Dungeons and Dragons Tactics Comments by Dave McCarthy

I love 'those' games, and was really looking forward to this one. By the US reviews and this it looks like kuju have messed this one up big time. Buggrit.

Never mind, Jeanne D'Arc sounds like the real deal. Maybe they'll bring disgaea over on psp from japan? Please?

@ smurphs

If you mean to the US, October 30th is the release date shown on the latest trailers.

If you mean the Europe, start grovelling.

f3rrari: This truly is one of 'those' games to a faulting degree. D&D Tactics just takes it too far as this article says. It doesn't help that the interface design is so flawed as well. Every little thing you want to do you have to initiate manually.

Get Jeanne Darc instead, that's excellent fun. Good storyline as well as a good tactics system.

There is only one thing I would like to add.

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=ezrZXpO6GPQ

D&D has become much too complicated for it's own good...

@HiddenAway

you've just made my day. It's going to be a good christmas.

I would really REALLY love a pure adaptation of the 3.5 ruleset, with many core and prestige classes, feats and enemies, for the PC.

We stopped playing DnD because it was more like a tabletop strategy game and less of a real roleplaying game, but what makes the system bad for an evening with friends makes it great for a solo PC session.

Yeah - D&D (I'm a pen-and-paper roleplayer and dislike most cRPGs) is "overdiced" and "overstatsed". It is also totally unrealistic (even in a fantasy world setting) since at higher levels (a few levels up suffice) you can get shot like 5 times in the eye and still live. Besides - I really can't take an RPG system seriously is like 1/3rd of the Dungeon Master's Guide is dedicated to the RANDOM generation of adventures. *doh*
However, I agree that all these things make D&D quite well suited for PC games - other systems would be too hard to port and would probably lose much of their appeal.

"Without Dungeons and Dragons we'd still be stuck playing Space Invaders. We wouldn't be playing Zelda, or Final Fantasy, or Dragon Quest, or maybe even Deus Ex. We may not even have been introduced to Doom."

Them's mighty big claims in need of some support. Possibly no-one in gaming would have invented the turn-based play style without D&D as a precedent, but fantasy settings quite definitely didn't start with D&D, and what the hell does D&D have to do with Deus Ex or Doom?

J'eanne D'Arc is definitely more accessible. There will be people who really love this (DnD tactics), but it really dumps you in the deep-end. The interface is a masterwork of non-intuition and requires +5 perserverence. A flawed labour of love.

Nonetheless those who 'know' they like this will like this ;)

Sounds like the monster with the highest challenge rating is called Interface.

It seems to be one of those games i might enjoy for a short time, but then the annoying aspects of it would wear me down and i'd move to other things. That's too bad cause from what i can tell, interface issues aside, it's a pretty good DnD game.

Sounds really really terrible

"Without Dungeons and Dragons we'd still be stuck playing Space Invaders. We wouldn't be playing Zelda, or Final Fantasy, or Dragon Quest, or maybe even Deus Ex. We may not even have been introduced to Doom."

of which YourMessageHere wrote: "Them's mighty big claims in need of some support. Possibly no-one in gaming would have invented the turn-based play style without D&D as a precedent, but fantasy settings quite definitely didn't start with D&D, and what the hell does D&D have to do with Deus Ex or Doom?"

Fantasy settings in computer based and other games owe just about everything to D&D (and in the 2nd edition blue basic rules book, they in turn state that they owe just about everything to J.R.R.T).

D&D the pencil and paper game was first released in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, and met with poor sales (as far as I recall) at first, leading to a halted publication. This lasted until about 1979 (also my own recollection) and it's second release (when I got into it) and then it picked up momentum achieving a measure of success, which has only grown steadily. Today it is the international gaming brand and moniker we all know. It was sold by TSR to Wizards of the Coast some time back however.

Before D&D there were no other fantasy settings in gaming as far as I know. About the same time D&D was published out of Wisconsin, another US firm in Texas published a similar roleplaying game by the name of Tunnels & Trolls. D&D pushed this brand aside, and it folded shortly thereafter.

It is also well known that several young budding computer game developers in the US were avid D&D players, From Richard Garriott, Warren Spector (worked early days for Steve Jackson games creating D&D p&p competitive brands), John Carmack, John Romero. The Id crew used to play D&D between coding/design sessions and many of their ideas formed from D&D play.

All of this is well recorded in many books and websites. I suggest you start here if interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%26D

Now of Japanese designers like Miyamoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi being inspired by D&D I cannot say, but I would expect it.

/geekmeister mode off. You guys are just so... young. ^^

You guys are just so... young.

/clutches his original paperback ADnD player's handbook from 1978. As you get older your recollections get hazier ;D

Tunnnels and Trolls - now that's a blast from the past!

>Tunnnels and Trolls - now that's a blast from the past!

Just FYI.. I bought a reprinted "special" edition of T&T two months ago. So for the fans of P&P RPGs an interesting item :)

BTW yeah a lot of computer games designers have been active in the P&P RPG scene. Oblivion for example.. Ken Rolston is a very well known figure. Ensemble's Sandy Peterson is a god from the CoC game... etc..

And yes.. this game kinda sucks sadly...

"If they're not, it'll just be another Temple of Elemental Evil."

DON'T SAY IT'S NAME OUT LOUD!

God, man! There are still traumatised people out here!

Ah Tunnels and Trolls, where you were strongly discouraged from digging through the walls to avoid the deadly traps on the doors...

D&D Tactics is what you'd expect- very nerdy D&D fun for those who know the rules, and a world of pain for everyoen else. The interface can be a complete pain and the plot is wafer-thin, but I found it quite fun to play. It could have been a lot better though...

Ah it's not that bad...
I was a complete DnD noob hadn't a clue about any of the rules and after a few hours of confusion i sussed it out.
I've completed it now it took me about 30 hours.
It's actually quite fun once your characters get over about level 5 and can start to do some damage.
Ok the interface is confusing for inventory but theres a lot of info that has to be relayed and after a while it becomes obvious.
People have complained about bugs and crashing in game.. i never noticed any and finished the game so maybe its just the uber hardcore DnDrs that have been complaining. ie: No Multiclassing is the biggest complaint. Well it never bothered me.

The dungeon environments are all very varied and nicely drawn...
Lots of spells for your wizards/clerics/sorcerers
Loadsa different weapons and armour
nice lighting effects..
lots of skills/level ups/feats
It's a solid 7/10 if you like DnD.
Not perfect but still fun.

These Baldur's Gate clones keep spawning at Sony machines. Kinda dated, the concept.

God, what a miserable looking game.......

/plays Bioshock