Fell deeds awake! Now for wrath, ruin, and...cuteness?
Ancient treasure awaits in the App Store: the 1993 role-playing game Vay has been ported from the Sega CD to the iPhone and iPod touch. Vay is a full-length RPG that boasts an epic quest, hordes of monsters, and even animated video cut scenes with voice acting. Adventurers, your call to action has arrived.
Vay’s story is stock Japanese RPG stuff: Prince Heibelger’s bride-to-be Elin is kidnapped when Danek robots attack the kingdom of Hineloar and lay waste to the prince’s castle. You must guide Heibelger to rescue his beloved and defeat the invaders while collecting treasure, equipment, and fellow adventurers along the way - in short, all the good stuff you expect to do in an RPG.
The iPhone and iPod touch are well-suited to navigating Vay’s world and smiting its denizens. Tapping the screen moves you on the map and interacts with doors and chests, and a double tap makes your characters run. Precise maneuvering can sometimes take a little trial and error - especially if you want to move quickly - but it doesn't detract from the fun too much. Combat is simply a matter of selecting a weapon, item, or spell with a tap, and then tapping the monster or character you want to smack down or heal. Unlike exploration, battles take up your device’s entire screen; we appreciated the extra visual oomph and room to tap.
There’s a lot about Vay that’s familiar, but not everything is as obvious as it should be. Vay offers no documentation, and determining the effects of many items and spells - even a few in-game controls - is a guessing game. Fortunately, Vay lets you save or load a game at any time, so you can experiment with impunity.
Vay might not compare with the latest from Bioware, but it’s just the thing for fans of old-school RPGs on the go.
Vay
COMPANY: SoMoGa, Inc.
CONTACT: www.somoga.com
PRICE: $4.99
REQUIREMENTS: iPhone or iPod touch with 2.0 Software Update
Full-length RPG with all the trimmings. Fun, if familiar, story and gameplay.
No documentation. Quick, precise movement can be tricky.
