Originally posted October 24th 2014 on the Seafoam Gaming Forums

Title: The Keep

System: 3DS (eShop)

Price: $12.99

Release date: 9/11/2014

The main game/story

This is a first person dungeon crawling RPG, similar to Etrian Odyssey and older RPGS. It’s pretty simple, where you try to find your way to the next floor while avoiding enemies. The story here is that an evil mage has taken up residence inside of The Keep, terrorizing the nearby area and causing all sorts of trouble. You decide that he must be stopped, so you enter The Keep all by yourself, hoping to save them all…

Graphics

It looks all right and gets the job done. It’s simple, 3D graphics, that look rather dark and helps fit the mysterious atmosphere of the dungeons. TThe menus on the touch screen are very easy to navigate and use, due to their simple yet quick interface.

Music and sound effects:

Nothing really special in terms of music. Due to the game taking place in a dark, unknown area, what is there fits the situation quite well, and combined with the graphics, makes it really feel like you are going into the unknown.

Gameplay

This game is a first person RPG, as mentioned earlier. What you pretty much need to do in order to survive is to move around, slay enemies, solve puzzles, and get to the exit. That’s the general concept of the game, and it stays true to it’s roots. Saving often is recommended, as when you die you get booted back to your last save point. If you really want a challenge, try playing the game with the save anywhere feature turned off!

The game controls fine, using both the Circle Pad and D-Pad to move around, along with using the stylus to attack and cast spells. Some puzzles require you to use the stylus to search for a secret to discover, and it is a rather clever way to keep an eye out for extra goodies you may need. Most of the time they aren’t required to move ahead, but in some chapters you need this skill to progress. However, some of these required puzzles can drive you mad at times, as you will believe you looked everywhere for an important item, only to discover you didn’t hit a secret switch on the wall. This doesn’t happen too often, thankfully.

So while it’s a pretty basic concept, there is a lot to explore and collect, especially if you want to get absolutely everything. There may be only 10 areas to explore, but most of them take a long time to get through, so it’s a good, enjoyable experience all the way through.

Conclusion

In the end, while The Keep might not be the most complex RPG on the 3DS eShop, it still manages to successfully hold onto it’s old RPG roots quite well. With a fun combat system, and lots of secrets to find, this is certainly a game to consider picking up for fans of older RPGS.

However, the $13 price tag might turn some people away from this game, as if you simply go for the exits without looking for everything, it is nowhere near as long as if you try to get absolutely every secret in the game. But I feel like it really does do it’s job well, and if you are on the fence for this game, I recommend you wait for a sale and get it immediately. I give The Keep a 7 out of 10

Thanks to Cinemax games for the review code.