The Dink Network

9 Gems of Life 2

New enemy type. Inside a cave.
November 22nd, 2003
v2.3
Score : 6.0 fair
wizard.gif
matrice
Peasant They/Them
 
The storyline has got great potential, it would be great it the complete "9 gems" tale would be released as an epic (one file) at some point in the future.
To be fair though: it would still need a bit of work before it would be worthy of epic status.

Below are just some random thoughts and notes from when I was (re-)playing the game:

Storyline:
* Inconsistent with the first part : this part is being *told* by "grandpa" Dink while the first part is "real time".

Graphics:
* Nice side-graphics of the person you're talking too.
* Funny new monster (the furry bone-carrying monster), though animation of it is lacking a bit.
* Good end-boss graphic, however it's a bit one-dimensional (as are the furry creatures).

Inventory:
* What happened to the knife in the inventory ? Now it just shows a sword even though it functions like the knife.
* When you arm the fist, you change back to the undisguised dink.
* Why have the "M" key for magic instead of the inventory ? I don't understand the need. It's not as if you can get more than 8 spells.

Fighting:
* The first fight was way too hard.
* The bonca's at the end of the cave system are really pretty strong. The thing I found strange was that you only get 40 experience for beating them, the same as for the far weaker bonca's in the caves themselves. Another thing: is it just my amazing fighting skills or don't these bonca's hurt you when they swich their tail ?
* Similarly the black slayers in the quest for the fifth gem are very very hard.
* For me there was no chance to beat this game but by using the all time favourite ultimate cheat.
* The game freezes the moment you beat the end boss, which you can basically only beat if you got microwave blast magic (happened twice in a row to me).

* I liked the translocation circles in the cave system, thought I never was sure whether I'd managed to explore all there was to explore.

* The puzzles were fairly easy, but I liked them anyway.

* I liked the little side adventure of how Link escapes Funny.
Shame Link doesn't appear again later on.

Overall: Fair. Looking forward to the full adventure.