Review: Adventure Bar Labyrinth

Posted by angelcruz2241991 on July 27th, 2013 | 9 Comments | Tags: Adventure Bar Labyrinth

Not many games can engross me for hours and hours upon end. Usually boredom sets in, and I want to go do something else. Adventure Bar Labyrinth is one of the few games that can keep me engrossed. It’s a turn-based RPG, with a little storyline, and awesome adventuring. It makes you really want to see what is at the end of that labyrinth. It’s got everything that an RPG needs to be good, and a little bit more. Simply put, I love it.

You are Lidia, who runs a small bar with her friends. She is also an adventurer, who is tasked by the king and queen of her village that she need to find the secret treasure at the bottom of a labyrinth. To do that, she first needs to find the permit at the bottom of a 11 floor training dungeon. This is basically your tutorial level. Everything in the game is explained to you by the soldiers before you head out, and the game will give you pointers as you first roam around the dungeon. Everything is explained very well, and makes you feel right at home with the controls. You can really understand how the entire game works within the first few minutes.

After completing that, the game really begins. You will have access to the famed labyrinth, and you can head off right away, once learning some things you can do to prepare for your spelunking adventure. You can find food items down in the cave, such as chicken, and bread crumbs. These are transported back to the bar, where you can cook yourself up some food to level up your character before heading out and possibly give her some status boosts. It’s a fun little thing to do, and something you will really need if you want to go far in this game. Besides that, you also have the storehouse. When you die in the labyrinth, you lose EVERYTHING. Your items, XP, and any perks you gave your character. The storehouse is a place you can put certain items to keep for later adventures. Once again, you need it and it will come in handy later in the game.

Okay, now let’s go adventuring! ABL works just like any other turn-based RPG, you run around, fight enemies, pick up random stuff, all with the overriding goal to get to the bottom of the maze. In only a few seconds of walking around, when you will encounter your first enemy. They are all pretty easy at first, but they get to be really hard the deeper you go. The enemies are all pretty diverse, and have different special attacks, some of which can be really annoying. The fungus enemy is one of the worst. He has a sleep powder attack, and he can use it as many times as he wants. Sleep lasts for a few turns, so if he does an attack that does damage and then keeps using his sleep powder, you go from full health to dying from one enemy. Another enemy that you need to watch out for is the skeleton. His special move will zap a level from you, making you have to regain all the XP over again. The items you can find are pretty great as well. I had fun seeing what all of them did, and choosing which items to keep and which to toss were the toughest decisions I had to make in the game.

Eventually, you will make it pretty deep. Enemies get hard, your stomach meter is dangerously low, and you don’t have any more recovery potions left in your inventory. If you didn’t notice, the game is free, and here is where the in-app purchases come in to play. You can buy gems and do a few things with them. If you want, you can save your self early and purchase an item from the gem store. Here you can find pretty much every item in the game. Or, if you decide not to, you can revive yourself for 30 gems after you die. This is the first game ever to make me want to get an IAP, but I haven’t caved (yet…). Also, most games with IAPs like this bother me, but with the amount of content you are receiving for free, they really isn’t an issue.

As you can tell from the images, the game has a reto looking art-style. I really like it and it suits the game very well. However, I wish I could have seen more of the screen, as the virtual buttons really got in the way. As you can see there are giant colorful buttons on either side of the screen, blocking some of the game. They’re kind of an eyesore, especially on the Vita, where you don’t even need them. I wish you could have at least been able to remove them, because they are not necessary. Aside from the art, the soundtrack was wonderful. It was the perfect music to go dungeon crawling to, and when it changed to the tense music while in a monster lair, it really got me nervous.

Adventure Bar Labyrinth is a great game. It has everything a good turn-based RPG needs, and more. If you have a Vita or PlayStation Certified device and PlayStation Mobile is available in your region, be sure to check it out.

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. For more info on our review policy click here. This review is for the PlayStation Vita version of the game.

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