Why are these simple simulation games always so addictive? I started Iron Master three days ago and it’s been slow at times and frustrating at (many, many) times but I haven’t been able to put it down.
The story and premise are simple: there’s a war going on, and you’re a blacksmith. Blacksmith+war = weapons+money. There’s a background story about empires at war and legendary weapons and blacksmiths being killed or kidnapped, but it doesn’t have much to do with your activities so far.
Iron Master is part selling sim, part item creation game. It’s quite similar to games like Recettear and Lemuore no Renkinjutsushi (the latter more than the former) in that you are not a fighter or an adventurer – though there are plenty of those in the game – you’re a a creator and a salesperson. Your objective is to make weapons and armor, sell them to buy more material to make more weapons and armor, keep doing that until you get access to new weapons and armor, make and sell more of those, and on and on and on until you get tired of the game.
The sales part is very simple and straightforward. Make the item, display it in your store, people come in and buy what they want. Adventurers also place orders sometimes, which you can accept or refuse as you see fit. Nothing difficult about that. The blacksmithing process, on the other hand, is pretty complex and highly failure-prone. I’d explain, but there’s an Engrish trailer out there (a leftover from a failed localization attempt), so I’ll let that do the talking:
If I had to liken the process to another DS game, it would be… Lost in Blue, I guess? I remember chopping and carving and sharpening a number of items in all three LiB games. This is far more complex though. Casting, chopping, cutting, tempering, stretching, hammering, melting… and it seems like there’s more I haven’t unlocked yet. I’ve only unlocked bows, knives, spears, clubs and axes, nary a helmet or piece of armor or jewelry in sight. I haven’t even made half the stuff shown in that video, so I still have a loooong way to go.
Unfortunately the fact that you have to go through these same steps every single time you want to create something is a huge drawback that may very well prevent me from completing the game. It’s all great fun the first 20, 30, 40 times you saw a piece of wood, after that, well it’s still fun right now but I can see the clouds on the horizon. It would have really helped if they made it so you could “register” mastered weapons and make them faster next time. Or have helpers like in the Atelier series. Or at least cut out some steps, since you’re supposed to be a master of weapon making.
Still, I get to make new things at a steady pace, and the process is always slightly different for every weapons so it’s still quite interesting. I’ll quit when it gets too much for me, but I’m still really, really into this game right now.
As for Suikoden II… well… Yah. I’m still playing it. An hour here, 30 minutes there, whenever I feel like it. Nothing new to report on that score.
ahnw i loved your blog, you have likes very like me, the diference is that i dont know japanese haha, i only can read hiragana yet, but better than nothing i think haeueah, i liked this game too :3 its diferent from the most games i had played. I LOVE lost in blue Tokimemo too *-* they are all so fantastic!
continue with the blog and playing!
Thanks for reading! Keep up the Japanese studies, you won’t regret it!
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