Lord Baniff's Deceit, obscure dungeon crawler that looks like Ultima Underworld

[Excidium II]

Have u nignogs ever heard about this:



I laffed @ the enemy @ 4:00

 

[Infinitron]

Huh. Obscure as hell, but there are actually Gamespot and IGN reviews of a Game Boy Color port from 2000.

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/towers-lord-baniffs-deceit-review/1900-2601189/

Towers: Lord Baniff's Deceit Review
The average gamer just isn't going to find Towers' quest all that engaging or exciting.

As brutal war rages in the land of Airatose, a small band of adventurers sets sail to join the battle. Seeking to end the tyrannical reign of the despot Sagon, the adventurers' journey is interrupted when a vicious storm lays waste to their ship. Marooned on a mysterious island known as the Land of Towers, the four men acquire odd jobs to fund repairs to their ship. During their stay, Lord Baniff learns of their intentions and lures them into a trap: a 15-story tower full of monsters, booby traps, and other assorted bad humor. Do you have what it takes to escape the tower and defeat Sagon? This is what Vatical's Towers: Lord Baniff's Deceit for the Game Boy Color asks.

At its heart, Towers: Lord Baniff's Deceit is a first-person dungeon role-playing game. Not only is the game unique in its 3D viewpoint, but it also allows two players to link up and play the game cooperatively, a first for a Game Boy Color RPG. After you choose one of four characters, you must explore every nook and cranny of the 15-level prison for keys, equipment, and clues for passage to the next floor. Monsters confront you at every turn, while hunger, thirst, and fatigue also play important roles in your safety. The game has two main interfaces. The first, action mode, lets you walk forward, turn, attack, or conjure a spell. In this mode, your focus is the game screen - watching the corridors and caverns of the dungeon unravel before your eyes in true 3D splendor. Should you run across a switch, press A. Is there a monster in your way? Press A to wail on it with your fists, sword, ax, or any other implement you've acquired. The game's second mode is status mode. By pressing the select button, a pointer appears onscreen, allowing you to perform a variety of tasks such as picking up equipment, using keys, or equipping items. While this may sound mundane, it's actually one of the best aspects of the game. This section of the screen also lets you eat, drink, sleep, equip weapons and armor, store items, create spells, use keys, save your game, and see your character's stats. Speaking of stats, each of the game's four characters has different innate abilities. Gerard is heavy and strong, while Andros is quick and nimble. Tasler has hit points and stamina aplenty, and Merton is the game's mana-imbued deity.

Unfortunately, while the game's interface is spectacular and the 3D viewpoint is scrumptious, there are a few gameplay irks. First, while the dungeons change color every so often, each still looks remarkably similar to the last, meaning that you'll need patience to avoid a sense of fatigue. Secondly, while there are over 20 monsters to interact with, the weaker foes crop up far too often. Sure, it's nice to be able to pick up a new weapon or steal some boots, but killing the same goblin 40 times eventually gets a bit tedious. To add to the ennui, you'll have to gather and try a large number of keys to escape the tower. While the first few levels require only six or seven keys, later floors raise the number to epic proportions. If you're into a more active and varied RPG experience, these issues may turn you off. However, if you're the type of person who enjoys realistic situations, taxing puzzles, and the ability to perform a plethora of real-life tasks, you may just find Towers: Lord Baniff's Deceit fun to play. You'll have to, as other than the game's FMV intro, there's not a great deal of plot development to be found.

Whereas the gameplay is "take it or leave it," Towers' visuals effectively create a 3D dungeon-exploration experience. Not only is Towers in 3D and real-time, but it's also fluidly animated, with only a slight hint of choppiness. Even though there's a lack of color in certain things, such as floors, walls, and enemy monsters, the game is a joy to observe. Admittedly, the repetitively confusing nature of the dungeon environments does diminish the game's visual impact somewhat. Still, if you're the type of person who loves mazelike role-playing quests, you'll probably find the murky environments to your liking. It's too bad the game's sound didn't receive similar treatment, though, as the overly repetitive background music and clunky attack effects do little for the game. While it may be true that effects and music are necessary in most games, fortunately, Towers doesn't need them - which is a good thing, because the game's auditory stylings have zero effect.

The average gamer just isn't going to find Towers' quest all that engaging or exciting. Sure, the gameplay is deep, but there's no real plot development to keep a person interested. Furthermore, while the game has the looks, it takes a certain type of person to deal with 15 levels of brick walls, dark corridors, and endless keys. If you're into American-style RPGs, where the gameplay experience transcends plot and speed, you'll probably adore this game, especially if you have a friend to play with. If you're the type of person who prefers Final Fantasy or Legend of Zelda, you may wish to take a pass.

5.1
MEDIOCRE

http://www.ign.com/articles/2000/06/17/towers-lord-baniffs-deceit

TOWERS: LORD BANIFF'S DECEIT
Dungeon exploring hits the Game Boy Color -- a Jaguar classic goes portable.

It takes a whole lot to love a game like Towers: Lord Baniff's Revenge. First, you have to love a RPG with barely a story. And second, you have to love searching areas that go on and on, seemingly forever. Towers is a mindless game where you'll roam the twists and turns of a pointless dungeon, but there's not much fun to find here. But repetition? Plenty. The game is akin to dungeon-exploring RPGs from computer past like Bard's Tale, Lands of Lore, and but the game lacks so much in comparison to those classics that it's just not an inviting adventure.

Features

• Four characters
• Battery back-up
• Link cable support for two players
• Only for Game Boy Color

At the start of the game you'll choose your character from a selection of four -- after that, there's some cool and clever full-motion video. A few seconds of pretty, rendered graphics does not make a game good, and it just seems thrown in to give this impression. The real problem is the monotonous gameplay -- this is where the power switch becomes quite inviting.

The dungeons are made up of numerous passageways, which are often hidden behind locked doors. This is where the "puzzle" element enters play ¿ these doors will require you to press buttons, use keys, or even weirder, just pass through illusionary walls. There will be traps scattered about, which can and will spell instant doom for you if you stumble into them.

There are plenty of baddies throughout the miles of dungeons, that's for sure. This means you have to be alert and ready to tap your A button to attack ¿ there's really no strategy element here, it's just a matter of fast fingers and powerful weapons in-hand. When you end up killing the foe, he, she, or it will likely drop an item -- like an apple for health, or a weapon for increased attacking power. Enemies can and will attack in groups and surround you, and some can even throw rocks from far away. But all in all it's just a matter of pacing around the hallways and being quick on the trigger. It's definitely not Doom.

The control scheme, when paired up with the game's visual layout, is an ordeal. Movement is simple enough, since the only ways you can move are forward, backward, right, or left. But in order to collect an item, you have to press the select button to bring up a cursor, and move it towards whatever you wish to take. and then add it to your inventory by pressing A and dragging it to your items list. This is much less convenient than it should be, especially on the Game Boy D-pad. This game is more suited for a system with a mouse. To be able to walk or fight again, you have to press the select button once more. It's not hard to forget that the cursor is up when an enemy sneaks up and attacks. Since the fights are not turn-based, you can easily get walloped until you remember to press the select button and whack your enemy back.

What could have been a cool item becomes an mild aggravation -- casting spells. In order to cast one, you have to enter a combination of three words -- obtained in the quest -- by a command list at the bottom of your window. "Ke Lal Ki", or "Ke Me Kin", for example. Not really an easy thing to memorize. If the combination works, you will be able to cast the associated spell, but only if you have enough Mana.

For a game that wants you to wander through all the dungeons, everything looks the same. In fact, the dungeons only vary in the slightest of ways, like different wall textures and different-looking enemies. Although the placement of hallways and turns are different, it's easy to get lost -- good thing there's a map. The types of enemies you encounter change now and then, but you'll face the same kinds from one section to another often. Things you'll see on the wall are keyholes, switches, and generic writings. There's very little in the way of diversity, and not much incentive for you to continue on the long quest. One plus, though, is that you can save your game anywhere.

Towers does offer a rather decent two-player cooperative mode where you and a buddy can enter the dungeon and fight side-by-side. This element does add to the game and raises Towers out of the pit of mediocrity.

The Verdict
There's nothing much here in Towers to keep you interested, and that's a necessity in a game that requires hours of play to succeed. Unless you're gung-ho over repetition and poorly-done gameplay, you're bound to fall asleep the second you begin your adventure. The only thing I was semi-impressed by was the video during the beginning. After that, it was all downhill.

BAD
4.0

 

[Grauken]

Never seen this one, looks indeed a bit like UU, only with blobber-movement. Odd

 

[octavius]

Apart from the inventory it looks more like Dungeon Master than UU.

 

[Infinitron]

Apart from the inventory it looks more like Dungeon Master than UU.

Perhaps, but the fact that it's a single character game leads one to think about the latter first. Also, Lord "Baniff"?

Here's a very different sort of review from 1996, a more innocent time: http://www.ataritimes.com/index.php?ArticleIDX=47

Towers
Towers is fantaSTic!
by Gregory D. George

December 4, 1996
With the imminent release of Towers II for the Jaguar, (Which will be reviewed next month) I thought it only fair to review the original Towers game written for the Atari ST by JV Enterprises.
The story of Towers is told by a ship's crew member by the name of Marimure, who's ship was caught up in a magical storm. The crew, on it's way to Airatose to help in the war against Sargon, encountered the storm and a 6 foot hole was ripped in the ship! Luckily, a wizard onboard held the waters back until they could reach safety.

The ship eventually lands at a place called Lamini, or "Land of Towers." Marimure quickly discovers how beautiful this land is and of the many lords who reside in the towers. And, the taller the tower, the richer the lord.

Running low on money, the crew decide to take jobs as couriers for the town sheriff while their ship is being repaired. The sheriff asks them to seek an audience with lord Baniff, who he hasn't heard from in some time. But, as the crew entered the lord's tower, the entrance collapses leaving Marimure alone outside Baniff's tower.

I was pleasantly surprised when I first fired this game up and read that introduction. Towers is of such quality, it could have been released as a commercial product. The game itself plays much like the classic game, Dungeon Master. (Which was the reason I bought my STe in the first place.) You walk around in a maze, killing monsters, picking up items, and figuring out puzzles. The maze graphics have very little variation, but you may notice that the ceiling isn't always of the same height. (Big deal, right? Well, it's an improvement over DM!) The monster and object graphics are quite detailed, however monotone in color. Of course, you don't think about that too much when you're getting beaten up by a troll!

Aside from the title and introduction, there is no music to speak of. And for some odd reason, the title music is whacked on my machine. Half of it sounds great, the other half is totally hacked up. I don't know if it's the computer's fault or the software. In any case, I'm forced to immediately turn the sound down whenever I run the game. The sound effects are adequate, but the "step" noise you make as you walk is quite annoying. I also miss the "oooff!" sound you make in DM when you run into a wall.

Towers is a not crippled in any way, but in order to get the maximum fun, JV Enterprises recommends you purchase the manual for $15. It's a small price to pay for a such wonderful RPG game. The fact it's so much fun on the ST will ease the minds of Jaguar gamers preparing to purchase Towers II. Find it, play it, buy it! It's worth every penny you didn't spend.

Darn spotty .gifs! I wait years to get these images and they're all spotted up! Arrrgh...

Always pick up stuff on the ground. Even if it is from some dead dude.

Oooga booga!

Towers
System: Atari-ST
Publisher: JV Enerprises
Genre: RPG
Graphics Score: 75%
Sound & Music Score: 65%
Gameplay Score: 85%
Control Score: 60%
Final Score: 75%

 

[Excidium II]

JV Enterprises recommends you purchase the manual for $15

lol/lmao

 

[V_K]

Apart from the inventory it looks more like Dungeon Master than UU.

It is a DM clone, and a pretty uninspired one from what I remember.
(But then again, I only had it in me to complete a couple of levels, maybe it gets better later)

 

[pippin]

JV Enterprises recommends you purchase the manual for $15

lol/lmao

DLC before DLC?

 

[Excidium II]

Well baiting people into buying the strategy guide was classic but selling even the manual seems p. advanced.

 

[Infinitron]

Well baiting people into buying the strategy guide was classic but selling even the manual seems p. advanced.

I figured it was a shareware kind of arrangement where the game is free ("Towers is a not crippled in any way") and if you like it you give them money by buying the manual.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Not unheard of. There was this for example: https://archive.org/details/win3_WINTREKJ

Same thing. Manual had to be bought.

Good memories of instead figuring it out together with my cousin. It's not like it was some mindbending thing, but we were like: "fuck the police!" after.