Preface: This review is based on the PSP version of Elminage II which was released in 2009. The game was later ported with additional features twice: first in 2010 for the Nintendo DS and then once more in 2017 for the Nintendo 3DS.
The Elminage franchise are Wizardry games in all but name. While there are many Japanese dungeon-crawlers that can lay claim to Wizardry‘s legacy, few have the direct connection that Elminage does. In 1999, Starfish—the developer behind Elminage—had begun working on a set of Japan-exclusive Wizardry games, starting with Wizardry Empire. Across the next six years, Starfish, collaborating alongside the developers Michaelsoft and Bilkensoft, released four more titles in the Empire sub-series before ending their run with Wizardry Asterisk: The Scarlet Seal. Starfish’s next RPG was instead a brand new title, Elminage (エルミナージュ, 2008). Here was a dungeon-crawler that drew from the core systems and structure of Wizardry in ways that were far from unfamiliar. Why then did Starfish not continue working on Wizardry?
In 2011, 4gamer held a roundtable discussion with members of Starfish, FuRyu, and Zero Div. The subject was on the genre of dungeon-crawlers which all three teams were familiar with. Shingo Sonoda, the head of Starfish at the time, revealed that Elminage emerged as a result of the difficulties of working with the Wizardry license, stating “However, with regards to the Wizardry copyright, it’s not the case that one can freely use the license. For that reason, we decided to instead make an original dungeon-crawler and so the Elminage series was born.”1 Although that same year Starfish had worked on a PSP port of Wizardry Empire III, the developer had already been focusing on Elminage and would continue to do so. Elminage II (エルミナージュII, Starfish, 2009) in particular saw Starfish further refining their systems, creating a dungeon-crawler which while certainly resembled Wizardry, introduces enough mechanical changes to demonstrate how Japanese developers had continued playing with the structure of the genre.
Elminage II takes place in Finas Rade (フィーナス・ラーデ), a land protected by the eight divine artifacts bestowed by the goddess Fiona (フィオナ). The peace is not to last. An ancient evil awakens, the artifacts are plundered, and the land falls into darkness. Ragnatia (ラグナスティア), queen of the kingdom Vister (ビステール) and stewardess to Fiona, sends out a call for aid and so arrives the player’s party. Ragnatia entrusts the party with the compass tool which can track the eight divine artifacts, and thus, the party sets out unto Finas Rade.
Like Elminage, Elminage II is non-linear. In order to activate the compass, players must first collect fame by completing side quests. Fame can then be fed into the compass in order to pinpoint the location of a specific artifact. From the outset, there are several towns and dungeons that can be explored where an abundance of quests await. Most quests are simple and merely require the player to visit a dungeon and locate a person, item, or monster. Once enough fame has been acquired, players can then focus on tracking an artifact. How it works is that when inside a dungeon, the party emits a beam of light which takes on one of three colors. If the light is red, then the current dungeon does not hold an artifact. If the light is blue, the artifact is in the dungeon but on a different floor. Finally, if the light is yellow, the artifact is in the dungeon and on the current floor. Obtaining an artifact triggers a boss battle.
Like Wizardry, towns serve as hubs and offer the player several resources. At the tavern, players can organize their party. At the church, party members who have died or have been inflicted with a status ailment, such as petrification, can be restored for a price. Furthermore, the church can be tithed and doing so grants experience points equal to the value of the contribution. The inn hosts several rooms for the party to sleep in, ranging from a stable to a royal suite. The better the room, the more HP is restored. Sleeping also restores MP and allows the party to level up. Here players will also find the alchemy workshop which can be used for a price. If an alchemist is present in the party, at the cost of alchemical materials, players can mutate weapons and armors. While there are limitations to how much alchemy can be performed on a single item, curses can be removed, effects can be added, and statistics boosted. At the shop, items can be appraised, bought, and sold. Finally, at the training hall, new characters can be created, characters can be edited, and classes changed.
At the start of the game, players will likely be spending an inordinate amount of time creating characters, grappling with how they want to role-play. Racial options include Human; Elf; Dwarf; Gnome; Hobbit; Fairy; Were-Beast; Dragon Newt; Devilish; Magic Puppet; Ogre; and Goblin. Classes are split into three distinctions: Warrior, Mage, Cleric, Thief, Alchemist, and Servant are basic classes. Bishop, Hunter, Brawler, Bard; Shaman, Summoner, and Valkyrie are intermediate classes; and lastly, Lord, Samurai, and Ninja are advanced classes. Characters can either male or female and alignment is split between good, neutral, and evil. Some classes are locked behind specific gender and alignment requirements, such as only neutral women being capable of becoming Valkyries. Players who may fret over how the finest details of character creation may impact a character’s performance need not worry. Although certain classes may benefit from characters of a specific race—the fire-breath of a Dragon Newt is always useful—Elminage II is not so strict in this regard. One last point of character creation: The PSP version of the game also brings with it the new face-load feature which allows players to use custom character portraits.
Before players can begin their quest for the eight artifacts, Ragnatia tasks them with securing the jewel ring (ジュエルリング) from Roypes Cavern (ロイペス洞窟). As the first dungeon, Roypes Cavern presents just enough of a challenge. The first floor introduces players to boons, puzzles, and traps, as well as familiarize them with the game’s combat mechanics. A permanent well of water grants access to free healing but players will also need to watch out for the threat of ambushes, dark rooms, falling rocks, and teleporters. Those who are experienced will find the first floor familiar enough and those who are tenacious enough will not find anything to be so unfair. Once the first floor has been completed, players are free to travel anywhere else in the world.
Naturally, some players might venture to the second floor or visit any one of the seemingly other beginner friendly dungeons. While each dungeon presents a difficulty curve indicated by a gauge, players might still find themselves surprised. One early dungeon features one-way doors and invisible chutes that kick the party down to a sub-level where stronger enemies roam, making the return trek to the exit crushingly difficult. Players may end up locating one of the artifacts early on only to then face a boss who will annihilate the party.
There are different approaches to be taken in response to these challenges and like any good dungeon crawler, Elminage II rewards thinking outside the box. A resourceful player may start off by saving enough gold to purchase the Flamberge (フランベルジュ) sword from the weapon shop in Vistelle. This will bankrupt them but in turn exponentially increase the party’s overall damage output. Now, even at lower levels, alchemists are capable of paralyzing enemies and mages too can put them to sleep. With a thief in tow to disarm traps from treasure chests and a little patience, it is entirely possible to dive headfirst into a higher level dungeon and farm what few encounters the party can actually handle, earning them a horde of experience points and much better equipment than could be found elsewhere. As for later exploration, a dungeon requires a puzzle to be solved in order to proceed further? No problem for a high level mage who can repeatedly cast tiomente (ティオメンテ) in battle. With a little hope, the party will eventually be whisked away to an undiscovered set of coordinates, skipping past the puzzle entirely.
To the uninitiated, these suggestions may come across as unsavory methods which break the game’s balance but in truth, these are the only the tactics of a beginner. Players will still encounter enemy formations that seem impossible, ambushes where the party’s mage or cleric are petrified, and traps that are as wicked as the player is cunning—one later dungeon holds a 4×3 room where a single tile offers the pathway forward and ten others will continuously damage the party. This is just part of the appeal of dungeon-crawlers in which the game and players will take turns chewing the other.
Combat also bears its own challenges. Battles are turn-based and both party and enemy formations are split between the front and back row. Whereas magic can freely target anyone on the field, melee weaponry have limited range. The combat in Elminage II rarely lets up, and the game expects the player to have a rounded party that is capable of handling all manner of threats. Over-rely on physical attackers and ghosts will make quick work of the party. Become too dependent on magic and spells will be reflected by the monsters awaiting in later dungeons. There are as many solutions as there are problems, and it is especially towards the end of the game where Elminage II‘s systems and its role-playing elements cohere. My ogre samurai could easily defend weaker party members; my mage could instantly wipe out an entire enemy formation; and my thief could rob enemies of their armor. Alchemy and job-changes add a further layer of strategic depth. Weapons can be given increased damage or they could have extended range. Suddenly, my Dragon-Newt warrior was capable of smashing the enemy’s back-row.
Changing jobs resets a character’s level to 1 and ages them by a single year but it also allows them to carry over learned spells and an increased health pool. My ogre samurai was first a warrior and then a mage which meant they could not only withstand being on the frontline but could also cast spells. My servant was first an alchemist and then a mage and thus had an array of crowd control, support, and damage spells. In contrast, characters who never job-change can equip the powerful “innocence”(イノセンス) gear. By the time I reached the final dungeon, my party members had become the characters that I had envisioned them as. Those looking to further experiment with these systems can engross themselves with Elminage II‘s newly introduced marriage mechanic. Summoners can capture monsters who then serve as additional party members, bearing their own stats, skills, and equipment. Regardless of gender, monsters can marry regular party members and produce offspring whose job, skills, and stats are influenced by both parents as well as the items used for the wedding ceremony. In effect, Elminage II can be played as if it were a generational-change RPG similar to the likes of Oreshika (Alfa System, 1999) and 7: Cavalry of Molmorth (Namco, 2000)!
These array of systems in combination with the game’s approach to dungeon-crawling ultimately means that Elminage II invites players to enjoy its sandbox world. Dozens of quests to complete, loot to acquire, and an increasingly difficult postgame means that it is quite feasible for one to lose themselves here.
Notes
- 御簾納直彦, 4gamer, “ダンジョンRPGを盛り上げるためにどのような変革が必要なのか。「エルミナージュ」「アンチェインブレイズ レクス」「ととモノ。」開発者によるダンジョンRPG座談会,” July 23, 2011.https://www.4gamer.net/games/126/G012656/20110722041/ ↩︎