Their most recent batch of efforts comes with a series of made for eShop games, the sequel to the hit Guild01 collection, Guild02. The new series of games got off to a somewhat inauspicious start with The Starship Damrey, a game with some great atmosphere and some good ideas that lacked in execution and the value proposition, but they seem to be back on track somewhat with this newest game.

Notice I say somewhat. Like its immediate predecessor, Attack of the Friday Monsters is a game with an incredible atmosphere, and a nice story to tell. Also like its immediate predecessor, however, it is a $7 game that would barely last you a full three hours. That, when all is said and done, is its biggest failing, because everything else, the game does exceptionally well.

It’s a charming game, that recreates the atmosphere of 1970s Tokyo almost disarmingly well, and lulls you in with its lovely graphics, its great soundtrack, and its wonderful characters, as you try and figure out the central mystery of the eponymous Friday Monsters. The game has all the wonderment and the sense of discovery that everyone probably remembers from childhood, as you begin to wander around rural Tokyo one summer afternoon, discovering the full city as your playground, making new friends, and trying to cope with the simple task that every child must eventually tackle- drawing the line between one’s imagination and one’s reality.

" The feeling of discovery, of amazement, of wonderment, of there being something more, possibly sinister, just beyond the surface, are all recreated wonderfully well in this game."

The game’s plot is replete with pop cultural references that you probably wouldn’t understand unless you lived in Japan in or around this specific time period, and the story might often be slowed down or get confusing as a result, but the core themes, the underlying themes are themes that all of us should identify with strongly, as they speak to our childhood. The feeling of discovery, of amazement, of wonderment, of there being something more, possibly sinister, just beyond the surface, are all recreated wonderfully well in this game.

The actual gameplay part of the game is sparse, like The Starship Damrey. Most of the game consists of conversations, that enhance the game’s excellent characterization so much, and there is also a nice card based battle system to engage your attention, even though the actual battle system is a pretty simple rock-paper-scissors system that relies on pure guesswork more than anything else. Like the actual rock-paper-scissors game, you have to make your own selection, and guess what your opponent will select. There’s not a whole lot of skill, then, like I said, but it does make for a nice change from all the walking around and talking to people that the game otherwise entails.

It’s probably just as well, then, with a gameplay foundation so thin, that Attack of the Friday Monsters doesn’t last more than two to three hours- how would the game’s gameplay mechanics possibly be able to support a full length game? The game would become unbearably shallow and repetitive, in spite of its oodles of charm.

"As it stands now, it is still a great game, but it is, after all, up to you to decide whether you want to spend $7 on a game that is barely longer than the average Nolan blockbuster."

And on the whole, I agree with that premise; I just wish that the game had actually been priced accordingly as well, because $7 is too steep a price considering how little is on offer, even if that little is incredibly well don. It’s disappointing, especially considering the value proposition of other eShop games, such as Crashmo and Level 5’s own Crimson Shroud. It’s disappointing that they have then, slipped up twice since then, first with The Starship Damrey, and now with Attack of the Friday Monsters.

The difference between that game and this, however, is that while The Starship Damrey was a fundamentally flawed game, Attack of the Friday Monsters is not. It is a sweet, charming game that is a great experience, and at a lower price would be recommended to all 3DS owners without hesitation. As it stands now, it is still a great game, but it is, after all, up to you to decide whether you want to spend $7 on a game that is barely longer than the average Nolan blockbuster.

This game was reviewed on the Nintendo 3DS.

It figures, then, that their second batch of 3DS eShop games, developed in collaboration with well known Japanese game designers, same as the last batch, would be excellent too. And so, we find that The Starship Damrey, the first game in the Guild02 collection that is scheduled to hit the 3DS eShop over the next few weeks, is an intriguing, if somewhat obtuse and consequently alienating, game that caters fully well to old school game design sensibilities.

How do I describe Starship Damrey? The most ready genre classification that comes to mind is that it’s an old school puzzle adventure game, but that would really be missing the point. Honestly, I would classify it more as an interactive visual novel than anything else- think 999. And like that cult hit DS game, The Starship Damrey too has a science fiction laden horror story. With incredibly moody graphics, aided by a great soundtrack, the game builds a tense atmosphere that, if played in the right circumstances, can be nerve wracking.

Of course, the atmosphere is held back greatly by the simple fact that the game’s graphics are crude and primitive. There is something to be said for visual simplicity, of course, and a lot of games utilize it to great effect, like Journey, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, or New Super Mario Bros. The Starship Damrey, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to pull the trick off that well, and we are left with a game that at best looks like a late generation Nintendo 64/Playstation title, replete with jaggies and bad textures.

Another graphical shortcoming that the game has, but one that is perhaps a deliberate choice, is its draw distance. In this game, you are navigating a derelict vessel in space, one with a complete system failure (more details of the story will be kept to a minimum in this review, as the plot is perhaps the best part about the game). In the absolute pitch blackness, you are tasked with exploring the ins and outs of the ship using nothing but a flashlight. Your flashlight has a small radius within which you can see, and everything beyond it is completely out of sight. It’s unnerving, and gives you the feeling of stumbling around blindly in the dark, and is perhaps the greatest aid to the game’s atmosphere.

The actual gameplay itself is a blend of this exploration and basic puzzles. You move from room to room, controlling an old robot (which can only move in 90 degree angles), controlled by the D-pad, trying to solve the puzzle to move into the next room. As you progress through the rooms, you happen upon clues that let you reconstruct the catastrophe that must have struck the ship.

The Starship Damrey is a heavily linear game- essentially you go where the game wants you to go, and nowhere else. You can’t decide to step off the path and explore, you can’t get ahead of yourself. You’re supposed to do each carefully constructed room, one at a time, and that’s it. The game reduces player agency to a minimum in its attempt to deliver its story to you. It works, but it comes off more as an interactive novel than anything else, even though it has, ostensibly at least, more ‘gameplay’ than the typical visual novel.

However, what this also does is greatly reduce the game’s replayibility. Coupled with the game’s cripplingly short play time- I’d be astonished if it took the average player more than three-four hours to finish this- and you’re not left with a game that you’ll be playing a whole lot. A couple well placed sessions to finish it, and that should be it.

If the game were priced properly, this would not even be that much of a problem. But priced as it is at $7.99, it becomes a hell of an ask for most players. Parting with eight bucks for a game that you can essentially finish in a single sitting is not exactly the most reasonable demand.

Personally, I think the story is great and the atmosphere the game builds is brilliant. This is not a game i would ever return to, and it has a lot of problems, but it certainly is one that I would ask everyone to give at least one shot. The question then would be, just how willing are you to spend $8 on a game that will be shorter than the length of an average Call of Duty campaign? I viewed this as a movie I bought the ticket to, so $8 for three hours didn’t seem so bad then.

But if you really don’t want to spend that kind of money on such a short game, then by all means, hold on to your cash. As Level 5 has demonstrated, they will put their games on sale later to sell them (it happened with the Guild01 games). In the meanwhile, there is a lot of other stuff on the 3DS, and hell, on the eShop, that you could be looking into. Might I suggest you start with Crimson Shroud, which is, yep, another excellent Level 5 game for the platform?

This game was reviewed on Nintendo 3DS.

Level 5 Intertanional America announced today that they will be releasing a Japan Game Collection GUILD02 to North America and Europe.

Level 5 is a renowned developer best know Professor Layton and the latest PS3 Exclusive RPG title Ni No Kuni. Level 5 will be releasing three titles for the Nintendo 3DS  and Nintendo eShop. The three titles are The Starship Damrey, Bugs vs Tanks and Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale.

Each title will be downloadable through the Nintendo eShop. Also, as a thank you to gamers who have supported the innovation and creativity design that the series offers, Level 5 will be including exclusive bonus “linked” content in each of the new releases for players who have save data from Liberation Maiden, Aero Ported or Crimson Shroud on their Nintendo 3DS system.

In Celebration with the brand new releases in the series in North America and Europe, all three games listed above will be on sale from April 18th – May 30th. Liberation Maiden and Crimson Shroud will cost $4.99 as opposed to its original price.