
These latter tiles are shaded a dark grey, compared to the inky blackness of the other unrevealed tiles. To reveal more of it, the player must click on tiles which are laterally adjacent to tiles which have been revealed. Everything else in it is shrouded in darkness. When the player starts in a dungeon, the only thing which can be immediately observed about a dungeon it is the size of the level. This statement will be elaborated in later sections, when the relevant complaints are brought up.ĭUNGEON EXPLORATION – STARTING A DUNGEON: What is awful though is the way that the game goes about adapting the factors of luck in dungeon crawlers to this format. Of course, this is in itself is not a bad thing. having to tap on large buttons and tiles to do anything). However, this is a dungeon crawler that tries to be sophisticated while trying to fit the limitations and control schemes of mobile platforms (e.g.

It would seem that such gameplay is not very far from that of a dungeon crawler. The player character would either be stopped dead by these, or become stronger and more capable of dealing with the greater threats below. As the player does so, he/she would uncover treasures, enemies and traps, among other things. In gameplay terms, this means clicking on unrevealed tiles. The player’s objective is to find the exit to the next level, but the exit is always hidden. Generally, the view of each dungeon is initially hidden from the player.
#Runestone keeper elf series
There are a series of procedurally generated “dungeons”, which is the game’s term for levels. The following is a brief description of the overarching gameplay in this game. Unfortunately, the player has to play the game a lot in order to know about these, and the game is too obscure for there to be many videos about its story. These often contribute to the challenges in the finale, and might also determine the ending of a successful playthrough. In addition to this set-up, there are many secondary plot-lines which the player may come across upon triggering “event” tiles (more on these later). As for the player character, his/her goal is to delve into the deepest parts of the realm, in the hope of finding and slaying whoever is masterminding this sordid existence. Supposedly, their only purpose is to collect the eponymous runestones, which are said to be the only things in the underworld realm that has true power. Whenever they are killed, they would be revived later. This is because the player character would fall down a hole into a subterranean realm where there is little chance of knowing about what is on the surface.Īnyway, in this realm, the player character and other denizens are doomed to a life without true death. However, this world is not depicted in the introduction, but it would not matter much anyway. The player character is a person which seemingly lives in a world with a fantastical setting.


The tutorial will not teach everything, and more importantly, does not show how significant luck is to the gameplay. Unfortunately, any complexity which the game seems to have is little more than contrivances due to the prevalence of luck in much of the gameplay. After all, the action takes place on a rectangular grid with tiles which are initially hidden from the view of the player, who has to click on them to reveal them. To an unsuspecting computer-centric player, it might even seem to have elements of the classic Minesweeper. Understandably, this depth would make it marketable on other platforms, such as the computer. However, its gameplay mechanisms suggest a depth that is far beyond that of most other mobile titles which use the touchscreen extensively. Runestone Keeper, developed by China-based team Blackfire, is an example.ĭeveloped first for the mobile platforms, it would seem to be yet another tapper title. Sometimes, there are game developers who may have stumbled onto a great idea, but do not realize its potential. By Gelugon_baat | Review Date: January 9, 2017
