Defender's Quest

The only thing that could be, understandably, off-putting about Defender's Quest is the art in the story clips. That is arguably rather bad, though it does its job. However, honestly, that's the ONLY criticism I can make to this game. From here on, it's only praise. Defender's Quest does a wonderful job of melding together the tower defence and the RPG genres. And by "melding" I don't only mean the fact that it has a fun mechanic which borrows from both - the action is tower defence based, but the 'towers' are actually members of your party who grow during your adventure acquiring new skills, powers, and items. No, what this game REALLY nails right is the atmosphere. From the title music, to the cute pixellated sprites, to the entertaining, tongue-in-cheek banter between the heroes, everything will remember you of an old school RPG game. It's one of those stories - a band of warriors with different competences and personalities held together by the same goal: saving the world. It may sound overdone but there are some pretty nice touches here which give the story a new flavour (mostly the fact that it's basically a fantasy zombie story, with the big bad being the one who unleashed this plague on the world). The dialogue is priceless, and you'll find that playing New Game+ is worth it just to get new bits of funny writing in the journal. In addition, the replay value is further increased by the fact that while completing the game isn't too hard, achieving top rates in all levels AND completing the New Game+ (which includes secondary quests) is a titanic achievement. So there's something for everyone, from the casual player to the completion fanatic. The nature of the characters makes for some nice strategic possibilities as well (for example, you may specialize your heroes in certain skills as they level up and use them in specific roles). In other words, if you need to play even only ONE tower defence game in your life... let it be this one.

Others have talked about the mechanics and story, both of which are decent for a game of this genre. None of the high-star reviews mention that the game is buggy though. It lost the customization of one of my party members randomly, and then crashed in the middle of a cutscene which caused a key story party member to not join my party. Replaying the mission or cutscene didn't fix the problem, so somehow it saved that I'd completed the mission in "story mode" but didn't save that I should have had a new party member as a result. Beware if you're playing this game and anything starts looking or acting funny: save, quit, and restart the game so you don't suffer my fate of a busted save file.

Basically a mash up of a tactics RPG and a tower defence game. Works quite well. Story is basic but it and the level progression provides enough of a hook to keep you playing without it feeling like an endless loop. Acquiring equipment and skills RPG style also gives a fun flavour to the tower defence gameplay.

Very nice and fun game (if you like silliness). Dated but still nice graphics, the game is a tower-defense/RPG game. I would not recommand it for everybody: I own it since its launch and am replaying it, but the interface is outdated, kind of cumbersome and this feels like an early 2000s game.

I will NOT buy any game with DRM and phone home falls into that for me.