Finn Courtland is a warrior-in-training who helps out his struggling family by taking on odd jobs in town. Luckily for him, a new facility for training warriors just opened up. At Adventures To Go, you order what kinds of enemies you’ll fight and what types of land you’ll explore, then wizards will conjure up whatever you ordered. Finn uses Adventures To Go to help him make money and complete the odd jobs collected in town. Join Finn and his ragtag ream of adventurers as they make a profit and maybe even save the kingdom in the process.

Adventures To Go is a role playing game with heavy emphasis on customization. A typical day involves first visiting the job office to take requests from townspeople in need. They may request you bring back anything from monster hides to ancient artifacts. Then you hop on over to the Adventures To Go station, stock up on healing and magic items in the shops, then go on an adventure. But in this game, you choose exactly which lands you’ll see, which monsters you’ll fight, and travel through open fields or dungeon mazes (your choice). Try to make decisions that will help you complete jobs in town. For instance, if you need to bring back insect wings, make sure to choose bugs as the enemies you’ll face. By completing adventures and jobs, you’ll earn money to spend on better weapons, equipment, and even tougher adventures.

The random battles play out in a grid, and you have a limited number of moves per turn to jot about the battlefield and defeat enemies. So a little bit of strategy is involved. Because of the simplistic nature of the gameplay and fairly slow to non-existent storyline, some might get bored with this game. But the short, made-to-order quests make this an adventure you can pick up and play in short bursts on the go, perfect for portable gaming. And the quick adventures are strangely addictive and you might find yourself playing longer than expected trying to complete just ‘one more quest.’ Adventures To Go is a GameStop exclusive, so if you want to get this game, you’ll have to find it there.

RPG Factor:

This paragraph is for hardcore RPG fans only. Skip this section if you don’t want to wade through other obscure video game references. Anyway, Adventures To Go reminds me of two other DS RPGs: Master of the Monster Lair and My World, My Way. In fact, all three games have similar locations, enemies, even sound effects, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the same company made all those games. It also plays a lot like My World, My Way, except instead of choosing your quest on the fly, you plan it beforehand. The grid based battles are similar to those found in other quest games like Arc the Lad, Popolocrois, or Rhapsody. And the lack of places to explore outside of town and a thin storyline is similar in presentation to Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology. So if you liked any of those games, you might also enjoy Adventures To Go.

Kid Factor:

Adventures To Go is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Alcohol Reference, Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, and Simulated Gambling. The violence is very low-key. Enemies just fall down and disappear when defeated, and there is no blood. All the alcohol references, suggestive themes, and language are subtly implied and are rather campy in text only. And of course, reading skill is required. Later on you can play poker for money and prizes, so that’s where the gambling part comes in. Because of all this, older kid gamers and up would best enjoy Adventures To Go.

Tags: Game Reviews