Cladun X2

As we head back into the dungeon Tiffany 20-XX equips her wand - she thinks to herself, "maybe now that I've entitled it with water I'll beat those fire dragons." Adam Type Infinite stays silent, sharpening his blade while his loyal pets, Boots Bot and King Sam, grasp their respective bow and spear. Mr. Generic, the man created with little foresight rocks back and forth nervously - will his dagger save him from obscurity?

That is my story. Think it sucks? Thanks to fantastic editing tools that easily allow you to draw characters, weapons, armor and shields, you can create your own in Cladun X2, a recent NIS release for the PSP which retails for twenty dollars and is worth every penny. When you think Cladun X2, think customization. From editing songs to personality types, you can lose as much time playing in the game as actually playing the game. You can also share you creations, albeit ad-hoc, with your fellow adventurers.

When you think Cladun X2, also think replayability. Its dungeons are limitless. In addition to the main quest you can test your might in both Ran-geons and Tri-geons (Tri-geons are longer and harder than Ran-geons), which are random dungeons with "gates" - a gameplay addition outside main questing. Each level has at least one gate and not every level has an exit. The type of gate; e.g., Angel, Devil, Gamble, determines the difficulty of the next level's monsters, drop and rare item rates and can even re-charge your party's health or magic. Gates keep dungeon crawling interesting.

The main quest's story will not win a pulitzer prize, but it is engaging in a wacky sort of way. As far as I can tell, your hero has been exiled to a land of limitless dungeons because of an immoral act committed in the world above. The land includes other exileds, weird chicken/egg things (who run the shops and tavern) and even an evil talking dog. Humor is peppered throughout, for instance, stand on the ship's bow and a Titanic joke will be thrown your way. Small chuckles are hidden throughout the land.

Unique to Cladun X2 are its magic circles. In short, while you adventure with more than one companion, you only see and control one character at a time. Your other adventures are with you, in a metaphysical way. Adventurers are placed in your magic circle wherein you buff their stats and your own strategic item placement. Make sure their placement suits their needs, such as quicker experience gain and protects your needs. Adventurers share the damage incurred when your are hit. You can switch your main adventurer as long as you are not dungeon crawling.

Setting up a magic circle is a little confusing. In fact, "confusion" is my major gripe with this game. It is complicated (it seems like you'll need a PhD to use the music editor) and its tutorials are just okay. Fifteen hours in and I still have lingering questions about certain core gameplay mechanics; e.g, how is mana spent in those magic circles? If you lack patience or are easily frustrated by menus filled with important statistics, this may not be the best game for you.

Grinding. It's there and unavoidable. You are encouraged to re-play dungeons with multiple characters as different skill attributes are prioritized depending on whether your character is the main adventurer. There are even speed runs. You beat the "goal time" and you gain fame, which in turn gives you greater access to individuals (and presumably items) in the land. Thankfully, the hackng, slashing, weapon and enemy variety ensure dungeon crawling never gets too stale.

The screenshots speak for themselves. The game revels in its 16-bit attitude and it works. The character and enemy art are reminiscent of Earthbound - a good thing.

All in all, if you do not like Japanese quirk, this game is not for you. But, if you enjoy dungeon crawling, loot collecting, leveling up and a fair challenge then you should seriously consider shelling out twenty dollars for this fine PSP release. I recommend you purchase it, just like I did.