9th Dawn III Review (PlayStation 4)
9th Dawn III: Shadow of Erthil is a huge 2D open-world RPG and collectathon dungeon crawler packed full of adventure! When asked to investigate mysterious, ghostly sightings around the lake of Elmson, you trek through the lands of Cedaltia to uncover the truth. Upon arrival, you catch rumors of an untrustworthy king and become the chosen one to journey to Lorwyck Castle and confront him – a journey that will guide you through ancient fortresses, dark dungeons, perilous swamps, and more!
Pros:
- Decent graphics.
- 1.20gb download size.
- Uses DS4 touchpad for the map.
- Platinum trophy.
- ARPG gameplay.
- Four save slots.
- Gui scale slider.
- Can rebind controls for both keyboard and the controller.
- Invert aim option.
- Tutorial signs as you play.
- Command-line prompt setting.
- Force death button.
- Plays like a twin-stick with the right stick used for attacks, a handy arrow displays to show.
- Day/night cycle and weather effects.
- Rolling info bar of what’s killed or picked up.
- Shortcut item bar.
- Clear bars showing exp, health, etc.
- Save when you want.
- Skills will go up as you use those weapons in battle.
- Dungeon entrances everywhere.
- Earn EXP and level up to get attribute points to distribute.
- Play how you want.
- Huge starting inventory space.
- Death-lose exp.
- Fyued-the games own card game where you can buy/find new card packs and play npc.
- Uses lighting very well including having closed rooms being pitch black.
- Bloodspawn-click these to activate them as respawn points.
- Minimap and a big map that will show icons and be filtered by locations and fishing spots.
- Inventory will pop up what you have equipped in that slot so you can check gear quickly.
- Load out-huge selection with 6 rings, cap, arm, book, main hand, offhand, neck, head, gloves, relic, armor, bolt, arrow, belt, gloves, and fish bait.
- Crafting-find recipes and make weapons/armor/items.
- Main quests and optional side quests.
- A lot of loot.
Cons:
- No sensitivity sliders.
- Enemies respawn quickly.
- Can feel lost a lot of the time.
- The running info bar can get in the way.
- You move really slowly when attacking.
- Shortcut buttons are not always ideal as you need to press a button beforehand to activate them as it were.
- Way too much food loot meaning loads of small hp recovery food.
- Constant difficulty spikes.
- Inventory management is clunky.
-
Graphics - 8/108/10
-
Sound - 8/108/10
-
Accessibility - 8/108/10
-
Length - 9/109/10
-
Fun Factor - 9/109/10
Summary
9th Dawn III is an ARPG that has all the depth and variety of a Diablo but not the massive budget. For the pixel art graphics look fantastic but it does you an odd animation choice almost puppet-like, regardless the game uses an easy to use genre-defining twin-stick control for attacking. Everything you can hit will have a health bar and the game loves to drop loot no matter if it’s gold or a loaf of bread! You will spend a lot of time on the menus sorting your inventory and with many opportunities to acquire and use different weapon types, you can build a character to your liking. What I love the most is it keeps what Diablo has, by this I mean it takes your time and just evaporates it! You can lose hours without realizing, the game just flows and gives so much that you are always doing something even if you don’t realize it. Enemies start off small and familiar like frogs and rats but later on, they get devilish and big! Locations are huge sprawling areas with many secrets to find. If this isn’t enough game for you then wait, They have managed to add a fully functioning card game into the game! You can find/buy new cards and build decks to battle other NPC in towns. Whilst I didn’t play a lot of the card game I did find it a nice addition and just another thing to collect and have fun with. Overall 9th Dawn III is every bit as fun and engrossing as other major titles in the ARPG genre but still manages to carve out its own identity and it lives to drop the loot!
