justpaul's Full Review: Darkstone for PlayStation 1
The best thing about this game is the way it changes each time you play it with a new character. In many games, once you've played it once or twice you know what's going to happen around each corner and the excitement is lost. Not so with Darkstone.
According to the game's description, there are multiple possibilities for each level of play, with at least three different quests available on each level. Each time a new character begins play, the game randomly determines which quests will be active within each level.
On top of that, there are of course 8 different characters based on four basic character types (one male and one female for each type), each with different skills. What this boils down to is that you can play this game many times without repeating a given set of quests, which keeps the interest factor up since you rarely know what will happen next just because you've already been there.
The other feature that makes this game really interesting is the sheer amount of time it can take to play. Anyone buying Darkstone for the Playstation One system should make sure they also buy a memory card with enough space to store the game, as there is zero chance you will finish the entire game in one sitting. Playing a few hours each night it took almost two months to get through the whole thing. I am now on my third pass through the game, this time with a female thief, and it is still a blast.
One thing that can make this game take a really LONG time is the separate quests on each level. Sometimes they are a bit obvious, but sometimes they are ridiculously complex. To make matters even worse, in a few of them you can screw up the sequence and manage to foreclose the possibility of completing the quest, which you must do to complete the crystal you need for the final conflict. There are websites that list ways to solve each quest, but I would recommend using these sparingly, as they can take the fun out of the game.
The sound is only average in this game but keep the sound on. This way you're character will cry out when he or she is near death and you can ignore the health bar in a battle and just run when you hear the comically tragic "Please, help!".
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