NOTE: This review is based on the initial Steam Early Access version of Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth and not a final, finished version of the game. Changes will likely be made before final release of this title.
I’m a huge fan of Record of Lodoss War. For the uninitiated, Record of Lodoss War is an anime series released in 1990, based on replays of D&D campaigns from 1986 and the later novelizations from 1988. The anime is pure Dungeons & Dragons, and it’s unfathomably awesome. Even 20 years ago, the original art cels from the anime were reaching thousands of dollars and the show has been continuously available since the days of VHS. The artwork is gorgeous, character designs are amazing, and the story, especially of the original OVA (Original Video Animation), is spectacular. Record of Lodoss War has spawned a whopping 10 video games as well, although only one has been officially released in English, Record of Lodoss War for the Sega Dreamcast. Or, that was true until now!
Out of nowhere, Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit In Wonder Labyrinth from Why So Serious? and Team Ladybug has appeared on Steam’s Early Access courtesy of Playism. I nearly choked when I saw it. A new original, licensed Lodoss war property that looks fun? What parallel universe is this? But it’s absolutely true. After a twenty year hiatus, we have a new Record of Lodoss War game available for Steam and perhaps coming to consoles down the road! What the hell is Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth though?
Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth follows the exploits of Deedlit, an elf girl and one of the main protagonists of the Record of Lodoss War OVA. She’s landed in an unexplained dungeon for no apparent reason with no idea of what’s happening. From there you simply play the game, which is a 2D Metroidvania style game with significantly heavy Castlevania: Symphony of the Night influences. I’ve said this about a few games lately, but it seems like a lot of devs are heavily influenced by Iga’s magnum opus since it’s become available again on modern consoles. Either way, Deedlit pretty much controls just like Alucard and you strike out to find out what’s happened.
Again like SOTN, Lodoss (easier to shortform that incredibly long title) uses a map screen to map progress. From room to room, you can see where you’ve been, see save and warp points, and manage your inventory. You also acquire weapons from enemies as well as from hidden rooms and areas. In fact, overall, this is basically a Lodoss skin on SOTN, which is pretty great, if a bit derivative. There are a few differences though.
The key difference is in the use of elemental spirits. You can switch (currently) from air to fire and back again, once you find the wind and fire spirits. Kill enough enemies and your wind and fire ratings go up. Kill enemies with wind active to raise your fire attribute, and vice versa. Once you’ve reached level 3, you automatically heal hit points. Rather handy. After you get the Will O The Wisp magic spell and the bow, you can start using your magic points too, and those regenerate no matter what, but much more slowly. The wind spirit allows you to fly as well, and you can even navigate and use a weapon while flying, although it’s a bit challenging on the Xbox controller.
It’s important to remember that this is an unfinished game in early access and estimates currently range around the 4 month mark to finish it, though that could be longer. What there is of the game is awesome as all hell, but there are a few flaws. One big one is that the game is incredibly short. If you’re good at these sorts of games, we’re talking maybe an hour to an hour and a half and you’ll have explored the entire game that’s currently available. There are some locked doors that you simply can’t access and the game just stops once you get to a certain point. There are a handful of hidden rooms, but you don’t get much out of them and you can only upgrade weapons and levels so far. It’s more like a demo than anything else, but it’s definitely a fun one!
Enemies in Lodoss have that Japanese edged Dungeons & Dragons look to them. They’re well-designed and have solid attacks. Some enemies aren’t vulnerable at all until you reach a certain level, so dodging enemies isn’t recommended. Learn their patterns. Fight it out every time. They respawn every time you re-enter a room similarly to Hollow Knight, making it easy to level up. There are some bow and arrow puzzles that can be a bit irritating until you realize you can fly while firing a bow if you have the wind spirit equipped, so don’t give up if something seems impossible!
Bosses are fantastic in Lodoss, especially the first one you encounter. Complex sprite patterns, gorgeous animation, and cool attacks make boss fights a spectacle. Again however, this is an early access game and there are some hitches. Turns out you can spam the crap out of your wind magic, essentially halting gameplay during a boss fight and constantly hitting them, draining their lifebar so fast they can barely attack and not taking any damage. This is definitely an early access glitch and I expect it to be remedied in the near future. If you play it straight and avoid magic, the patterns from bosses are simple and unvaried as well, even if they’ve thrown in some Ikaruga-like shifting from wind to fire and back to dodge/absorb bullets. There are only two boss fights in this version of Lodoss, but they’re definitely fun ones.
The Xbox One Controller syncs up beautifully with Lodoss and there were no issues with game freezing or technical glitches in the game, impressive for an early access title. Everything is well-mapped and easy to use (except flying while using a bow, and that’s just because my fingers hate me, I think). Sound quality is excellent and the graphic style is just flat out gorgeous. I’d have loved to see more areas, but that will definitely come. The storyline for Lodoss is also interesting, showing a smattering of characters zipping about in short story sequences with no real explanation of what’s going on. You get to see Parm, Slayn, and Ghim, but you don’t’ get any resolution before the game ends. It’s just enough to really whet the appetite. Don’t expect a sweeping narrative yet though, as you’ll be sorely disappointed. I wanted more pretty badly, so I’ll be checking regularly for updates to the game!
As Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is still in Early Access and will be for a while, it’s hard to say how good the finished product will be, but this is an amazing start. I’m certainly hooked, but it’s just maybe possible that I might have a bias for it. At $12.99 it’s a bit pricey for an hour’s worth of gameplay but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the price go up a bit when the final product is released. Personally, I think it’ll be worth it. Bias notwithstanding though, this is a solid piece of the game with excellent technical performance and controls, and awesome retro pixel graphics that manages to suck the player in. There’s not a lot of depth yet and some gameplay balance issues need addressing, but I have no doubt that the final product will be utterly spectacular and worthy of the Record of Lodoss War name.
This review was based on a digital copy of Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth provided by the publisher. This game is in Early Access on Steam and is not finished. It has not been announced for other consoles yet, but who knows! Screenshots are courtesy of the Steam listing for the game as I didn’t manage to get good ones. Don’t worry, everything is in English! If you like what you see, you’ll probably love Record of Lodoss War, and the OVA is available physically on Amazon on Blu-Ray and DVD, and also on Xbox Live here. You won’t regret it!