The 3DS Guild Games, Ranked

Level 5's experimental anthology is a mixed bag of ludic treats

I recently got my hands on a 3DS, unfortunately rather perfectly in time with the closure of the eShop, and after a comfortable afternoon of ‘extremely not legal but morally justifiable’ tinkering I was able to access a library of games that sadly are no longer available for purchase.

The titles I was most excited to get my hands on were Level-5’s Guild series. Two 'compilations' of games, Guild01 and Guild02 released in 2012 and 2013 respectively. These were smaller titles focused on core mechanics as a sort of experiment of what you could create if you didn’t have to worry about making a full retail game. 

And the results were…well, mixed. For me at least there’s a clear delineation between the anthology’s triumphs and tribulations, although I will concede that there is at least a minimum level of quality throughout. I want to talk about what I personally think did and didn’t work about all of them.

So I made a ranking list. Worst to best. Please don’t take it too seriously. It’s almost entirely based on vibes.

Weapon Shop de Omasse

It is a truth universally acknowledged that crafting systems suck. 

Ok, I don’t personally believe this, but it’s hard to argue against the fact that for any game for which it features, it's never really the most compelling part. 

But what if someone made crafting the whole game? Put their creative energy and focus into making what would otherwise be ancillary nonsense an essential and compelling vision of mechanics and storytelling? 

Well, you would end up with something like Weapon Shop de Omasse, a torturous one note rhythm action game that drags itself out way too long.

The premise of the game is that you run a weapons for hire service, renting out the right weapons to the right warriors based on their specific requests so that they can complete their personal quests. In doing so, you can help build them up and increase the weapons strength, with a final confrontation with the nondescript big bad on the horizon, a dread inducing presence slowly creeping along the timeline.

Making the weapons is a matter of getting a piping hot slab of metal and hammering at it in rhythm to a rather basic tune before dunking it in a cold bath to finish it off. You can add additional materials to gain additional effects. Beyond this there isn't much else to it.

In principle, a great idea for a game, however in practice it buckles itself to static ideas with a religious fervour, it's very stingy with new features or even variation on old ones to the degree that after the first 2-3 hours I lost interest completely. 

There’s a really unsteady meandering quality to the whole experience that means you often spend a lot of time waiting around for people to come see you, the requests are all too easy to fulfil and there’s only so much weapon polishing you can do before people start to ask questions. Other folk need to use the bathroom too, you know!

It’s a shame because this was the one I was most excited about when I first learned of its existence. I feel like if this were a slightly bigger project with at least a little variation in the crafting, it would be a way more palatable experience. As it stands, a single note played monotonal ad infinitum? A bit of a snoozefest I’m afraid.

Aeroporter

Aeroporter, by comparison, feels like the perfect game. Short, concise and with a dynamic central mechanic, the reason it is so low in this ranking is not for any failure on its part but rather that it properly challenges the player’s hand eye coordination, of which I personally have none, and as a result I didn't get very far with it.

The game puts you in charge of a dinky little airport, where you have to ensure that the right colour luggage goes on the right colour planes. Through a system of conveyor belts and extendable ramps that push baggage across multiple floors, there’s a really fiendish challenge to be found, and an almost pinball quality to the controls. The trigger buttons activate the ramps to drop or lift passenger’s belongings and the key is in the timings to ensure only the bags you want end up where you want them.

Success begets bigger airports and more complex puzzles, with a terrifyingly omnipresent timer pushing your patience to the limit throughout. If this is what it's like in real airports then no bloody wonder baggage goes missing all the time.

It’s a brilliant little thing that unfortunately is a bit too fiddly for me. I’m sure some of you would get a real kick out of it.

Crimson Shroud

A strange entry, this. You have a game that so clearly is inspired by tabletop roleplaying, relying on dice rolls in combat, your characters modelled after…well, models. But in reality a lot of what Crimson Shroud is doing is aesthetic, and at its heart it’s more of a traditional jrpg. Which makes sense given how the latter is built from the legacy of the former. 

There are some interesting notes being struck here and there: how the game handles equipment and strengthening your party, and there’s a kind of spreadsheet quality to the menus that I really like. It feels, well, not so much 'janky' as it does like a prototype, but not in a derogatory way, rather as though that’s the tone it’s going for. Something for which I have a lot of time.

It's another title I didn't finish by virtue of losing motivation early on, combat is unfortunately rather glacial for my tastes. I value a certain level of zippiness in my handheld games, but this is no fault of the game itself. When you only have around an hour a day to actually play the damn things you get to be a bit nitpicky about these things.

I really liked what it was doing, how boldly it stuck to its guns on its core identity and it has a great art style that I'd love to see something similar on modern platforms. Whether or not the narrative had a good pay off, I have no idea, but it’s definitely something worth sinking a few hours into, if nothing else to see a different way of presenting this genre.

I'll probably come back to this one when I don't have a double digits backlog going on.

Bugs vs Tanks

Earth Defence Force is a series that I've only really dabbled in, but there's an undeniable appeal to blasting away at swarms of nightmarish giant insects. It's a primal fear: that which normally is small suddenly towering over you, that which bears no resemblance to you, for which you have no frame of reference for. Not a villain, for this is a thing beyond the pitiful limitations of human morality. No, this is something different. An ever marching beast of war motivated only by scattering your remains across the continent.

Bugs Vs Tanks is a really fun arcade-y thing that channels this same energy, albeit in a slightly less horrific manner. Its a game that has a really nice style to it, tense firefights and a daft 50s sci Fi story. Obviously not meant to be taken seriously.

It has a mission based structure that tasks you to rescue from, defend against or outright kill hordes of giant ants. I say giant, they’re normal size, you're just miniature. You're trapped in the undergrowth of someone's garden, fortifying your position as you figure out how to get out of this mess.

It’s not something I had the interest to follow through to the end but for such a small scale idea there seems to be a lot of content. Around 50 missions, tank customisation. For the price it sold at, I think this one deserves a pat on the back. Well done.

Attack of the Friday Monsters

I think at this point a lot of you have probably watched Tim Rogers’ six hour video essay about Boku no Natsuyasumi, the cult classic summer vacation sim that never quite saw the light of day over in the west. And I'm sure many of you found through Tim’s beautiful poetic musings a powerful burning desire to play it, or a similar game.

There’s something very pleasant in the idea of a game all about mulling around, letting moments of profound emotional entanglement be small and unassuming, and a commitment to game mechanics holding more meaning than just extrinsic.

Although not quite in the same spirit of things, Attack of the Friday Monsters is definitely a worthy entry in this genre. Scooting around a small Japanese village collecting cards, hanging out with friends, mentally preparing for the end of week kaiju attack that’s slowly become less a disaster and more like the return of a cool spectacle, along the way maybe discovering that all is not quite what it seems.

 It’s a really lovely time. The setting feels gorgeous and serene but has a few supernatural qualities that blend in really well.  I think it's greatest success, much with it's predecessor, is artificing a specific time and place in such a way that even were you divorced from the cultural history that inspired it, you would intrinsically understand what it is that the game is trying to emulate. It’s a game about the potency of nostalgia more than anything.

Small rural avenues intermingled with childlike imagination. The pressures of adult life slight and as hidden as can be to allow the kids a safe space to play and dream and think of a world far beyond our own. 

Keeping to a relatively small cast and run time does it a huge wealth of favours too. I felt in playing it that it was exactly the right length for the story it was trying to tell. Probably not quite as profound as Boku no Nasuyatsumi, but definitely just as enjoyable to immerse yourself in.

It loses a point though because I didn't particularly like the card game.

Liberation Maiden

This is a lot of fun. A fast, violent mech shooter with bucket loads of style. Over 5 missions you travel a vast world, taking out alien warriors, facing down wildly fucked up mechanical monstrosities all the while with a question in the back of your head sits and stews. Well, the protagonists head, not yours. You're too busy doing wicked shit in your flying mech to care about conspiracy or political strife.

Liberation Maiden is a game that makes looking cool feel effortless, even if it's control scheme is a little awkward at times. You all know about the 3DS claw? Yeah, that whole situation. Thankfully due to how the game is built around this biological evolutionary flaw of ours, there's a nice tactility to swiping the stylus across the bottom screen, immediately locking on to every faceless cur in the vicinity and letting loose a barrage of fire and brimstone.

It also does that incredibly cool mech thing of sometimes you have a sword, only this time you do the physical motion of unsheathing too. Incredibly satisfying.

It's a great game. I have nothing profound to say about it. It rules. 

The Starship Damrey

The Starship Damrey starts you off with a disclaimer: there is no tutorial. You aren't told what buttons do what. A fundamental part of the experience is discovering what the game wants of you by yourself.

And god, what a cracking little experience this turned out to be. A mysterious adventure game that has you navigate your way around an abandoned spaceship, your physical body trapped in some horribly claustrophobic coffin, with only a monitor being your access to the outside world.

Those opening moments are wildly creative, a beautiful puzzle box that opens itself up to a compelling quest of navigation and working your way around obstacles. I feel like the game does show you everything long before the credits roll, but I found myself glued to the screen throughout, as I teetered tenuously around this haunted vessel, solving puzzles and scooting around corridors, stopping only briefly to shit myself whenever a jump scare occurs. It's not really a horror game but for some reason there's a ghost larking about. I don't know. It's a weird story.

The Starship Damrey is a wonderful little thing, my favourite of the Guild games by a country mile, and a real breath of fresh air to return to after this recent era of games not willing to go more than 2 minutes without telling you what to do. I want another 10 of these.

I don't really know where to go from here. There isn't a Guild03. They don't make handhelds like the 3DS anymore. I'm curious to know if there are any spiritual successors, or titles in a similar vein out there. If I find enough of them, maybe I'll do a follow up post.

What was your favourite of these games? Have you played anything similar? Leave a comment below, if you like, and have a great week.