Azure Dreams takes place in the desert town of Monsbaiya. A remote frontier town, it’s located next to the Monster Tower, a mysterious structure brimming with both fantastic treasure and vicious monsters. Fortune-seekers from all over come to Monsbaiya in the hopes of striking it rich by collecting Monster Eggs from the tower and selling them for big cash. You play as Koh, a boy living in Monsbaiya, who has slightly more noble desires - he simply wants to help is struggling family.
Most of the action takes place in the Monster Tower, but what sets Azure Dreams apart from the standard Mysterious Dungeon-type gameplay are all of the things you can do in town, like build new houses or win over the numerous girls that live in town. These dating and simulation elements add a significant layer of depth to the dungeon crawling.
If you're familiar with any of Chunsoft's Mysterious Dungeon games (a few were released in America, including Square's Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 2 and Torneko: The Last Hope), you'll be quite at home with Azure Dreams. The majority of the game is spent in the Monster Tower. Once inside, your goal is simple: get to the top. All you have to do is find the elevator on the floor, while collecting items and fighting the other monsters you encounter on your way. Each floor is randomly generated, although a few are constant. All the action is semi-real time, meaning that for every move you make, the enemy makes one move as well.
You can take up to five items when entering, although your familiar counts as an item. Your familiars will be controlled by the AI, but you can change their attack settings or control then directly if you want. It makes the game move pretty quickly, as there are no random encounters and you can clearly see enemies as they approach. You also have an auto-map in the corner of your screen, and you can full-size it and continue to walk around at the same time.
A special note should be made of the traps in the game. While some are harmless, there are times when a trap can completely ruin your day. Some of the more malicious ones are Go Up, which sends you to the next floor. Not bad, unless your familiar steps on it and you're about to fight a tough monster. Chaos, which muddles your familiar and makes him attack you, and Monster Den, where suddenly monsters flood the room you're in. All traps are invisible until you either use an item that shows where they are, or walk over them. They definitely add a bit of suspense to the game and keep you on your toes.
Every time you leave the Tower, Koh drops back down to level 1. However, your familiar retains whatever level it was at before you left. So basically you'll be tackling the Tower bit by bit, leveling your familiar and pushing up as high as you can, then exiting. Later on, you'll find a collar that allows you to control two familiars, either simultaneously or one at a time. But there is a catch - your familiar's MP will slowly decrease over time, which you need to restore with items like a Pita Fruit or herbs. If their MP hits zero, they'll become immobile. Fortunately, if they die, you won't lose them permanently. However, if Koh dies, it's a completely different story. You'll lose all of the items in your inventory (except for familiars and their levels) and end up back home. It's not a "Game Over", but it'll penalize you. The only way to safely leave the Tower is with the Wind Crystal, but you'll have to find one first. Like all items, their appearances are randomly generated, so you can really only leave the Tower when the game decides to let you.
Koh himself is somewhat helpless. Due to the fact that his level resets, you'll rely a lot on your familiars. He can equip a wand or a sword, as well as a shield, which can be strengthened with rare items, but he won't do much damage himself. Most of the time, you'll be supporting your familiar by healing it, using spell-casting items, or simply throwing crappy items at the enemy for small amounts of damage. There are quite a few items, such as orbs that cast magic, scrolls and bells that do a variety of effects, and seeds to strengthen/weaken monsters. It gets pretty interesting if you have a variety of items, because it's possible for you to take down some strong enemies with some clever thinking.
Other than training your familiar, the second most important goal is finding more Monster Eggs. You can hatch them inside the tower for a temporary ally, but can't take them back with you. If you do bring them home, you can then sell the egg for cash, or keep it, either to have a second familiar to build up, or to fuse it with another of your familiars. Monsters come in with wind/water/fire attributes, with a rocks/paper/scissors effect triangle. Fusing them can change the element of the monster, give it special abilities, new magic, and more strength. However, fusing two monsters just change stats around and won't create any unique monsters doing this, unlike the Megami Tensei games. While not required, it can make the game easier by fusing monsters to get desired traits and magic. Also, some monsters evolve after hitting a specific level.
When you're not questing in the Monster Tower, you can attempt to earn the affections of any of the girls around town, each of which is won through a different method. The goal is to pimp it up and get all of the ladies to like you, so there's no fear to jilting one in favor of another. Some, like Nico and Selfi are rather easy to woo, but other girls like Vivian and Cherral are a little more difficult. They're fun sub quests, but you don't really get anything much out of it. With your money you can also build new buildings or make some improvements to existing ones. You can expand your monster hut to allow for more monster storage, or simply construct a bigger house for your family. However, most of the others, like the gym, arcade, and pool are just dumb minigames. A neat touch is that as you progress through the Tower and build more buildings, people's attitudes towards you (except Ghosh's) will become more respectful.
Graphically, the game isn't so hot. The floors inside the Tower itself are a bunch of rooms hanging in space connected by pathways, with different textures slapped on every few floors or so. The character models look like someone took simple 3D models and slapped pixelated paint all over them - not so pretty. The artwork itself is very nice, and when you talk to NPCs such as the various girls they have a character portrait with small animations. They also have multiple pictures which change depending on their relationship with you. The music is also unremarkable. Each girl has their own theme but unless you sit next to them, it'll be brief. The Tower and town music, while nothing terrible, is forgettable and will just be in the back of your head as you play.
The Japanese and American games are pretty much the same deal. There are several rumors regarding Azure Dreams that have been floating around for years upon years. You can't marry any of the girls in the Japanese version, and you can't get Ghosh as a boyfriend. The marriage rumor is understandable, as the description of the ring in Fur's shop implies that you can propose, but you can't. As for Ghosh, when you go to the save screen, along the bottom the head of each girl that you've successfully wooed appears. The rumor was Ghosh was the last spot rather than Kewne, but he's not. The only difference is that the girls in the Japanese version have audio voices. Otherwise, it's the same game.
When it comes down to it, Azure Dreams is like many of the other dungeon crawlers out there, albeit with a few unique additions. While it's nice to get the girls and build new places, nothing really comes of it all. In fact, many of the buildings you make will only be to unlock the various girls. It would have really been a cool feature if maybe getting a girl would give you a bonus, or even if you could bring one into the Tower and assign them their own familiar. Still, it's something fun to do other than grind in the Tower. The music and graphics don't really stand out (especially in this day and age), and the plot is rather tame (although refreshingly low-key and drama free) but the game is good at what it does. While it can be difficult if you go for a long stretch without finding a Wind Crystal, if you like these types of games, then it's worth checking out. If you don't already, this nichy title probably won't convince you otherwise.
