which prompted me to give Throne of Darkness a try. It's unfortunate, but the demo doesn't even scratch the surface, and whether the makers realize it or not, demos influence people to buy games. It's almost better to have no demo than a poor or insufficient one.

Complaints: First, the interface suffers from a lot of the things that Diablo and Diablo 2 suffered from in my opinion. Supposedly the key creators of this game created the original Diablo, and you can tell. For the most part, combat can be reduced to a furious, cluttered click-fest devoid of any real tactics during battle. This is one of the reasons why I never learned to love the Diablo games. Compared to the Baldur's Gate series and all the Black Isle games, Diablo lacked any real RPG depth. "Click-click-click", Level up, "click-click-click", boring. If it weren't for a few saving graces, Throne of Darkness would suffer the same fate, but the devil is in the details, something the creators went to great lengths to improve upon.

Second, I like creating my own characters from scratch, and you aren't afforded that opportunity with ToD. With 7 samurai (an obvious number) to choose from, it's easy to forgive this slight. Also, statistically, there isn't much to the characters. Leveling up provides some variety amongst the characters, but you can only put points in one of 4 stats, so there isn't much strategy or skill to advancing. Again, this was another big flaw Diablo had for me. Compared to the Fallout series and all the D&D based games, there isn't much to the characters themselves.

While the major flaws of the game can be compared to Diablo, it's the strengths that make it completely different and a far better game in my opinion. While the fast pace and constant clicking of Diablo grows boring fast, having 4 samurai in the party at any given time combined with a pretty sophisticated tactical editor provide a lot more variety than you would think. There are approximately 12-16 pre-generated tactical formations based on different animals: turtle, tiger, scorpion etc. I find myself toying with them more and more to find that "sweet-spot". Combine the different formations, with the different combinations of characters and there is a lot more variety at play than at first glance. You can also manually create your own formations which you do by altering each characters personal stance, which affects aggressiveness, and weapon or magic assignment.

One of the cooler aspects of the game is the Daimyo interface. There are four Daimyo in the game for you to choose from, all of which come from the warring states period just prior to the unification of Japan, but that's where any real historical reality ends. The Daimyo give orders, resurrect characters, and heal the injured while they wait. The Daimyo also has a priest and blacksmith working for him which have a multitude of functions.

The blacksmith, by far, presents one of the coolest features of the game. In addition to fixing broken armor and weapons, and the weaker weapons seem to break every 5 minutes, he can also make new weapons, and even customize weapons by combining them with strange objects looted off of creatures. There's actually more strategy to customizing each weapon to each character than you might think, or at least there's as much as you put into it. There are items based on the four elements which enhance the items, and then there are items that enhance the enhancements. You can spend hours finding combinations and can come up with some really cool items.

With seven characters to choose from at any one time, over a dozen fully customizable formations, and possibly hundreds of weapons to create, combined with all that fast-action combat (the only good thing to come from Diablo) this is already a game worth playing, but it's the whole "Japan" angle that keeps me involved. I guess if you don't find ancient Japan and things like Samurai and Ninja interesting, or have never seen a Kurasawa flick in your life, you might not be attracted to this game. If you have, it's probably the biggest reason to buy it. The game stands on its own as a premier dungeon-crawler (sorry, there isn't much RPG involved here), but replacing knights with Samurai, thieves with Ninja, and swords with Katana (ok, technically they're the same thing if you've never actually held one) is what makes the game such a blast to play.

Multiplayer Mayhem

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: January 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

If you enjoyed Diablo and Diablo II, then you're bound to love Throne of Darkness, an action/RPG with a backdrop in Japanese mythos. In the single-player game you control a party of up to 4 characters of different classes and rotate up to 7 different characters in and out of the party as you complete a series of linear quests. Controlling the four different characters can be challenging, but it's made easier by an interface that enables customization of the characters' behaviors in combat.

Throne of Darkness shows marked similarities to the Diablo series (no wonder, since the designer also created the original Diablo), but the progression in the game is more quest based, and the action is often more hectic. One of the things I've noticed about the game is that, unlike Diablo, you don't spend a lot of your time hacking up easy opponents for profit and experience. The enemies you fight are all formidable. Sure, you can usually get past the low-level monsters with little difficulty, but unlike Diablo, you face a very real threat every time you enter combat.

The gameplay is also challenging because you have to balance your party's experience acquisition. You have to give each member of the whole party some time in the action; otherwise, they do not level up and remain too weak to help out with the bosses and quest completion. The biggest challenge, I've found, is keeping characters alive and out of the Daimyo, where characters are sent to recover when they've died in combat. Active characters gain experience and progress in levels; others fall behind.

The game boasts a hectic and exciting multiplayer component. You can play with up to 8 other people cooperating in the same house or competing against each other. When I played with one other person sharing one of the houses, our 7 characters were split between the two of us. You have the option of starting wherever you choose, and the game helpfully tells what level your characters should be to venture into the various game locations. If you and your partners work together, you can tackle much more difficult areas than recommended for your character levels, but if you stick with the game's recommendations, you'll find a nice progression.

This game offers a fun single-player campaign and an exciting multiplayer component. I highly recommend it for any Diablo fans looking for something similar yet new. At its current price, Throne of Darkness is a real bargain.

Fun game...for a while

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: October 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I did not know what to expect when i first tried out Throne of Darkness. At first I was impressed by the animations and the the good interface of the game. When I started to play i noticed the graphics where bright and colorful but as i kept playing they did get a little repetitive. The 4 castles in the game are pretty similar as are the caves and outside areas. The sound and the music are not great, but not annoying either. The coolest thing about the game imo are the animations. These are just plain awesome. There are 4 clans to pick from, but they are all basically the same except having different starting locations and having a couple different 'personal' quests. This game borrows _heavily_ from Diablo and Diablo 2 up to the inventory and character screens. The fact that you can customize weapons and armor is really cool, although all-in-all those customizations can be expensive and are not all that powerful. There is an assortment of powerful unique items which really do kick much butt. Now the complaints. First of all the wizard in this game is pretty useless. It will be really hard to get him to go up in levels and also unless you control him personally, he pretty much doesnt do anything when being ai-controlled. Another annoyance is that if you want to trade items between your 7 characters you constantly have to send them back and forth to the daimyo to cycle through them to see who needs what..very annoying. These were my biggest two complaints, so if that's all I could come up with, the game aint that bad. The replay value here is pretty low as you prolly won't wanna go through the game more than twice, there isnt much new or different the second time you play. Overall I enjoyed TOD and would recommend it to fans of this genre.

worth way more than 20

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

this game is one of the best i have EVER played, its sad that it gets such little publicity. the fact that you could customize nearly everything to your own liking is great. and the spells in this game...wow!, i mean, if i get bored while playing, i just sit back and start casting spells, just to look at the effects. to be honest, i dont use the tactics system very much, but in the begining i used it a few times, and it helped. the artwork is just amazing, i mean, the characters are so detailed, you could actually see their sandals. i would definetly recomend this game to anyone who likes games. any type of game, not just action or RPG. this is a great game.

ToD Worth Playing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: January 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I found ToD to be an excellent game that had some very good features to it's credit. It loaded very fast, had good graphics, no bugs (that I experienced), and exceptional playability. While it is, indeed, Diablo-esque in it's format, it was still different enough to make playing it a pleasing change from Diablo. The spell graphics were not as visually stunning, but the melee combat was just as enjoyable. The only detrimental part of the whole game was in making, purifying, and repairing magic items, weapons and armor. Some armor, when customizing it by puting found magic items into it's slots, took up to 4 minutes to create. If you had a lot of things to make, you could, seriously, go get a cup of coffee and a sandwich before it was done. That being said, it was sometimes a welcome respite from the game and made me take breaks from it that I, otherwise, might not have taken. The game world was graphically beautiful and the creatures were well done, both in form and animation. Although you had up to 7 characters to choose from (with a party of 4 being max) I found that I rarely needed to play more than 4. I normally chose the wizard, berserker, archer, and swordsman and was able to cut through all adversaries like butter. I also enjoyed the fact that you can play the game with 4 different clans, each having different quests (depending on who was in your party). I would highly recommend this game if you enjoyed playing Diablo/Diablo LoD. In this day and age, it's hard to find a game that isn't fraught with bugs. It was nice to play something that was graphically beautiful, interesting, challenging, fun, AND stable.

Throne of Darkness Rules!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: November 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I love Throne of Darkness. Everything from the multiple tactical plays to the Japanese mythology setting makes this game the best of its kind. The single player options have tons of quests and amazing creatures I've never seen before.

Once you find your Blacksmith and Priest this game takes on a whole other dimension. You donate items and weapons along the way to your Blacksmith and he will make even better weapons with the materials. The Blacksmith can also make hundreds of customizable weapons with different magical items you get along the way. The Priest on the other hand will grant you spells as you gain experience or donate magical items to him.

Combat is very thought out where you control four of your seven possible samurai at once with very smart AI. Playing calling or tactic calling controls your non-active samurai. There is a tactic interface where set plays are also fully customizable. For instance you can set a character as a spell caster, ranged, aggressive, defensive, melee, and so on.

Multiplayer is probably my favorite part about ToD. It's basically your king of the hill type of game play where you fight to kill the Dark Warlord first and then actually become him. You can also co-op with other castles to fight your way to the top or take over their castles and kill their Daimyo, which kicks them out of the game.

I must warn you, this game is very addictive. The graphics and sounds are very well done in great detail and the game play is very fast paced. There is not a dull moment in this game. I highly suggest buying this game.

THIS GAME KICKS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: August 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I just spend a lot of time with the demo version of this game and i am very impressed. at first i thought this was just a diablo clone set in feudal japan with a bunch of people following you around (not that that's bad), but this game is very ORIGINAL. the concept (story-wise) is at least. the gameplay is also very fun. you use tactical play calling to make "plays" basically setting formations that your people will loosley follow (meaning they chase people down and run away when theyre gonna die). the AI, music, and difficulty are good. The graphics are a little sub-diablo, but have a different art-type. the only knock with the demo is its very short and there are no saves. there will be saves in the final game. also, did anyone but me notice a bug where the portal in the shrine room wouldn't register?

Complicated and somewhat slow, but rich in detail.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Overall, I like this game. The negatives are:

-The game is very slow to develop.

-The sheer number of characters, spells, special items and quests make for a somewhat mish-mashed sense of gameplay.

-The combat is more muddled than other third-person fighting games (Diablo II, for instance).

-The levels, though more expansive than some other games, lack excitement. You're either searching [seemingly] forever or you're getting tooled by unseen (off-screen) baddies who one of your rogue AI players has engaged.

-You have to be near-genius to fully utilize the blacksmith and priest options (for making/repairing weapons and learning spells).

-The graphics aren't quite as good as Diablo II.

The positives are:

+The player-character AI is much more advanced than Diablo.

+The multi-player capability is refreshing and fairly well-done.

+The complexity of the blacksmith and priest gives the advanced user a chance to custom-outfit his/her characters.

+It's easy to resurrect players...which is necessary because they tend to die very often early in the game.

+There are lots of unique items and *if* you have the stats to use/wear them, they're very cool.

+The Japanese flair gives the game a dimension that Diablo II lacks.

+I bought this game at *sigh* WallyWorld for $4.77! What a deal!

+The manual is well-written and relatively comprehensive.

I don't think I'd shell out $19.99 for this game, but at $4.77, definitely check it out!

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