Mage Knight: Destiny’s Soldier

For those not in the know, Mage Knight is a collectible miniatures game. To play you buy a few packs of assorted random pre-painted miniatures then build your own customized army. Each miniature has a round base that contains all of the characters relevant game statistics and also keeps the miniature from falling down. When a piece is damaged in combat the owner turns the dial on the base an appropriate number of “clicks.” As the dial is turned the statistics and special abilities of the character change, usually weakening the character, until the dreaded skulls are revealed indicating the character has been defeated. It’s a great game, but the cost of building a great army can be quite expensive. When I heard Namco Bandai was releasing a portable video-game version of Mage Knight for the DS I decided to see if they were able to capture all the fun of Mage Knight without destroying my wallet.

Right off the bat, Mage Knight: Destiny’s Solider gets two things right. The first is the Mage Knight rules. Mage Knight isn’t the most rules-heavy game, but it does a few sessions to get used to. The board game version of Mage Knight comes with a handy quick reference card that details all the special abilities a miniature might have along with the relevant rules. The DS game recreates this and does one better by using a context-driven help system. If you’re not sure what a specific icon means you just have to hold down the left button and question marks will appear. Tap a question mark with the stylus and the rules you’re looking for will appear. Having the needed explanations a click away makes the game a breeze to learn even for Mage Knight neophytes.

The second key aspect of the game is collecting figures and building an army. Destiny’s Soldier does this by allowing you to recruit characters with credits you earn after battles. Each town has a new set of battle-hardened recruits ready to join your party, if you have the cash that is. You can recruit many of the same unit or diversify and get a few of each. In some cases you’ll also even be able to recruit unique characters to add even more variety to your party.

The rest of the game however is mediocre, starting with the story. When you start the game you’re given the chance to choose between five heroes. There are your standard mage, warrior, and ranger type characters and there is also an orc and a wood elemental. I tried the orc with the red scarf covering his eyes first, because he seemed a bit out of the ordinary. The fact that his in game sprite looks like a Ninja Turtle had nothing to do with my decision. Seriously. The story then starts with some chosen hero nonsense and then jumps right into an obvious “test” of your abilities. It gets even more incoherent after that with your heroes sole motivator being the fact that he was “chosen.” I figured the other characters may have a better story, but they don’t. No matter which character you choose the story is identical, even the individual heroes dialog. Pick your hero wisely because that does leave many reasons to play through more than once.

Combat takes place on the bottom screen with a zoomed-out map view on the top screen. To move a character you hold your stylus on the sprite then slide it to the spot you want it to move to. I had a hard time figuring out exactly where to put the stylus to move each piece. The hit boxes are a bit off and it gets frustrating redoing moves that didn’t quite go the way you had intended. After moving your figure you can then rotate it to make sure it’s facing the enemy. This works fine most of the time, but when a miniature is surrounded by attackers, it can be difficult to select and move the directional arrow. Now that you’ve moved and faced your enemy you can get to fighting. Mage Knight uses a pair of six-sided dice to add some randomness to the game and in the DS version you actually get to roll them on the screen. It’s a neat touch that reminds you that you’re playing a virtual board game.

Gameplay: 7.0

Besides the control issues, Destiny’s Soldier plays as smoothly as a tabletop game of Mage Knight. The handy help feature is great feature that I’d like to see in more strategy titles. The only things holding it back are the lack of multiplayer and quick play modes along with the mediocre mission types.

Graphics: 6.5

The sprites are decent, but don’t push the hardware at all. There’s also good variety in the landscapes you’ll be fighting on. They are just like the paint jobs on the actual miniatures. Just kind of average.

Sound: 5.0

Please make it stop! The game plays the same tune over and over and over and over it seems like. There’s very little variety in music. The combat sounds and other effects are ok, but the music will drive you nuts.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard

The difficulty all depends on the team you decide to field. The right combination can make the upcoming battle a blowout, or the wrong combination will end in the “You Lose!” screen popping up. It’s all in how you recruit and prep your army in the pregame.

Concept: 7.5

It’s great to see Mage Knight make the move to video games. Unfortunately, some of the charm is missing and the controls can be a bit wonky. It’s a good idea though and I’m looking forward to their next attempt.

Overall: 6.8

I’m torn about this one. On the one hand the rules of the game have been translated perfectly to video-game format and adding new troops to your army is fun. On the other hand there’s the incredibly lame story, the quirky stylus controls, and the mediocre mission structures and graphics. It’s the epitome of the average game. I’ll be keeping it in my collection because I like Mage Knight, but I won’t be recommending it to anyone but other fans.