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1999 · Delphine Software International · Action role-playing · Role-playing

Darkstone

PlayStation console exclusive

Darkstone is an action role-playing game with a medieval fantasy setting, played solo or in multiplayer and often compared to Diablo. Players choose from paired character types such as warrior or Amazon, wizard or sorceress, assassin or thief, and monk or priestess, then travel across four increasingly difficult lands to complete quests, fight monsters, and explore dungeons. Gameplay centers on improving character stats and gear, learning spells from spellbooks, and picking up skills like lockpicking and trap disarming, while a central village serves as a hub for trading, banking, and restocking supplies. Randomly selected quests and shifting dungeon layouts vary each playthrough.

Released: 31 July 1999
Platforms: Android PlayStation Windows
Genres: Action role-playing Role-playing
Developers: Delphine Software International
Publishers: Take-Two Interactive
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Action Fantasy
Country: France
Age ratings: CLASS_IND 16 USK 12 ESRB T
Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Spain)
Time to beat: 16hmain story18hcompletionist

About

Darkstone: Evil Reigns (Darkstone in North America) is an action role-playing video game developed by Delphine Software International for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation released in 1999.

In 2014, the French publisher Anuman Interactive launched a remake available on iPad, iPhone and Android, with the cooperation of the original game's author Paul Cuisset.

›Story

Long ago, a corrupt monk named Draak turned against Kaliba, the goddess of light, and transformed himself into a dragon. He was defeated once before by the power of the Time Orb, an artifact formed from Kaliba's tears, which was afterward broken into seven crystals and hidden across the four lands of Uma to keep it from his followers. Now Draak has recovered and returned with his minions, creating the Darkstone, a force that drains the life from Uma and spreads death in its wake. The player takes on the role of an adventurer who must journey across Uma, brave its dungeons, and recover the scattered crystals to reforge the Time Orb and confront Draak in his lair.

Players say

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The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

A typical medieval RPG, Darkstone is similar to Baldur's Gate and Diablo in gameplay style and themes.

Gameplay revolves around improving the character stats of strength, magic, dexterity and vitality as well as the character's gear, weapons, magical knowledge, etc. The four lands of Uma increase in difficulty and are accessed sequentially, with different enemies patrolling the lands and dungeons beneath.

Story

In the distant past a corrupt monk, Draak, turned against the goddess of light, Kaliba, and turned himself into a dragon. However, he was eventually thwarted from destroying the world via the Time Orb, created from seven of Kaliba's tears. To protect the Time Orb from Draak's followers, it was split apart again by Kaliba's monks and the seven crystals hidden across the four lands of Uma.

The game begins when Draak has recovered from his earlier defeat and returned with his minions to the world of Uma. As part of his return he has created the Darkstone, which drains life energy from Uma, bringing death and mayhem. Players take on the role of an adventurer who has to recreate the Time Orb and use this to slay Draak in his lair.

Development

Darkstone was developed under the working title Dragon Blade and went through several iterations, initially being designed as a fully 3D game akin to Tomb Raider. After the game's original publisher, BMG Interactive, closed its doors, work on Dragon Blade went into a suspended state, with Delphine putting most of its resources towards developing Moto Racer 2.

Reception

The PlayStation version received mixed reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

IGN said of the PC version that, despite playing 'very similarly to Diablo', it 'is an incredibly fun and addictive game' and that the 'voice-overs are clean and crisp, and surprisingly well acted'. For the PlayStation version, however, the website later stated, 'anybody who liked Diablo or anything else in the realm of dungeon-hack RPGs should be able to get their pocket-change's worth out of it', but that the 3D presentation means there is a loss of graphical detail and the lack of story means that it is a basic hack n slash dungeon crawler. Jeff Lundrigan of NextGen's November 1999 issue called the former "An addictive little title that is, in some ways, even better than the trendsetter it closely resembles." Eighteen issues later, however, Emmett Schkloven called the latter "an addictive action RPG port, and the graphics are impressive. But if its generic elements prevent it from being a classic, the cheap entry fee still makes it worthwhile."