Mazes of Fate

Mazes of Fate is a first-person role-playing video game developed by Argentinian studio Sabarasa and published by Graffiti Entertainment for the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS. The Game Boy Advance version was released in North America on December 12, 2006.

A reconversion, titled Mazes of Fate DS, was released for the Nintendo DS on July 25, 2008 in Europe and on September 9, 2008 in North America. It improved on the original by fixing bugs present in the original, introducing a 3D engine in dungeons as a replacement of fake-3D, adding new secret areas in dungeons, and including new dungeon maps. A major bug in the DS port removed the challenge of combat by making nearly all enemies killable before they can approach the player and start counterattacking.

Plot
The dark fantasy world where the story is set is soon to be facing divine punishment. The ancient gods, disgusted by humanity’s pride, intend to wipe mankind out and replace it with a new, more submissive race of goatmen, but this plan is not unavoidable. One party of adventurers take it upon themselves to fight back "against overwhelming odds" so that humanity is not sentenced to a fate "that may be worse than death."

Traveling with the protagonist are potentially six allies, who gradually get recruited, or ask to join the adventurers.

Gameplay
Mazes of Fate is a real-time first-person role-playing game in which the player takes controls of up to three characters. It bears similarities to older games in its genre, including Eye of the Beholder. When the player starts the game, he or she can either choose from three different pre-generated characters - a Warrior, a Rogue, and a Mage - or create a custom character. The Warrior's abilities are tilted towards power, the Rogue's abilities are tilted towards speed and thief-related abilities, and the Mage's abilities are tilted towards magic and spells. In the DS version of the game, the number of pre-generated characters player may choose from is increased to seven. In addition to the original three characters, he or she can also play as a Priest, an Assassin (an agile warrior using mostly daggers and knives), a Valkyrie (a different type of warrior specializing in two-handed and ranged weapons), or as an alternative type of Warrior specializing in two-handed weapons. The game has three different types of areas the player can explore - dungeons, the overworld, and civilized locations. The dungeons are the primary area where battles are fought, the overworld is a hub which leads to dungeons and civilized locations, and civilized locations often act to advance the story and purchase and sell items.

Development
Mazes of Fate was developed by Argentinean developer Sabarasa for the Game Boy Advance and directed by Javier Otaegui. The development team consisted of approximately 15 people as well as some external workers assisting. Development began in 2003, taking approximately 2 and a half years to finish. The GBA was chosen for Mazes of Fate because of it being comparatively easier to make games on. Otaegui took inspiration from multiple role-playing games, including Chrono Trigger, Fallout, and Eye of the Beholder. The visual design of the game is a combination of Japanese anime and South American art styles. He stated that the choice of making a first-person role-playing game on the GBA was due to a lack of quality attempts on the platform. The developer experienced issues during development due to them being relatively new to game development and their region's lack of console game development history. The game's publisher, Graffiti Entertainment, assisted in development.

Reception
The Game Boy Advance version received "mixed" reviews, while the DS version received "generally unfavorable reviews", according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.

Sales were affected by the fact that in 2006, when the game was published the life cycle of the Game Boy Advance was ending since the Nintendo DS was already available.