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Orcs & Elves for Nintendo DS
Orcs & Elves for Nintendo DS sends you into an orc-occupied dwarven fortress as the young half-elf Elli. You see corridors and rooms through his eyes as you search for the missing King Brahm. The talking magic wand Ellon travels with you and gives the adventure a voice of its own. Along the way, you find locked doors, treasures and inhabitants who know more about the disaster that has struck the fortress.
Moving, attacking and using items take turns. When a monster approaches, you can therefore consider a sword strike, a crossbow shot or a spell. The equipment belt on the touchscreen provides access to weapons, potions, rings and the map. To cast spells, you draw runes with the stylus. Your weapon supplies and the condition of your armour deserve attention, especially when several enemies block the passage at once.
You buy equipment from the dragon Gaya and bargain over the price. The map records visited corridors and important passages, allowing you to return to a previously discovered door. You play this role-playing game alone, using buttons, the touchscreen or a combination of both. You save progress through the Compass Watch; the game provides three save slots. This lets you interrupt an exploration trip and continue later with the same equipment and discoveries.
Region and language
Our Nintendo DS games are European editions, unless stated otherwise. This product contains a loose cartridge for the European market. A box is only included if explicitly stated in the product details. We note any different region in the product details. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
With Orcs & Elves for Nintendo DS, you receive a loose cartridge. A box and manual are not included unless we explicitly state otherwise in the product details. This is the standard way we supply this copy.
The history of Orcs & Elves
Orcs & Elves appeared on Nintendo DS in 2007, after the adventure had begun on mobile phones in 2006. id Software created the series, Fountainhead Entertainment developed the game and Electronic Arts handled publication. This brought a design from the mobile phone market of the time to a handheld with dedicated game cartridges. The developers retained the short, clear actions and turn-based system, but adapted the presentation and controls to the DS.
The DS edition received a new three-dimensional engine, expanded sound, extra areas and new monsters. The lower screen displays an equipment belt from which you select weapons, potions and other aids. Drawing runes uses the stylus directly for magic. These additions make this edition more than the original phone screen on another machine. The world remains a chain of corridors and rooms through which you progress step by step, weighing the consequences of every action.
Fountainhead founder Katherine Anna Kang and John Carmack linked the project to their interest in older dungeon role-playing games. The first-person viewpoint recalls that tradition, while battles give you time to make decisions. EA announced shipment of the DS version in November 2007. Around the same period, Orcs & Elves II appeared for phones. That sequel is not part of this cartridge: the DS edition expands the first adventure featuring Elli and Ellon.
Similar games for Nintendo DS
Etrian Odyssey on Nintendo DS also uses a first-person viewpoint for dangerous corridors and rooms. There, however, you create your own guild and command a party with different classes. You also draw the map yourself with the stylus. Orcs & Elves follows one hero with a talking wand and automatically records visited areas. Both require attention to equipment and a safe return route, but Etrian Odyssey places much more responsibility on your mapping and party building.
The Dark Spire for Nintendo DS also returns to older dungeon role-playing games and lets you explore through your adventurers' eyes. You assemble a party and develop several characters' attributes. Orcs & Elves gives you one fixed protagonist and a specific arsenal on his equipment belt. Alongside its modern view, The Dark Spire offers a classic wireframe presentation, while Elli's adventure retains its own fixed world and controls.
Final Fantasy III on Nintendo DS combines exploration, collecting equipment and turn-based battles with a party of four heroes. Its job system changes their roles and abilities, allowing you to adjust the entire party composition. Orcs & Elves instead has you act through one hero in the same corridors where enemies visibly approach. The similarity lies in preparation and managing resources; Final Fantasy III spreads those decisions across several party members and a larger world to travel through.
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies on Nintendo DS lets you design your own hero and party, with vocations and visibly changing equipment. Monsters and dungeons likewise provide new resources to help you progress. Orcs & Elves keeps the viewpoint closer to one fixed adventurer in a dwarven fortress. Dragon Quest IX opens up its world with villages and varied quests, while Elli primarily investigates the connected corridors and secrets of a single disaster-struck location.
Age of Empires: Mythologies on Nintendo DS shares the fantasy creatures, divine magic and unhurried thinking between turns. There, you control an entire civilisation and move army units across a strategic map. Orcs & Elves reduces the scale to one half-elf standing in the threatened corridors himself. Where Mythologies asks which troops and buildings you develop, the decision here concerns the next weapon, a potion or a safe step past an approaching monster.
