NIS America continues to develop original role-playing games that stand out from the rest. ClaDun X2 is a sequel to ClaDun: This is an RPG!, released last year for the PSP.
ClaDun X2 centers around the secret garden world of Arcanus Cellas. Once someone enters this world, they never see their homeland again. As a visitor to this land, you are left to explore its dungeons and interact with its townspeople.
As the game begins, you are prompted to design your adventurer. The process is simple and requires you to choose your adventurer’s gender, fighting class, and name. The fighting classes include the following: Warrior, Saint, Guardian, Ranger, Merchant and Swordmage. You can also choose from twenty preset characters during the creation process. Character complexion can be changed by pressing the Triangle button. Hair color can also be changed by pressing the Left and Right trigger buttons. Once this process is completed, you are sent into the world of Arcanus Cellas for a brief tutorial on combat.
The garden world of Arcanus Cellas has not changed much since the previous ClauDun. Like before, the Pub allows players to create party members and to customize the party’s physical appearance.
The drawing system is simple; it’s basically a sprite editor with a color palette and drawing tool. Using a pencil drawing tool, the player can redraw (or change) a party member’s face. Different colors are available from a selection tool. It sounds complicated, but it really isn’t. Changes can be saved and will appear on the character during gameplay. Character creation resembles the same process from the beginning of the game.
Arcanus Cellas also includes a boat off the coastline with multiple vendors/helpers and a weapon shop to buy, sell and trade items. The boat’s main attraction is the Title Shop. The Title Shop allows you to attach and remove titles to and from armor, weapons, and shields. When this feature is used, gear that is transferred to the shop will be lost, but the titles on each item will be added to your total title count. Basically, collecting multiple copies of titles will overwrite titles onto different equipment. The higher a title’s number designation is, the more copies you need to transfer to use it.
Most of your time will be spent exploring the dungeons of Arcanus Cellas. Trial Island and Initiation Woodsea will be the first of many locations to explore. Aside from having vicious creatures, the dungeons also have numerous floor traps that appear as semi-transparent floor tiles. The traps can include anything from spikes to fire, and they can be easily overlooked if you are not paying attention.
The dungeon objectives require certain creatures to be killed so that certain doors can be opened to reach the exit. In some cases, weaker creatures need to be dealt with before reaching the boss. The creatures are an odd assortment of blobs, giant bullfrogs, lizard men, and boars just to name a few. The further you venture into the dungeons, the stranger the experience becomes.
As an action RPG, ClaDun X2 does a great job of delivering quick-and-easy combat and solid controls. Interestingly enough, the analog stick is not used for movement. The directional pad is required for movement, and while some PSP gamers feel that the PSP’s directional pad is inadequate, it works quite well in this case. As for button placement, the Square button blocks (if a shield is equipped), X button jumps, Circle button swings your weapon (rapidly tapping the Circle button will perform combos), and Triangle button can be assigned to special attacks and / or magic.
ClaDun X2 uses a unique magic system called The Magic Circle. This system resembles a parchment with circles and squares adjacent to one another. The purpose of the Magic Circle is to increase your character’s attack, defense, mana, and hit points. Artifacts found along the way can be placed in the squared locations to boost stats.
The main character is placed in the center circle, and depending on the Magic Circle being used, additional characters can be added to the outside circles as shields. Basically, they become damage absorbers. Additional Magic Circles can be earned as your character levels up. The magic system is intuitive and easy to understand. Once an artifact is found, it’s as simple as selecting a location on the Magic Circle and then choosing the item from your inventory. Simple and to the point.
ClaDun’s 8-bit retro graphics look surprisingly well on the PSP’s small screen. Compared to the original, the backgrounds and sprites seem to retain more definition and color. Allowing gamers to choose between retro and real music is also a plus, and it gives gamers a choice on how they want to experience the game.
ClaDun X2 is a wonderful game. It’s easy to understand, fun to play, and it offers countless hours of dungeon exploring. The character creation system alone offers endless possibilities. Gamers looking for a new role-playing game should check out ClaDun X2 by NIS America; it’s time and money well spent.
Mike Pittaro
Platform: Sony PSP (Available on PSN)
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: NIS America
ESRB: T (Teen)
Price: $19.99
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Graphics |  |
| The graphics are an improvement over the original. | |
| Sound | |
| ClaDun X2 has beautiful music. Even the retro music is worth listening to. | |
| Gameplay | |
| There are plenty of dungeons to explore and a character creation system that offers limitless possibilities. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Gamers looking for a new experience should check out ClaDun X2. | |
#1
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#2
Good review, keep up the good work!