The NDS has already started off on a very successful foundation, but still it is lacking the RPG base that made the GBA so great. But recently a whole slew of RPG titles have found their home onto the NDS each making use of the NDS’ features. TAO’s adventure just so happens to be one of the titles and although the game isn’t without its problems, it still presents many changes to the RPG franchise featuring the use of the touch-screen.

TAO follows the many boundaries that the RPG industry has set beforehand. The game follows the story of TAO, a very young child that has only just begun his air spelling training. TAO’s village was ransacked by an invasion of monsters that have escaped from the tower and it just so happens he is the only one that has survived. Obviously the storyline isn’t very revolutionary and follows many of the clichés, and is made worse by the lack of very much dialogue between the main characters. Still, while going through the game it becomes apparent that it’s the type of RPG that makes up for the story with gameplay. In this case, it’s neither.

As mentioned before, TAO has just begun his air spelling training which is a form of magic, which involves drawing out the symbols on the touch-screen. Luckily the symbols have been rather simple so far and the input mechanism of the game works for the most part very well. The spells themselves range through the typical list of magic that most RPGs adore to: Fire, Lightning, Earth, Healing etc. The concept itself was just screaming to be made into the game, and thus we have TAO. Though in practice the spells worked well, but the issues lie with how the battle system is made.

Patience. The game because of its unique battle system requires a lot of patience even though it jumps away from the traditional turn-based battles. Though the battle system is still odd, it is a hybrid real-time turn-based system. Right when you enter the Monster Tower, the game switches over into the “real-time” battle system. You now control TAO on a grid-based system with the movement in real-time. But as soon as you encounter an enemy, everything stops and you are given options to use magic, defend or attack. You can also move in a limited amount of steps initially and rearrange yourself to face the enemy. The controls were very frustrating initially and I believed they would liven up a bit as I continued along the game, but it’s the type of controls that you have to put up with as the game is designed in that way. It’s really painful when you have to touch the screen option to “Use magic” then draw out the symbol just to activate the magic. The frustration is further elevated when this same process is repeated several times over for such simple tasks. Not to mention your partner’s AI is very much and idiot and likes to sit back and watch as you are pounded. Really the only times they react are when they are directly attacked. Now let’s have a look at how items on the ground are handled. First you have to walk up to the item and press A then you have to select pick up item through the touch-screen. It’s really insulting that they force the player to use the touch-screen for such mundane tasks.