After spending quite some time with SEGA’s Sands of Destruction for the Nintendo DS, I can give you a verdict: Good, but should be loads better. I found myself saying, “What the hell?!” often actually. That’s exactly what I’ve felt in many spots within the game. While the gameplay value in between the millions of cut-scenes is really solid, there are still too many cinematics and the ending may leave you scratching your head.

First, let me mention that this game took me 24 hours to complete. I’m no gaming noob, and I don’t use strategy guides or cheat codes. So if you want something that you can casually come back to, this is a game for you. If you’re in a rush to finish it and see what’s next, you’ll be brought close to the end just to be yanked back away.

As for the plot: you’re a small town boy name Kyrie who gets in a bit of trouble and somehow or another turns everything around him into sand. After this, cut scenes explain why Morte (his soon to be lover in the game) is trying to destroy the world due to the Feral race’s ill treatment of humanity, you begin to uncover more about just how special Kyrie is. And later on in the game, he becomes really badass.

The actual gameplay consists of going from town to town, building to building, armor vendor to weapon, and so on. In between all this is the actual turn-based combat: which is in truth one of the most complicated and complex systems I’ve ever seen. After completing the game, I still don’t think I’ve mastered it–so that explains the learning curve.

There are different main physical moves: blow and flurry. Blows hit the enemy really hard and can have a range of effects suck as KO’ing them, throwing them in the air, knocking them out of the air, etc. Flurries are quick  (but weaker) hits that attack multiple simultaneously and boosts morale a bit (which allows you to keep hitting your enemy and eventually get to allow you to perform your special). There are life skills (buffs and healing) and blood skills (offensive purposes.) With all these, attacks can be combined and upgraded. Any more explanation really requires experimentation and internet research as the manual doesn’t do a great job of this.

And when you think that your strongest characters will stand up to anything, you won’t be able to use them due to complications in the storyline that you’ll have to play to see. This forces you to develop everyone in your party. You ultimately end up with six people.

The plotline actually gets pretty damned interesting in the middle of the story and stays very strong until the end. When it ends, you’ll probably just sit there  with a question mark  over your head. You likely won’t understand it (you’ll have a handful of unanswered questions at the end), but it’s safe to say that you’ll be set up for another game. To be fair: the emotional backstories in the dungeon is quite gripping.

Before you start thinking to yourself that you can quickly skip through the cut scenes, think again. There is no quest list of any sort in the game that updates itself to tells you where to go. The only way to know this is to pay attention to the dialogue in it all and then figure out where to go to continue your journey. This is probably the most frustrating part of the game as it forces you to listen/read it all. The puzzles will either motivate you or annoy you enough to make you want to turn off the game. They tend to be long, and often require backtracking.

I can’t begin to tell you how much the music sounded like Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes. If I were totally blind, then I’d say it’s the same game. Then again, there are also lots of voiced characters in this game. In fact, almost everyone is voiced and there is great voice acting to boot. That’s a relief from the loads of horrible acting I’ve seen in games.

Which leads me to graphics: hands-down the best graphics I’ve seen on a DSi game since playing Assassin’s Creed. The textures, colors and even the shadows are all impressive for a hand-held console game. To be honest, some of it looked like it was inspired by Final Fantasy VII.

There is no multiplayer feature to this game. Which is a true shame as after playing it once, there is no real re-playability factor to it. Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes had a very awesome multiplayer feature and it would be nice to at least see the heroes battle one another.

So is it worth buying? If you’re a casual gamer that doesn’t mind coming back to it at your leisure, then sure. Otherwise, hold off on the sequel. Hopefully they’ll fix lots of the problems which makes the game feel unfinished. The developers really desperately need to add in a quest log to make the game play smoother. Additionally, cut scenes need to be shorter or you need to be able to skip them. Further, the combat system needs to be made simpler or perhaps laid out in a chart form the way that Diablo‘s upgrade path lead you down. Other than that, you’ve got a really solid game.