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03-28-24 03:28 PM

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Review: Like Pokemon? Like dungeon exploring for random loot? Play this!
Rogue-like monster tamer turn based rpg date sim with city building. Whew!
Play Azure Dreams Online

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endings
10-12-14 05:15 AM
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10-12-14 06:46 PM
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Like Pokemon? Like dungeon exploring for random loot? Play this!

 
Game's Ratings
Overall
Graphics
Sound
Addictiveness
Depth
Story
Difficulty
Average User Score
9.4
7
7
9
8
6
7
endings's Score
8.8
7
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7

10-12-14 05:15 AM
endings is Offline
| ID: 1089832 | 4152 Words

endings
Level: 58


POSTS: 103/828
POST EXP: 193055
LVL EXP: 1504064
CP: 19834.2
VIZ: 1243384

Likes: 1  Dislikes: 0
really like this Azure Dreams, I've owned it for a number of years. While its really addictive, I will be fair and call fouls and missed opportunities where I see them.
Why is it called Azure Dreams? I think, and this is just a guess, but maybe that relates to the hero's quest to see the top of the giant monster tower dungeon, the azure sky, which clearly is looming in the sky like the tower of Babel. But thats just a guess. 

I'm going to do a huge discussion on what gameplay elements are in this unique hybrid style - but if that is too much, and you might be tl,dr.. then let me sum it up for those - Its a fun game. Play it.

You play as the easily-renamed to whatever-you-want Koh, son of the best monster hunter in the whole city of Monsbaiya. The town is in the middle of a desert, and people come from far away to try their hand at catching the rare beasts inside the large, mysterious tower that is within the town's boundaries.  The hero's dad, Guy,  wants to see 
the top of the tower, something no one has ever done. It seems one night he gets his wish, he enters the tower and later a great light shines from the top.  But Guy never comes home. Now that your character is reaching the age of an adult, he wants to set off to find out what happened to his father, and to discover the magic eggs and treasure, and the top of the tower for yourselves!

Azure Dreams combines a dungeon exploring, turn-based combat formula ala Fire Emblem with the collectible and necessary 'pet' feature such as seen in Monster Rancher and Pokemon. Necessary because your tamed monsters are much stronger than you. Unlike Pokemon however, your hero can definitely fight for himself if need be. It may sound like a odd mish-mash, and in some cases Azure Dreams is a little weaker than the sum of its whole, but it succeeds more than it falters. I'll discuss the 3 (!) types of game styles in Azure Dreams, and  then go into the main part of my review with scores.

THE TOWER --- Rogue/explorer type game
This is where all the monsters and treasure are. You always start at level one of the tower and your hero is level one also when you enter it. There is no way to save your hero's level, it resets every time you leave. Magic of the tower, deal. However your monsters keep their levels permanently. See why they are important? You do find lots of swords and shields and such, and items that can increase their value, and this too is permanent. But while you can carry about 20 things out (your whole inventory) you can only carry 5 items in, counting familiars! Why? Magic of the tower, deal.  But what you bring home is yours to keep, As long as you take it home with you.

If you die in the tower (familiar fainting is ok, they will be revived at home), you will go back home, but lose every treasure currently found.

It hurts a lot to lose your best shield, but Azure Dreams is kinder than rogue games like
Fatal Labyrinth, which would just game over you outright even at the start of the game!  Again any pet you have is safe, but not the eggs, as they are not technically yours yet, not hatched.  You have to raise a monster from an egg inside the dungeon to keep them in your inventory. The monsters are quite unique and done extremely well, and any monster you see in the tower - you can get an egg and take home your very own version of them - complete with special powers and some even have magic spells. While it may seem you MUST find an egg to get the monster, that is not always the case. There is an item that will turn a monster into an egg form, but this is quite rare. There are many other items that add versatility to this robust monster collecting as well.

Most of your combat takes place in assorted narrow halls and small to huuuuge rooms- there is no battle screen or special menu you enter for combat. When you see the monster approaching down the way, you can already start plotting what you're going to do. Your monsters have an AI that for the most part does its job effectively. You can directly each monster you own if you wish, but most times its not necessary. As well as monsters to fight, you have to contend with traps. There are many varieties, a few silly, and some downright vicious. Some floors will have no traps, some will have a good 6-8. Fortunately you can find one-shot items that can not only tell you where the traps are, but can also where the treasures are on the floor, and the monsters movement.

The strangest choice I feel they made in the Tower is how you leave. One does not simply 'leave the tower'. You must have one of two items to get out, an Oleem fruit (looks like a blue apple) or (more common) a wind Crystal. You feed the former to a pet, and you use the latter yourself. You will have to use one of your 20 inventory spaces on a wind crystal to insure a safe trip home.  Sometimes you won't find a wind crystal at all! While this can be seen as aggravating, quite often a wind crystal or three are waiting for you in the tower, and it seems the longer your total playtime, the more frequent they become. What can you do with all the excess items? Sell them of course! And what do you do with the money? Well..

Monsbaiya town building - Date sim lite
Upgrading the town is where the city enters a light city-building mode. You merely fulfill enough requests or reach certain points where the citizens will start to ask for your money to help them enrich the lives of the populace. Regrettably, this town revival is largely entertainment purposes only, and doesn't feature as much special shops or allies to help you in the tower as it could have. Building new things does have a lot of influence in attracting several local ladies to woo your time with. Its not a date-sim, however. The most the girls do is fulfill the lots of girlfriends harem routines, often seen in animes with a regular guy surrounded by a large number of  exotic and wildly different women. You win girls over, and rather than going out with one, there is just talk of them fighting over you and maybe a few kisses.
Simple stuff.

But there are rewards to be had. You can upgrade your house quite a bit - which aside from aesthetics, can also allow you to hold more monsters and/or more loot in a bank.
There are a large number of buildings to put in the town, and room enough for all of them, so don't worry  about not having room. Most function as a way to meet a new girl, or offer some very simplistic mini-games. There is also a casino and racetrack, both which 'could' make you money.

This mode, the Monsbaiya/Date style, suffers the most of the 3 modes. Namely, the wooing offers nothing but fanservice and the town is a bit underwhelming for the most part, especially the shops.
The shops for the most part are pretty terrible. You already start with a Monster and Weapon shop, which should be a focus, but sadly are completely disregarded. You don't need the weapon shop if you have any beginner equipment, because thats all they ever offer. If you sell them stuff, you can't buy it back, its gone forever. It would have been good to see this upgrade with your overall game time. 

The Monster shop, the fabled crowded place where people wait months for orders, never, EVER has anything in. Even if you sell it to them, you never see anything for sale. How did you know I was going to sell a Viper egg, store? How is that back order magically filled? A total waste. This would have been a perfect chance to offer you a deal on a random egg if you sold them, say, so many eggs.
Fur's shop is the perhaps most useful, offering tons of paintings, furniture and odd things to decorate your house with, but nothing substantial. For instance you can buy clothes (which look just like what you are wearing), and it does nothing. The fact she sells gifts like flowers and rings makes me think they wanted to put more into the date aspect but just didn't have time or budget. And since Fur the shop owner is one of these ladies to woo, lets talk about the dating pratfalls.

It would have been nice to have, say Selfi, the blue-haired, selfish (see what they did there?), spoiled sorceress, tag along on your quests sometimes. You meet her several times the tower, then she quits going for some reason. The other girls could have offered better healing items, a stat-boosting meal for monsters, or even a way to get money faster in the tower! All of these mentioned play on the strengths of one individual girl's story. Its a shame when they could help with monster raising or loot questions, all the girls do is wake you up in the morning. Uh, I mean, they just come over early to wake you! Come on, I told you its not that kind of game!

Being a rpg-ish game, all this dating lends to talking. But we suffer from a somewhat quiet hero who has little voice, you pick his few comments but there is no voice work in the American version game at all. Many people will be talking to Koh, but he often is left out of the actual conversations. I however, am full of words, if the exposition dump you've waded through is any indication, so lets see how we break down this game in scores, shall we?


Graphics: 7

I know I said I like this game, but its not a graphical powerhouse by any means. I'll discuss in the talk screen graphics, the town's graphics and the biggest part, inside the tower. Since the monster hunting is such a large part of the game, I will cover it last.

The character portraits when you are talking to important people in town, your mother Wreath, the tomboy next-door Nico, your rich rival Ghosh .. they have a distinct, clean art style that is very attractive. I wish all townspeople had this, but there are dozens of regular townsfolk who do not, even an aunt and uncle who have no picture. Also, the dull window the text is displayed in has no way to change fonts, color or be updated to different borders. Shame.

The town itself is OK, its typical PSX graphics at the time, nothing fancy. The windmills look kind of cool but are modeled quite small, and the spinning diner sign is kind of cute. Other buildings, like some shops have a strange sign but no words to read, so you don't know what you are walking into firsthand. You are able to rotate the map 360 around you, and while nice, thats not well utilized - its just: whoopie, you see the back of the temple and it has no doors. There are no characters hiding or secrets to find by playing with the perspective in town, this was something done in 8-bit games like Ultima, and I wish Azure Dreams would have taken advantage of its 360 view better.

Inside the tower, you are given over to the rogue-like random generator. That is, any floor past 2 is done on the fly, and will not have a set map or loot. Could find anything there, could be a series of halls, a big spiderwebs of connectings paths, or one giant, massive room. Who knows? Each time is different, its part of the appeal of rogue-like games. The floors themselves look fine, again, lacking great detail, all bare floors - some have patterns, although there are quite a few different backgrounds that change the further you go up the tower, a new one about every 5 floors. The background while inside the tower(what yousee past the maze of rooms in the foreground) is a strange, trippy spinning design. This is a really odd choice and a bit distracting. Your hero has one simple animation when he attacks, a leaping strike that he does regardless if he has a weapon or not. The items you find on the ground of the dungeon are pretty clean, and pretty easy to tell what the shapes are - the swords and
canes look quite different, for example. The monsters are a bit pixelated, but done fairly well, they are animated and some show a more impressive size than our hero. The players ability to shift the 360 camera is much more important here - as there are small details in the height of floors (more on that later) that can hide items or deadly monsters from certain views.

The monsters, happily, are allowed to shine. They are all quite different in design, temperament and many have special abilities. Like Pokemon, some monsters are able to evolve if kept long enough, and you can also breed them to make a hybrid of both powers. The list is a bit small, about 50 monsters, fairly evenly divided for element they make up - Fire, Water, Wind. The element doesn't always impact on
what the character is - for instance the Glacier monster is of course water, but the strange mole-digging Stealth is air. But its done pretty well, and there are many exotic types to get. The types you have faced off are documented in a book you can access your house, and each page talks about the creature and shows a small picture of it in a natural habitat, suggesting like pokemon - they can be found in the wild.

As you move up the floors, different monster types are present. This is exciting and dangerous, as you now have to learn what each can do to you. And there is one monster that is a rare find and some may never see it come out. Once you find an egg (a HUGE greyish egg, you'll know it when you see it), they are kept in a suspended state in your animal hut, and once/if hatched are totally tame. The wild monsters, however, show some personality in the tower. For instance the Tyrant looks a bit like a scorpion and if stuck in a room for too long, it begins to hop up and down and get mad. The dreaded U-boat is a comical yet deadly submarine-shark that actually sinks into the
floor and follows you, waiting until you stop to attack by surprise.

The good: I like the wide variety of monster types, from the lowly, fun-loving Noise to the powerful Ashura with its many arms. Character anime-style art is super fantastic. The in-game trailer is very nice, although much of it is more impressive than the game's graphics.
The bad: The town doesn't look all that impressive, some of the graphics are a bit murky. And whats with that strange flippy background, is the monster tower, is it having a rave?


Sound: 7
The game has a lot of music, however, I felt the need to mark it down a bit.
Given the game's desert setting, I wasn't too surprised to hear its score has some Arabian influences. I think I detected a qanun in the overture,  which is awesome if they are using middle-eastern instruments. The Overture theme is great, it sounds full of adventure and mystery. Probably the best tune in the game.
Many buildings have their own music; like the moody sitar in the temple, or the upbeat, but oddball dance track in the gym. Each girl and your annoying rival, Ghosh, have their own theme song. This is super cool, but some tunes you are less likely to hear, like Selfi's - you have to be in her tiny front yard  (next to her) to even hear it start. Some, like Fur, it plays when you enter her shop. Again, if some of them had a more important role, hanging out by the monster hut , etc, then they would be heard a lot more. 
The town, the house music and the tower music all have variations. The town music is perhaps the weakest, the tune grows more instruments as you build Monsbaiya up, but many variations sound quite similar.  The tower music really shakes it up and gets a lot of variety, I felt each one made the levels have a different mood. Music is subjective, but thats how I felt. The tracks ranging from adventurous to foreboding; rallying to creepy, to a dangerous, any move could be your last kind of track that sounds so appropriate endgame.

The music isn't bad, but a lot of it isn't especially memorable to me. Its nice they had so many tracks, and I do remember some right off the top, but not as much as I felt I should, given the volume. Maybe they should have had a jukebox for your house, to keep some fresh in mind.
 
The good: All these character driven theme songs! 
The bad: Some of these tunes are just .. there. Some are just 40 second loops. And beyond the overture, none feel really polished.

Addictiveness: 9
Oh man this game may not look super detailed, but its got the fun part down pat. And that what video games should do best. My gal and I took turns playing, and we just could not put Azure Dreams down. Even if you lost your +11 Training Wand and your Diamond Shield, so what. You got your monsters, get back up that tower and see what else is up there. The lure of randomness to the loot is great. In the beginning it might seem unfair, but there will be eggs, and sometimes a super great weapon will just be there, maybe at the beginning of the tower. Grab it and thank your good fortune.
The are a sizable number of side quests too, that you fulfill for the town while in the tower, so you never feel you're doing a fetch quest (but you are) because you were already going up the tower anyway. They are all about finding items on certain floors (or in one case, one monster with the item), and range from getting Guru's oil to power the windmills, to getting a monster collar so you can have 2 monsters out at a time, even a rare medicine to heal one of the girls.
The monster raising has a lot going for it, your little sister keeps a detailed picture book that shows you which ones you have seen in the tower, so you know its name. The fusing of their powers, finding which are best to combine to make unstoppable fighters is a lot of fun. The fact that your basic monsters can still participate in later tower levels (because they raise exp) makes nearly no monster feel worthless when you get that egg. Gotta hatch em all!

The good: Its loot gathering and monster raising! Random every time! Do this!
The bad: I lost a lot of sleep. As good as the game is, I still wish some of the touched on areas(town building) were not so throwaway unimportant and dull. That comedy club routine makes me cringe.

Story: 6
There is a main arc about your lost dad, and the game gives you that at the beginning, when you meet your first familiar, some of the people talk about him. But largely its not brought up again until you're almost at the top of the tower. It is fairly easy to put the romancing, monster raising as the highlight of your life - but to reach the top of the tower just becomes its own goal. I wish the end was done a little better, its not disappointing or anything, but, again, like the date aspect, it feels it could use a bit of polish.
You also get the hilarious and seldom seen effect in video games, to witness the fruits of your labor. How many times have you played rpgs and saved whole countries without so much as a pat on the back? As you advance your town, you get to see humorous things. I won't spoil them for you, but its nice to have your hard work recognized in a game, right? This adds to the story, showing the growing trust in your character. 
Some things are not explained so well. If your dad, Guy, was the super-cool monster hunter.. why are you all living in the same shack you had in the intro flashback? And what is with your rival, Ghosh? He clearly dislikes you for being poor (and other reasons later), but he seems to be just a red herring. I wish a bit more could have been done with him, as he was one of the few characters who is constantly degrading towards you. 

The good: Getting to the top of the tower feels amazing.
The bad:  Rogue-like "Luck" style can be a no go for some gamers, I'm sure. Its a bit unforgiving to some, and to others its generous.


Depth: 8

Azure Dreams clearly wears many hats, and while some fit better than others, its a lot to do and take in. The monster complexities are sublime. Finding clever uses for items you thought only had one use (like the weak ball or the oleem fruit) is possible. And we were halfway done with the beginning of the game before we realized you could throw things by pressing two buttons together.
While the town leaves some to be desired - The girlfriends, while mainly just fanservice and something of a reputation builder for your hero, all have different personalities, unique character designs, hair color (lol) and are optional. They at least make Monsbaiya not so cardboard.
I also did some meta-gaming, seeing how far Koh himself could get up the tower relying only on his equipment. While they are awesome, the monsters too, are optional to bring out.

The good: There is a lot of things to try in this game. Surely something for everyone. Its got stats like an RPG but honestly, it bridges casual and dedicated rpg players very well.

The bad: I just see so much more that could have been fixed in the town's shops, or ideas for better buildings. Some of them I would walk in once, and never come back.


Difficulty: Ok, so we talked a bit about how the game has a curve, based on luck and whatever you scrounge up, what monsters you have, etc. The game DOES let you continue playing after you die, so there is no true game over, you can beat this game. But some monster types do show more potential than others, and maybe you just can't find their eggs. You could be several floors up from your last milestone, doing so good, and step on the infamous monster trap and you're done for. Your familiar could step on a Go-Up trap (which can be beneficial) robbing you of their help until you can find the elevator up to join them. If thats your only pet, you may be in for a world of hurt.
I'm not saying there are no-win situations, because with a wind crystal, you could go home anytime you want. You can fight the monsters right up until the next hit will kill you - because its turn based, you can flee and know you did as best you could.

The good: Its one of the more gentler difficult rogue-types. And I think that adds to its appeal.
The bad: Don't try to be slick and save in the tower, then come back playing and die.. thinking a reset will start you back where you were. The game is smarter than that. You will lose your stuff. But again, its not so bad.

Final Verdict: 8.8
This is easily one of my favorite playstation 1 games. Azure Dreams is just so fun. I was waiting for Vizzed to have it, just to do this review. Its not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but it tries to do so much, you probably can't help but be charmed by it. Don't you want to read the monster book? Come on, they're waiting for you. 
really like this Azure Dreams, I've owned it for a number of years. While its really addictive, I will be fair and call fouls and missed opportunities where I see them.
Why is it called Azure Dreams? I think, and this is just a guess, but maybe that relates to the hero's quest to see the top of the giant monster tower dungeon, the azure sky, which clearly is looming in the sky like the tower of Babel. But thats just a guess. 

I'm going to do a huge discussion on what gameplay elements are in this unique hybrid style - but if that is too much, and you might be tl,dr.. then let me sum it up for those - Its a fun game. Play it.

You play as the easily-renamed to whatever-you-want Koh, son of the best monster hunter in the whole city of Monsbaiya. The town is in the middle of a desert, and people come from far away to try their hand at catching the rare beasts inside the large, mysterious tower that is within the town's boundaries.  The hero's dad, Guy,  wants to see 
the top of the tower, something no one has ever done. It seems one night he gets his wish, he enters the tower and later a great light shines from the top.  But Guy never comes home. Now that your character is reaching the age of an adult, he wants to set off to find out what happened to his father, and to discover the magic eggs and treasure, and the top of the tower for yourselves!

Azure Dreams combines a dungeon exploring, turn-based combat formula ala Fire Emblem with the collectible and necessary 'pet' feature such as seen in Monster Rancher and Pokemon. Necessary because your tamed monsters are much stronger than you. Unlike Pokemon however, your hero can definitely fight for himself if need be. It may sound like a odd mish-mash, and in some cases Azure Dreams is a little weaker than the sum of its whole, but it succeeds more than it falters. I'll discuss the 3 (!) types of game styles in Azure Dreams, and  then go into the main part of my review with scores.

THE TOWER --- Rogue/explorer type game
This is where all the monsters and treasure are. You always start at level one of the tower and your hero is level one also when you enter it. There is no way to save your hero's level, it resets every time you leave. Magic of the tower, deal. However your monsters keep their levels permanently. See why they are important? You do find lots of swords and shields and such, and items that can increase their value, and this too is permanent. But while you can carry about 20 things out (your whole inventory) you can only carry 5 items in, counting familiars! Why? Magic of the tower, deal.  But what you bring home is yours to keep, As long as you take it home with you.

If you die in the tower (familiar fainting is ok, they will be revived at home), you will go back home, but lose every treasure currently found.

It hurts a lot to lose your best shield, but Azure Dreams is kinder than rogue games like
Fatal Labyrinth, which would just game over you outright even at the start of the game!  Again any pet you have is safe, but not the eggs, as they are not technically yours yet, not hatched.  You have to raise a monster from an egg inside the dungeon to keep them in your inventory. The monsters are quite unique and done extremely well, and any monster you see in the tower - you can get an egg and take home your very own version of them - complete with special powers and some even have magic spells. While it may seem you MUST find an egg to get the monster, that is not always the case. There is an item that will turn a monster into an egg form, but this is quite rare. There are many other items that add versatility to this robust monster collecting as well.

Most of your combat takes place in assorted narrow halls and small to huuuuge rooms- there is no battle screen or special menu you enter for combat. When you see the monster approaching down the way, you can already start plotting what you're going to do. Your monsters have an AI that for the most part does its job effectively. You can directly each monster you own if you wish, but most times its not necessary. As well as monsters to fight, you have to contend with traps. There are many varieties, a few silly, and some downright vicious. Some floors will have no traps, some will have a good 6-8. Fortunately you can find one-shot items that can not only tell you where the traps are, but can also where the treasures are on the floor, and the monsters movement.

The strangest choice I feel they made in the Tower is how you leave. One does not simply 'leave the tower'. You must have one of two items to get out, an Oleem fruit (looks like a blue apple) or (more common) a wind Crystal. You feed the former to a pet, and you use the latter yourself. You will have to use one of your 20 inventory spaces on a wind crystal to insure a safe trip home.  Sometimes you won't find a wind crystal at all! While this can be seen as aggravating, quite often a wind crystal or three are waiting for you in the tower, and it seems the longer your total playtime, the more frequent they become. What can you do with all the excess items? Sell them of course! And what do you do with the money? Well..

Monsbaiya town building - Date sim lite
Upgrading the town is where the city enters a light city-building mode. You merely fulfill enough requests or reach certain points where the citizens will start to ask for your money to help them enrich the lives of the populace. Regrettably, this town revival is largely entertainment purposes only, and doesn't feature as much special shops or allies to help you in the tower as it could have. Building new things does have a lot of influence in attracting several local ladies to woo your time with. Its not a date-sim, however. The most the girls do is fulfill the lots of girlfriends harem routines, often seen in animes with a regular guy surrounded by a large number of  exotic and wildly different women. You win girls over, and rather than going out with one, there is just talk of them fighting over you and maybe a few kisses.
Simple stuff.

But there are rewards to be had. You can upgrade your house quite a bit - which aside from aesthetics, can also allow you to hold more monsters and/or more loot in a bank.
There are a large number of buildings to put in the town, and room enough for all of them, so don't worry  about not having room. Most function as a way to meet a new girl, or offer some very simplistic mini-games. There is also a casino and racetrack, both which 'could' make you money.

This mode, the Monsbaiya/Date style, suffers the most of the 3 modes. Namely, the wooing offers nothing but fanservice and the town is a bit underwhelming for the most part, especially the shops.
The shops for the most part are pretty terrible. You already start with a Monster and Weapon shop, which should be a focus, but sadly are completely disregarded. You don't need the weapon shop if you have any beginner equipment, because thats all they ever offer. If you sell them stuff, you can't buy it back, its gone forever. It would have been good to see this upgrade with your overall game time. 

The Monster shop, the fabled crowded place where people wait months for orders, never, EVER has anything in. Even if you sell it to them, you never see anything for sale. How did you know I was going to sell a Viper egg, store? How is that back order magically filled? A total waste. This would have been a perfect chance to offer you a deal on a random egg if you sold them, say, so many eggs.
Fur's shop is the perhaps most useful, offering tons of paintings, furniture and odd things to decorate your house with, but nothing substantial. For instance you can buy clothes (which look just like what you are wearing), and it does nothing. The fact she sells gifts like flowers and rings makes me think they wanted to put more into the date aspect but just didn't have time or budget. And since Fur the shop owner is one of these ladies to woo, lets talk about the dating pratfalls.

It would have been nice to have, say Selfi, the blue-haired, selfish (see what they did there?), spoiled sorceress, tag along on your quests sometimes. You meet her several times the tower, then she quits going for some reason. The other girls could have offered better healing items, a stat-boosting meal for monsters, or even a way to get money faster in the tower! All of these mentioned play on the strengths of one individual girl's story. Its a shame when they could help with monster raising or loot questions, all the girls do is wake you up in the morning. Uh, I mean, they just come over early to wake you! Come on, I told you its not that kind of game!

Being a rpg-ish game, all this dating lends to talking. But we suffer from a somewhat quiet hero who has little voice, you pick his few comments but there is no voice work in the American version game at all. Many people will be talking to Koh, but he often is left out of the actual conversations. I however, am full of words, if the exposition dump you've waded through is any indication, so lets see how we break down this game in scores, shall we?


Graphics: 7

I know I said I like this game, but its not a graphical powerhouse by any means. I'll discuss in the talk screen graphics, the town's graphics and the biggest part, inside the tower. Since the monster hunting is such a large part of the game, I will cover it last.

The character portraits when you are talking to important people in town, your mother Wreath, the tomboy next-door Nico, your rich rival Ghosh .. they have a distinct, clean art style that is very attractive. I wish all townspeople had this, but there are dozens of regular townsfolk who do not, even an aunt and uncle who have no picture. Also, the dull window the text is displayed in has no way to change fonts, color or be updated to different borders. Shame.

The town itself is OK, its typical PSX graphics at the time, nothing fancy. The windmills look kind of cool but are modeled quite small, and the spinning diner sign is kind of cute. Other buildings, like some shops have a strange sign but no words to read, so you don't know what you are walking into firsthand. You are able to rotate the map 360 around you, and while nice, thats not well utilized - its just: whoopie, you see the back of the temple and it has no doors. There are no characters hiding or secrets to find by playing with the perspective in town, this was something done in 8-bit games like Ultima, and I wish Azure Dreams would have taken advantage of its 360 view better.

Inside the tower, you are given over to the rogue-like random generator. That is, any floor past 2 is done on the fly, and will not have a set map or loot. Could find anything there, could be a series of halls, a big spiderwebs of connectings paths, or one giant, massive room. Who knows? Each time is different, its part of the appeal of rogue-like games. The floors themselves look fine, again, lacking great detail, all bare floors - some have patterns, although there are quite a few different backgrounds that change the further you go up the tower, a new one about every 5 floors. The background while inside the tower(what yousee past the maze of rooms in the foreground) is a strange, trippy spinning design. This is a really odd choice and a bit distracting. Your hero has one simple animation when he attacks, a leaping strike that he does regardless if he has a weapon or not. The items you find on the ground of the dungeon are pretty clean, and pretty easy to tell what the shapes are - the swords and
canes look quite different, for example. The monsters are a bit pixelated, but done fairly well, they are animated and some show a more impressive size than our hero. The players ability to shift the 360 camera is much more important here - as there are small details in the height of floors (more on that later) that can hide items or deadly monsters from certain views.

The monsters, happily, are allowed to shine. They are all quite different in design, temperament and many have special abilities. Like Pokemon, some monsters are able to evolve if kept long enough, and you can also breed them to make a hybrid of both powers. The list is a bit small, about 50 monsters, fairly evenly divided for element they make up - Fire, Water, Wind. The element doesn't always impact on
what the character is - for instance the Glacier monster is of course water, but the strange mole-digging Stealth is air. But its done pretty well, and there are many exotic types to get. The types you have faced off are documented in a book you can access your house, and each page talks about the creature and shows a small picture of it in a natural habitat, suggesting like pokemon - they can be found in the wild.

As you move up the floors, different monster types are present. This is exciting and dangerous, as you now have to learn what each can do to you. And there is one monster that is a rare find and some may never see it come out. Once you find an egg (a HUGE greyish egg, you'll know it when you see it), they are kept in a suspended state in your animal hut, and once/if hatched are totally tame. The wild monsters, however, show some personality in the tower. For instance the Tyrant looks a bit like a scorpion and if stuck in a room for too long, it begins to hop up and down and get mad. The dreaded U-boat is a comical yet deadly submarine-shark that actually sinks into the
floor and follows you, waiting until you stop to attack by surprise.

The good: I like the wide variety of monster types, from the lowly, fun-loving Noise to the powerful Ashura with its many arms. Character anime-style art is super fantastic. The in-game trailer is very nice, although much of it is more impressive than the game's graphics.
The bad: The town doesn't look all that impressive, some of the graphics are a bit murky. And whats with that strange flippy background, is the monster tower, is it having a rave?


Sound: 7
The game has a lot of music, however, I felt the need to mark it down a bit.
Given the game's desert setting, I wasn't too surprised to hear its score has some Arabian influences. I think I detected a qanun in the overture,  which is awesome if they are using middle-eastern instruments. The Overture theme is great, it sounds full of adventure and mystery. Probably the best tune in the game.
Many buildings have their own music; like the moody sitar in the temple, or the upbeat, but oddball dance track in the gym. Each girl and your annoying rival, Ghosh, have their own theme song. This is super cool, but some tunes you are less likely to hear, like Selfi's - you have to be in her tiny front yard  (next to her) to even hear it start. Some, like Fur, it plays when you enter her shop. Again, if some of them had a more important role, hanging out by the monster hut , etc, then they would be heard a lot more. 
The town, the house music and the tower music all have variations. The town music is perhaps the weakest, the tune grows more instruments as you build Monsbaiya up, but many variations sound quite similar.  The tower music really shakes it up and gets a lot of variety, I felt each one made the levels have a different mood. Music is subjective, but thats how I felt. The tracks ranging from adventurous to foreboding; rallying to creepy, to a dangerous, any move could be your last kind of track that sounds so appropriate endgame.

The music isn't bad, but a lot of it isn't especially memorable to me. Its nice they had so many tracks, and I do remember some right off the top, but not as much as I felt I should, given the volume. Maybe they should have had a jukebox for your house, to keep some fresh in mind.
 
The good: All these character driven theme songs! 
The bad: Some of these tunes are just .. there. Some are just 40 second loops. And beyond the overture, none feel really polished.

Addictiveness: 9
Oh man this game may not look super detailed, but its got the fun part down pat. And that what video games should do best. My gal and I took turns playing, and we just could not put Azure Dreams down. Even if you lost your +11 Training Wand and your Diamond Shield, so what. You got your monsters, get back up that tower and see what else is up there. The lure of randomness to the loot is great. In the beginning it might seem unfair, but there will be eggs, and sometimes a super great weapon will just be there, maybe at the beginning of the tower. Grab it and thank your good fortune.
The are a sizable number of side quests too, that you fulfill for the town while in the tower, so you never feel you're doing a fetch quest (but you are) because you were already going up the tower anyway. They are all about finding items on certain floors (or in one case, one monster with the item), and range from getting Guru's oil to power the windmills, to getting a monster collar so you can have 2 monsters out at a time, even a rare medicine to heal one of the girls.
The monster raising has a lot going for it, your little sister keeps a detailed picture book that shows you which ones you have seen in the tower, so you know its name. The fusing of their powers, finding which are best to combine to make unstoppable fighters is a lot of fun. The fact that your basic monsters can still participate in later tower levels (because they raise exp) makes nearly no monster feel worthless when you get that egg. Gotta hatch em all!

The good: Its loot gathering and monster raising! Random every time! Do this!
The bad: I lost a lot of sleep. As good as the game is, I still wish some of the touched on areas(town building) were not so throwaway unimportant and dull. That comedy club routine makes me cringe.

Story: 6
There is a main arc about your lost dad, and the game gives you that at the beginning, when you meet your first familiar, some of the people talk about him. But largely its not brought up again until you're almost at the top of the tower. It is fairly easy to put the romancing, monster raising as the highlight of your life - but to reach the top of the tower just becomes its own goal. I wish the end was done a little better, its not disappointing or anything, but, again, like the date aspect, it feels it could use a bit of polish.
You also get the hilarious and seldom seen effect in video games, to witness the fruits of your labor. How many times have you played rpgs and saved whole countries without so much as a pat on the back? As you advance your town, you get to see humorous things. I won't spoil them for you, but its nice to have your hard work recognized in a game, right? This adds to the story, showing the growing trust in your character. 
Some things are not explained so well. If your dad, Guy, was the super-cool monster hunter.. why are you all living in the same shack you had in the intro flashback? And what is with your rival, Ghosh? He clearly dislikes you for being poor (and other reasons later), but he seems to be just a red herring. I wish a bit more could have been done with him, as he was one of the few characters who is constantly degrading towards you. 

The good: Getting to the top of the tower feels amazing.
The bad:  Rogue-like "Luck" style can be a no go for some gamers, I'm sure. Its a bit unforgiving to some, and to others its generous.


Depth: 8

Azure Dreams clearly wears many hats, and while some fit better than others, its a lot to do and take in. The monster complexities are sublime. Finding clever uses for items you thought only had one use (like the weak ball or the oleem fruit) is possible. And we were halfway done with the beginning of the game before we realized you could throw things by pressing two buttons together.
While the town leaves some to be desired - The girlfriends, while mainly just fanservice and something of a reputation builder for your hero, all have different personalities, unique character designs, hair color (lol) and are optional. They at least make Monsbaiya not so cardboard.
I also did some meta-gaming, seeing how far Koh himself could get up the tower relying only on his equipment. While they are awesome, the monsters too, are optional to bring out.

The good: There is a lot of things to try in this game. Surely something for everyone. Its got stats like an RPG but honestly, it bridges casual and dedicated rpg players very well.

The bad: I just see so much more that could have been fixed in the town's shops, or ideas for better buildings. Some of them I would walk in once, and never come back.


Difficulty: Ok, so we talked a bit about how the game has a curve, based on luck and whatever you scrounge up, what monsters you have, etc. The game DOES let you continue playing after you die, so there is no true game over, you can beat this game. But some monster types do show more potential than others, and maybe you just can't find their eggs. You could be several floors up from your last milestone, doing so good, and step on the infamous monster trap and you're done for. Your familiar could step on a Go-Up trap (which can be beneficial) robbing you of their help until you can find the elevator up to join them. If thats your only pet, you may be in for a world of hurt.
I'm not saying there are no-win situations, because with a wind crystal, you could go home anytime you want. You can fight the monsters right up until the next hit will kill you - because its turn based, you can flee and know you did as best you could.

The good: Its one of the more gentler difficult rogue-types. And I think that adds to its appeal.
The bad: Don't try to be slick and save in the tower, then come back playing and die.. thinking a reset will start you back where you were. The game is smarter than that. You will lose your stuff. But again, its not so bad.

Final Verdict: 8.8
This is easily one of my favorite playstation 1 games. Azure Dreams is just so fun. I was waiting for Vizzed to have it, just to do this review. Its not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but it tries to do so much, you probably can't help but be charmed by it. Don't you want to read the monster book? Come on, they're waiting for you. 
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(edited by endings on 10-12-14 05:22 AM)     Post Rating: 1   Liked By: kramer4077,

10-12-14 06:46 PM
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Another great game review from the lovely ENDINGS! -claps fast- BRAVO, MY GOOD MAN! (don't mind me haha)

I think that this has been your best game review that I have read so far. This is a very nice improvement transition from the previous one that I read from you. As I read from this, you gave me your thoughts about this game and explained it very thoroughly. You stated the purpose of the game title which is very rare to find around these parts.  You described the plot and story of the game in general and how the games goes. I like how you compare this game to other popular games like Pokemon and Fire Emblem so that people can connect to it in this game review. At least the hero can actually fight his own battles in this one so I give that a good bonus. I would never expect to see some sort of dating part in an RPG like this especially during the time when Playstation was popular. It seems very rare to find.

Lots of details in your descriptions for each section. You even added optional sections that require more work and that shows lots of dedication right there. You stated the good and bad about this game. This is over 4000 words like dang man. That's hardcore! If only my laptop was able to play Playstation games, I would like to try this game out. Thanks for convincing me a lot.

Keep up with the great work and I am looking forward to more of your game reviews in the future as always.
Another great game review from the lovely ENDINGS! -claps fast- BRAVO, MY GOOD MAN! (don't mind me haha)

I think that this has been your best game review that I have read so far. This is a very nice improvement transition from the previous one that I read from you. As I read from this, you gave me your thoughts about this game and explained it very thoroughly. You stated the purpose of the game title which is very rare to find around these parts.  You described the plot and story of the game in general and how the games goes. I like how you compare this game to other popular games like Pokemon and Fire Emblem so that people can connect to it in this game review. At least the hero can actually fight his own battles in this one so I give that a good bonus. I would never expect to see some sort of dating part in an RPG like this especially during the time when Playstation was popular. It seems very rare to find.

Lots of details in your descriptions for each section. You even added optional sections that require more work and that shows lots of dedication right there. You stated the good and bad about this game. This is over 4000 words like dang man. That's hardcore! If only my laptop was able to play Playstation games, I would like to try this game out. Thanks for convincing me a lot.

Keep up with the great work and I am looking forward to more of your game reviews in the future as always.
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'

Registered: 01-06-14
Last Post: 2684 days
Last Active: 2433 days

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