Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of the Ancient Arts Preview

The guys at GameSpot had the chance to check out both versions of Hudson Entertainment’s upcoming handheld action RPG, Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of the Ancient Arts.

The PSP version of the game gives you a greater number of classes to choose from: fighter, hunter, monk, thief, shaman, and bishop are all on offer. You can also choose among three races: the humanlike izark, the elven ist, and the olff, which is a sort of scaled lizard man with horns and a tail. Of course, your choice of class will primarily determine the sorts of abilities you have in battle, though your racial selection will also have some bearing on the amount of hit points and such that you receive. The game’s leveling works on a point-distribution system, whereby you can dump new points into categories, such as strength, intelligence, and luck. Each class will have a number of special attacks to use, and then you can team up with your allies in some situations to perform tandem attacks, as well.

There are no touch-screen controls in the DS version; you’ll control your guy with the ol’ D pad and buttons (remember those?). The DS version has only three classes (warrior, hunter, and mage) in contrast to the PSP’s six classes, and its three races all appear basically humanlike (though they do affect your stats differently). Strangely, you won’t gain human companions here. In the world of the DS game, people use ancient automatons discovered via archaeological means as servants and helpers, so instead of hiring or recruiting living comrades, you’ll simply shell out some cash to buy a few robots that can fight alongside you. The game also offers a number of different fighting “schools” associated with different animals that you can study in to learn new techniques. You can focus on one school to achieve more advanced techniques or dabble in several disciplines to acquire a broader repertoire of attacks.