When Atlus announced it was going to publish the first "touch-action RPG" for the Nintendo DS, RPG fans rejoiced. Deep Labyrinth brings some much-needed RPG action to the DS and was developed by Masato Kato’s Interactive Brains. Kato is known for his work on Square-Enix hits such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII, and his company has pioneered 3D gaming technology on mobile phones in Japan. In fact, one of the two playable scenarios in Deep Labyrinth is actually a port of the Japanese mobile phone game released in 2004 by the same name. Veteran game composer Yasunori Mitsuda, of Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross fame, also lent his talents to the development of Deep Labyrinth.

The first of the two scenarios in Deep Labyrinth is an original, easier game tailored for beginners and younger players. It begins with the protagonist, Shawn, traveling with his quarrelling parents and his dog Ace. They are forced to pull over due to a flat tire near what the instruction booklet describes as a "mansion," although it looks like a normal residence. Ace bolts for the mansion, and Shawn’s parents follow. When they do not return, Shawn ventures into the mansion himself only to be swallowed up into a mysterious portal. Shawn finds himself alone in a strange world, with only a sword and shield in his hands. Through the course of the game, Shawn will acquire powerful spells, weapons, and items as he tries to locate his family and escape from the labyrinth.

The second scenario is a bit more difficult, with a more mature storyline. It begins with an unnamed protagonist suddenly being teleported to another dimension (the Deep Labyrinth) while speaking on his mobile phone, which is fitting, since this is a port of a mobile phone game. He finds himself facing a gruesome skeleton warrior with nothing at hand to defend himself with. He spots a sword several paces behind the skeleton warrior and then makes a dash for the weapon. After beating back the foe, the hero immediately recognizes a woman from his life trapped in a crystal. Players set out to find out who she is, what her connection to the main character is, and why both of them have found themselves in the Deep Labyrinth.

The two scenarios play the same for the most part. Movement is controlled by the D-pad, while all other actions are controlled via the touch screen, including swinging swords, casting spells, accessing items and interacting with objects and menus in the game. The action and your life and magic bars are displayed at the lower screen, while a map is provided on the top screen. There are menu icons along on the right side of the touch screen which allow for quick access to attacks, magic, defense and your inventory. Tapping the sword icon draws the player’s sword. The sword can be swung either by dragging the stylus across the screen in the manner the player would like to swing (like left to right for a horizontal slash) or by tapping the screen for a random strike. In all, there are eight different sword strikes that can be used in battle, and each enemy has a weakness to a different strike. Tapping the magic icon on the screen brings up a 9-panel grid of squares which players can draw through or tap to draw "kirie," or magic spell words that are learned throughout the dungeon. Spells include attack spells, healing spells and attribute spells which imbue your weapon or armor with special properties. The shield icon draws a shield, which reduces the damage taken when being hit. There is also a pocket icon that allows quick access to five pre-selected items from a player’s inventory. Lastly, the menu icon is where players will equip all of their newly found gear, and check their list of spells and their status. Additional gameplay mechanics include a "dash" technique, which is essentially a poor substitution for strafing, which is achieved by tapping the D-pad twice in the desired direction. You can also lock-on to monsters (and objects) by tapping them, which allows you to continually face a monster until it is defeated.

While this system is a lot of fun at first, the novelty wears off pretty quickly. The sword’s control scheme is not as responsive as it should be, often leading to incorrect strikes or no strike at all. I found myself simply tapping the screen through most of the game because the random attack is faster and easier. Magic has similar problems, as many spells make use of diagonal passes through the grid, making it difficult to accurately draw the kirie in a hurry. It also doesn’t help that the spell names are vague and condensed: a descriptive name like "Resist Ice" would be easier to understand than "Thermaino [RIc]".

I don’t recall ever really using the shield in the game, as the time it takes to tap the shield icon and hold it to keep it drawn, which doesn’t allow access to other menu options. The pocket feature is nice, but again, hard to navigate when in battle, as fights tend to be hectic. This is all compounded by the fact that the lock-on is poorly executed, and breaks away much too frequently. I also cannot figure out why the shoulder buttons were not used for a real strafe instead of the "dash" that doesn’t seem to work half of the time.

Because the controls make it difficult to fight properly, most of my battles involved locking on to an enemy and walking in a circle around them while continually slashing away. The regular enemies, who appear incessantly and reappear when players walk off the screen, never seem to be able to counter this tactic. Some of the bosses are a tad more interesting since many of them are too large for this trick. Instead, they often require that you cast attribute spells to change your weapon element and armor resistance to match up against their strengths and weaknesses before the fight -- the counterintuitive magic system makes it nearly impossible to do so during the battle. Many of the bosses will go down in a few hits if your weapon is properly aligned, but there are a few that require a bit more planning.

Other than that, the game plays pretty much like any first-person RPG. It reminds me of titles like King’s Field on the Playstation consoles. Players explore different zones, which are broken up into smaller areas on the map. All of the zones are connected and can be visited at any time although, thankfully, not a whole lot of backtracking is required. Players will move from area to area, looking for items, spells and keys in order to move on to the next area. Locked doors throughout the labyrinth require keys or spells to open, so it is often advisable to search an entire area for items before moving on to the next one. Fortunately, the mapping system maps out each corridor and room as you explore it, so it’s easy to know which areas have been explored and which haven’t.

The labyrinth is littered with energy-restoring save points, NPCs, monsters, some mic-based puzzles (like shouting "open sesame!") and bright pink treasure chests, which stand out sharply against the darkness of the labyrinth. Microphone bits aside, just about everything is implemented rather clumsily. The treasure chests usually contain traps or healing items, which are useless thanks to a powerful healing spell and numerous save points, but it’s necessary to open every one of them in hopes of finding one of the very few weapons or pieces of armor in the game.

While the dialogue in Deep Labyrinth is mildly interesting and sometimes humorous, there is simply too much of it, often breaking up the flow of the game. In the first scenario, friendly mice creatures scattered about nearly every area of the labyrinth provide long-winded but humorous dialogue. For example, one mice creature rants on about "mic-screamers" when discussing how not to use the microphone to solve puzzles. During the second scenario, enemy monsters provide humorless but interesting chatter as you initiate battle. It beats talking to mice, at any rate. Each save point also offers dialogue between the hero and the NPC who they are responsible for saving, which usually helps advance the story, making it necessary to stop at each one. The scenarios are about seven hours apiece, but they feel longer. The second scenario has a mildly interesting story, but the fact that engaging and disengaging from conversations takes so long, it would have been better if it had been told in fewer words. The endings for each scenario are only 15-30 seconds long, which is a gyp.

At least the game looks pretty good for a DS title. Unfortunately, everything looks the same. During the first scenario, there are about five different zones, including a garden, a dungeon and a forest, yet all of the walls and enemies within each zone look alike. The second scenario, which takes place entirely within a labyrinth, is even more drab and repetitive.

There are similar problems with the score. While Mitsuda’s music is both technically interesting and of very high quality for the DS, there is not enough variation. This is especially apparent in the second chapter, where one song is played through nearly three or four hours of game time. I am a huge Mitsuda fan, but even this was a little much for me to handle.

Overall: 4.5/10
While Deep Labyrinth makes innovative use of the touch screen, it’s a tedious experience plagued with a sloppy control scheme. I really wanted to like this game given the involvement of Kato and Mitsuda, but the entire project was built upon a poorly executed gimmick.