Another one to the shelves.
Tao's Adventure starts with a bang, like the gun at the start of a cross country race, but it tapers off pretty fast as the game itself seems to get too tired to sustain it's initial pace pretty quickly. Of course, whether or not you get weary with this one depends on what you look for in games.
For example, I've noticed a lot of dungeon crawlers are what I would call "town and dungeon" games, games that have literally simply one (sometimes evolving) town and an assortment of dungeons (or in this game's case, simply one huge dungeon) that you get to (usually) not via an overworld but some travel interface. That was kind of a long winded explanation, but I think of games like Evolution 1 and 2 for the Dreamcast, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, as well as the Shiren and Torneko games. Ever Oasis for the 3DS could qualify as well if didn't break the last rule I set for not having an interconnected overworld.
What makes these "town and dungeon" games interesting kind of eludes me for now (it seems to me to be a minimalistic variation on the core of RPG's) , which seems why I couldn't enjoy Tao's Adventure. I have to do some more work studying this particular genre before I'm ready for this. It seems to me that I really had to enjoy the core gameplay loop, because the game was repetitive as Sisyphus rolling the rock up the hill over and over, which could make sense from a ludonarrative perspective- Tao is trying relentlessly to (slight spoiler for the beginning of the game) find a cure for his whole town getting frozen to stone. The game does have some novelty throughout the relative stability - you get to know the characters, some of the locations are blocked off until you progress through the main tower dungeon, giving a sense of at least some progression and novel exploration.
Still, there was something overwhelmingly generic about the routine of this game. It didn't seem to know it's target audience very well at all, the "draw your spells" magic gimmick seems to be appealing to the younger magic and sorcery fad, Percy Jackson-esque enamored crowd. Yet the dungeon crawling is a bit too tedious and dare I say hardcore, harkening back to PS1 titles like Azure Dreams that many newcomers would not be acclimated to. If it had some sort of intrigue to it, like the dungeon maps varying a little bit aesthetically, bosses having an introductory cutscene (the bosses are literally just there) and a bunch of small detail work to make the game a bit more cinematic and adventurous, this would appeal more towards a wider audience.
Yet, it doesn't seem to really target anyone in particular except a few heavy dungeon-crawler aficionados who have exhausted most of their other possibilities. I respect this game and see what it was going for - but I'll have to come back to it.
Tao's Adventure starts with a bang, like the gun at the start of a cross country race, but it tapers off pretty fast as the game itself seems to get too tired to sustain it's initial pace pretty quickly. Of course, whether or not you get weary with this one depends on what you look for in games.
For example, I've noticed a lot of dungeon crawlers are what I would call "town and dungeon" games, games that have literally simply one (sometimes evolving) town and an assortment of dungeons (or in this game's case, simply one huge dungeon) that you get to (usually) not via an overworld but some travel interface. That was kind of a long winded explanation, but I think of games like Evolution 1 and 2 for the Dreamcast, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, as well as the Shiren and Torneko games. Ever Oasis for the 3DS could qualify as well if didn't break the last rule I set for not having an interconnected overworld.
What makes these "town and dungeon" games interesting kind of eludes me for now (it seems to me to be a minimalistic variation on the core of RPG's) , which seems why I couldn't enjoy Tao's Adventure. I have to do some more work studying this particular genre before I'm ready for this. It seems to me that I really had to enjoy the core gameplay loop, because the game was repetitive as Sisyphus rolling the rock up the hill over and over, which could make sense from a ludonarrative perspective- Tao is trying relentlessly to (slight spoiler for the beginning of the game) find a cure for his whole town getting frozen to stone. The game does have some novelty throughout the relative stability - you get to know the characters, some of the locations are blocked off until you progress through the main tower dungeon, giving a sense of at least some progression and novel exploration.
Still, there was something overwhelmingly generic about the routine of this game. It didn't seem to know it's target audience very well at all, the "draw your spells" magic gimmick seems to be appealing to the younger magic and sorcery fad, Percy Jackson-esque enamored crowd. Yet the dungeon crawling is a bit too tedious and dare I say hardcore, harkening back to PS1 titles like Azure Dreams that many newcomers would not be acclimated to. If it had some sort of intrigue to it, like the dungeon maps varying a little bit aesthetically, bosses having an introductory cutscene (the bosses are literally just there) and a bunch of small detail work to make the game a bit more cinematic and adventurous, this would appeal more towards a wider audience.
Yet, it doesn't seem to really target anyone in particular except a few heavy dungeon-crawler aficionados who have exhausted most of their other possibilities. I respect this game and see what it was going for - but I'll have to come back to it.