You would think that at some point within Live Arcade's first year, someone would have thought to release a real-time RPG game to chew up gamers' time. Somehow, that void has gone unfulfilled, until now. Sierra's Arkadian Warriors fills the empty space in Live Arcade's library, though not as fully as RPG fans would hope.
The game's loose story is that you are responsible to save Arkadia by doing battle in underground dungeons with various baddies to free the city from the enemy onslaught. The city's layout is rather confusing, since you will only really need to use about an eighth of the space they allow you to roam in. Gamers will spend most of their time above ground running to and from the mission-giving npc characters and the shop.
The game looks and plays like what you would get if you tossed Diablo and a Saturday morning cartoon in the blender. The cartoony look of the characters, including some incredibly awkward looking armor, never draws away from the solid gameplay. The same hack-and-slash gameplay that action fans love will keep your thumbs plenty busy. The underground dungeons overflow with swarms of enemies to slice and dice through, with hardly ever a room with less than a dozen enemies inside.
Players have to choose soldier, archer, or sorceress (the third being the only female character) for their player. Each character has its own unique fighting style, special move, and shape-shifting animal to turn into. The animal transformation only takes place once your 'alter-ego' meter is full, which takes place gradually as you defeat enemies. As with your health and mana, potions replenish it much more quickly. In a good control scheme decision, potions each get a direction on the d-pad. Press the right direction, and your character quickly slurps down the appropriate potion and continues bashing away.
The normal attacks your character does work decently on most characters, but some of the larger enemies and bosses nearly require you use either your 'alter-ego' transformation or special attack to bring them down. The 'alter-ego' transformation is the most powerful attack you can use, but takes quite some time to build up enough power to use, and only lasts around thirty-seconds before transforming back to human form. The limited time typically gives you only enough time to destroy all the enemies in one room, since the large beasts move much more slowly. Gamers will find their special attacks much more useful, at least once they level-up a bit.
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