That’s a long title…
Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is a mouthful of a game title, but it also serves up a variable buffet of gameplay goodness throughout it’s 10 hour or so adventure. RoLW assumes that the player has some foreknowledge of its characters and even its world, in my case it assumed incorrectly. Since I ama child of the late 80’s-90’s I am aware of the anime that exist for Record of Lodoss War; I may have even seen it once but I don’t recall anything. I said all of that to say this; even though the game assumes foreknowledge; it is absolutely not necessary to enjoy the game here. Characters like Parn, who fans will recognize as the hero from the original tale will show up with little to no preamble so I “Google-d” some of those characters just to get some backstory; the game tells a self-contained story that about Deedlit, and I only did that to satisfy my own curiosity.
MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99
As I said before Deedlit is the star of the show here, she is a high-elf and as such she possesses inhuman agility and shares a bond with nature thus allowing her to use magic. In the game, Deedlit wakes up in a mysterious labyrinth and sees an illusion of Parn, whom she chases after. The Gray Witch offers Deedlit whatever she desires as long as she swears loyalty to her, a deal that Deedlit ultimately refuses as she delves deeper into the labyrinth. The narrative here works as a stand-alone tale; some pre-existing relationships like the one Deedlit has with her beloved Parn are explained but many things’ players are just supposed to ‘get’ when it comes to various NPC’s that are introduced.
Gameplay in Deedlit in Wonderland is the tried and true ‘Metroidvania” style that more and more indie developers are using. Not to say it’s a bad thing, as I enjoy these types of games very much. From animations to the overwhelming amount of detail in the sprite work, the developers at Team Ladybug seemed to try and emulate the style from my favorite title from the genre: Castlevania: Symphony of Night. The sprawling map is varied enough to keep from being bored at the beautiful environments but its smartly broken up to keep the player from suddenly going from one room to a forest.
Combat isn’t anything special, as players traverse the literal labyrinth they will acquire loot in the way of weapons, armor and the like. Making use of a bladed weapon and a bow, the game does manage to throw some puzzles in to break up the combat. Such as being able to ricochet an arrow in order to get it to cut a rope holding a door closed, and many more. The magic system is where combat gets interesting, Deedlit will gain access to a fire spirit and a wind spirit early in the adventure. She can switch between these two forms at will, while attacking with one she will power up the other and vice versa. Once these are at level 3, Deedlit will gain back any missing health while in the leveled form, until she takes damage at which point the player will need to defeat enemies to power it back up. During gameplay the correct usage of each form will be important to not only navigate the environment but also defeat various boss encounters.
Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is a pretty good game overall, while its story is simple and its gameplay not terribly difficult most experienced gamers can knock it out in 7 hours or so. The game boasts some great graphics due to the awesome sprite work, and it has an extremely catchy soundtrack; which is always a nice bonus. I think Team Ladybug managed to put out a game that has something for quite a varied audience. Those that are fans of the novels or anime series will surely find something to love, but those of us who enjoy ‘metoridvania’ type games will find a lot to appreciate as well; and who knows maybe even turn the next generation of fans onto Record of Lodoss War as a whole.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.