Nippon Ichi Software or NIS, the creators of Disgaea and Phantom Brave, released a retro-style RPG for the PlayStation Portable entitled Cladun: This Is An RPG!, will this game be a hit despite having retro-style graphics?
The storyline was pretty simple, two adventurers fell into the world of Arcanus Cella, a not-your-average magical world, where they meet different people in that world and started their own adventure in Arcanus Cella. A fun part here is that you watch the end by leaving the world through a cave, even at a start of the game, but of course the ending varies as you progress into the game. The script in the game is pretty hilarious, with different punchlines and references from popular pop cultures.
Cladun, which stands for Classic Dungeon is a dungeon crawling RPG that pretty reminds you of 2D Zelda games. But that doesn't mean that Cladun is just a copycat game, the game features a random generated dungeon that reaches up to the 99th level (but of course that part is just optional) and also a deep character development system called the Magic Circle, where you place your sub characters in a slot along with some stats boosting items to attach, there are also different sets of magic circles to suit your character class, and you can experiment with the system to create your ultimate character, but do take note that the other characters that you added in the Magic Circle will gain experience at any battle as well sharing a single HP with your main character, and if any of the character dies in battle, you will a portion of the stats that were allocated from that particular character. Your sub characters will gain stats when they level up but your main will only gain HP bonuses when it levels up, so you have to switch your main to a sub character in order for it to gain bonus stats.
Another cool feature is that you can design your own character, from pixel to pixel, if you are the creative type, you can generate your favorite characters from other games in classic 8-bit design, and another cool part, you can get to choose which final boss you will going to face in your final showdown.
The graphics are all in classic 8-bit style design. this will definitely give the old-school gamers a nostalgic feel on Cladun, but players who are in the 3D-era might be a bit turned off when they see the retro-style graphics.
The music in Cladun was also good, aside from that you can choose from the original version or the classic 8-bit tune version which will complete your classic gaming experience.
There is also a multiplayer function which includes a co-op mode and a deathmatch mode that will give more ample time to enjoy Cladun with your friends.
Cladun is one great RPG that'll give 20+ hours of game time and it doesn't even include the optional dungeons, add taht up and that'll will double your game time. This is definite must-have for classic gaming lovers but some RPG fans might get mixed reactions because of the complexity of the Magic Circle system and with the 8-bit graphics, but overall Cladun is still one decent RPG.
Game Rating: 8 out of 10
Cladun: This Is An RPG! was developed and published by NIS
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