to block and reduce damage from enemy attacks, or evade them with quick steps via circle strafing and an automatic lock-on system. To cast magic spells, whose names are ancient Greek words (for instance, astrape for thunder and iaomai for healing), the player must trace out runic Kirie symbols across a 3 x 3 grid, using one unbroken stroke of the stylus over select squares in the grid. Spells cost mana and most spells must be learned either through leveling up or from reading Kirie slates that will teach particular spells. Players can only save their progress by talking to certain non-playable characters, and save points serve as checkpoints; should the player fall in battle from losing all health or getting hit by a death spell, unsaved progress is forfeited and the player must reload a previously saved game. Shawn and Ace's story also makes use of the microphone, in which the player must blow or scream to it in order to advance the story. Development Deep Labyrinth was developed by Interactive Brains, with Masato Kato writing the game's scenario and Yasunori Mitsuda composing its music. The game is billed as the first 3D RPG for Japanese mobile phones. Reception According to Nasaki Takeda, CEO and CTO of Interactive Brains, the mobile phone release of Deep Labyrinth was very popular, having been downloaded nearly 100,000 times prior to its North American DS launch. In Japan, Famitsu gave the DS version a score of one eight and three sixes, for a total of 26 out of 40. Elsewhere, though, the port received "mixed" reviews according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. Notes References External links Official website (Nintendo DS version) Atlus / Interactive Brains interview 505 Games games 2004 video games Atlus games Nintendo DS games Mobile games Role-playing video games Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Yasunori Mitsuda Single-player video games