When this game first came out i played it through and sidelined it as a good idea that had been poorly implemented. The utter lack of clipping for the sword against the environment, the bland enemies and poor level design left me cold. It was fun and I looked foward to the sequel that never arrived.
However now when I play it (with the looping menu bug, the dodgy glide mode AND the design elements that i'd never liked) I can just relax and get on with it. Is it the fact that nothing further came of this control system and I'm just happy to live with the flawed beast? or am i just less picky these days?
Either way I can whole heartedly recommend this game as an interesting diversion and a novel experience.

I think you have the right idea. I have more fun with the move editor and getting killed in Arena trying to pull off my ninja moves than I do actually playing the game itself.
It's novel, its unique, and its good for a laugh. As far as a great game, it is not.
Worth the $6, though.

I think you've got a point there. I remember thinking at the time about how new games using this control scheme would refine things further and improve upon DBTS's many mistakes. But then of course, new VSIM-style games never came, and we were left with this little curio. I'm still surprised nobody decided to take this idea any further, especially in the wii generation, which would seem to be the perfect platform for it.

The idea was a Novel concept, however it was flawed and just won't work with a mouse.
The main problem is that a mouse is fixed on a 2d plane. You can move it around this 2s plane, however the sword is a 3d object. This is what makes it diffcult to control/use, because you can't move your arm naturally as you wish since your mouse only moves on a 2d plane, you have no depth/3d motion.
Futhermore, clipping wise, the reason it doesn't do it is because again, here's no feedback on the mouse. If you had clipping with the sword your mouse obviously is still going to move, thus there is no feedback and you will get out of the rhthm/space your movements were in.

Well said my freind :D i have some experience with this through my uni course (cybernetics and applied computer science), as i did alot with haptics and VR. Like you said, a mouse isnt designed to cope properly with 3D environments. so then you have wands (like the Wiimote) wih accelerometers and gyros to caculate rotation and positioning etc. which has better control than the mouse but still unable to give any useful feedback.
But then real haptic interfaces, like the phantom that are out now and would be perfect for both the control of the sword arm and accurate collision feedback. If a company brought this tech into the game sector it'd be awesome! if your ever in a tech show or anything and you see one there, make sure you get a turn to try it out. its genuinly amazing. i think theres a few videos on the net but it really has to be experienced to believe.
the idea of a haptic interface is that what the user can see on the screen, they can feel with their hands. meaning you can feel the texture and shape of an object, the weight by trying to pick it up, the hardness or elasticity by squeezing it... a great example i saw was the put a floating smooth, solid, 3d sphere up on the screen, and the person with the phantom reached out in front of them and held the object, feeling around it and weighing it up. they described it feeling like a pool ball. then they changed the sphere to be made out of honey! and you could see the pressure the person was putting on it to squeeze it and poke a hole through the thick substance :) imagine the possibilites with games......
i think theres some videos demo'ing what i mean at
[url=]http://uk.youtube.com/user/ReadingTHRIL [/url]

DBTS's swordplay is much more manageable using a joystick, or even the keyboard numberpad, because the sword's position matches the joystick position and it's easier to keep a handle on things.
However there was a recent indie game that replicates and improves the VSIM mouse control called Determinance. Some people were taken aback by the fact that the swordsmen in this game actually fly like superman, but in practice it's WAAAY more manageable than the insane spider twisting your left hand has to go through to maneuver your dude in DBTS.

"imagine the possibilites with games......"
Truly a fantastic bit of kit, I've played briefly with a medical version of these. A bit pricy just yet for the home market though.
Does a wii remote have a simple rumble function? As much as I dislike those systems a quick spin of the tumbler when moving against a clipping zone would surely offer enough feedback for reasonable control? or would the rumble be too late? would be interesting to see someone try it.
Anyhow none of this kit was around in any resonably cheap way when DBTS was created and without a serious overhaul of the engine to suit a 2d controller it was doomed to be a curio.

The problem with rumble is although it can serve as a way to tell you you've hit something/provide feedback, it will not be able to have the force to oppose your movement.
So you'll swing, hit something, but even with the rumble you would likely follow through with the swing and though your character doesn't, this would throw off the center allignment between you and the object.
I remember joysticks with force feedback, that actually had Force feedback, not "rumble" but to the point that the joysticks would apply enough force to mimic things.
With that kind of feedback it could work, so when you hit someting it would be able to stop you from moving through, etc.

The Novint Falcon is a haptic gaming controller which is pretty neat, actually.

I also second Determinance, though another one called Guile (by the same developers) is also in the works
Guile fixes what most people cried out for in Determinance - walking - so if flying was a turn off, Guile should be worth a look out for