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Throne of Darkness is in no ways perfect, but it's darn near close, in my opinion. In design aspects, ToD seems to blend some strategy into the classic Diablo hack-and-slash formula. This blend makes ToD different enough from Diablo II NOT to be considered a clone.

Gameplay

Throne of Darkness is addictive. That's probably the most noticable attribute after playing for the first two hours. After that, you begin to enjoy the game even more.

When I played the demo of the game, I thought it was missing a lot of things, and it was. But the final product really fixed the problems within the demo. The demo really gives players a false impression of the game, and a few of the problems have actually been fixed.

The demo obviously lacked a save game, but for those that don't know, the game saves at any time that you wish and will restore you and your samurai to their exact positions. Also, the demo was so clausterphobic that tactics didn't seem to work, but it's more clear once you play the real game.

It's also definitely easier to attack enemies, and you can now hold down the mouse button. The gameplay also features tons of items that are customizable, as well as unique and magical items that can be furthur customized as well.

There are obviously more spells as well, and the game features a wide variety that prove to be more interesting than I expected. There are those that speed up attack, scare away enemies, etc...

ToD's tactics system is fantastic. When you have four samurai out there with you, you NEED tactics. Once you get used to it, the tactics system feels right, and does right as well.

Graphics

The game's graphics look MUCH better than from the demo. Characters look sharper, the lighting is obviously present, and enemies are clearer. The game has a good blend of transparencies since it is in an isometric view, and the walls hardly get in the way.

The spells look great, with the weak ones looking sharp and smooth. Attacks are also good, but the game's graphic style takes away from the immediacy of the attack, and it can appear to be delayed.

Interface

This is the reason the game gets a 9, but I must say that although the interface is annoying at times, it's better than what it could have been. Moving things around inventory is rather inconvenient, and I dislike how items move around automatically. It's confusing and it doesn't seem to work all the time. However, considering that you manage four samurai at once, Click did a good job of designing a tolerable interface.

The Ki and Health orbs are nice and large, as are the spell and tactic buttons, although most people will be using shortcuts around them anyway.

Sound

I've been playing the game with the volume quite low, but it sounds great anyway. The music is in its setting, as are the sound effects. The speech is also relatively well done, and is not annoying (#1 most important thing about speech, IMO).

Replayability

With customizable weapons and multiplayer, the game appears to have good replay value. However, I haven't played the game that much, so I can't tell you if it has any kind of lasting value that Diablo II has had.

Overall

ToD hits upon where Diablo II lacked. Having four samurai is more interesting than one character, but the player must remember that in ToD, the player is not raising a character, but a group. The group must take it's own personality on, and it's up to you to choose being a melee powerhouse or a long ranged bombing squad, or perhaps the perfect balance. Whether or not you want to be any of these, you'll have to switch characters in and out, as they are much more fragile than in Diablo II, since of course, you have seven of them in total.

I also feel bad for comparing the game to Diablo II. It's really a different game, that offers more of an experience even in single player. It's much more involved and requires much more strategy as well. Personally, I think that ToD offers more than Diablo II, but I'm not sure how accessible the game is to many people because of the Japanese themes and the fact that the weapons are more difficult to figure out because there are no ''King's Swords'' or ''Stone of Jordans'' at this point... We'll just have to see... :)


Also, a note for demo players: You have to find the priest and blacksmith... I was pretty surprised how different the game plays without those two for just the first level or so...

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