While the DS has seen numerous titles in the last year, the one genre that has been surprisingly absent is the RPG. A few, like Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, have managed to sneak their way into the DS’s line-up, but few offer that defining RPG experience fans are looking for. Tao’s Adventure: Curse of the Demon Seal is Konami’s attempt at giving players that experience.

Tao’s Adventure does a great job of making the most out of the DS’s limited 3D functions. This is a really good example of a game’s art style trumping the limitations of hardware – a concept more developers should explore. The bright, crisp visuals really give the game its own personality; it’s a shame that the gameplay can’t back it up. The visual presentation’s downside is that levels are blocky and not all that much to look at. So, even though art direction can help to make up for some technical shortcomings, there’s still a limit to what you can do with the hardware.

Audio is handled in the same manner as visuals. Music is decent, though nothing worth getting worked up over. Still, it fits with the game’s charm, so it is hard to fault it otherwise.

The game’s plot revolves around a giant tower located in the town of Mondominio. The tower has become something of an amusement park for would-be adventurers and fortune hunters looking to snatch the valuable monster eggs contained in the tower. After lightning hits the tower, the tower’s seal is broken, unleashing the monsters from tower. Free of their prison, the monsters find their way to the small island town of Bente, leaving most of the town’s inhabitants turned into stone in their wake. Since the village elders are, well…old, it falls on a fledging spell-caster named Tao to travel to the tower and recover a special egg that can save the town.

Tao’s Adventure is your standard dungeon crawl. Most of your time is spent navigating through each of the tower’s labyrinthine floors. Think of it as Diablo, only instead of going down you’re going up and you’re not having nearly as much fun. After taking on the first few floors, Tao’s problems begin to really shine. Action never really changes from one floor to the next; you enter a floor, clear it of monsters and loot, return to town to save and well… that’s pretty much it. Other than boss fights every five or so floors, there really isn’t enough depth here to keep players interested for that long.

A Poke’mon-like multiplayer mode has also been included, allowing you to trade and battle the monsters you find in the tower. Incidentally, multiplayer showcases more potential than the single-player game.

The most obvious hurdle faced in Tao’s Adventure is getting used to the multitude of functions the touch screen is used for. Even if you somehow manage to wrangle the controls, other elements will likely keep it inaccessible to anyone but the hardcore players. One of the more grievous errors is that in order to save the game, you must first exit the tower and go to an inn. Were this a console game, it wouldn’t be as big an issue, but in a handheld this is a major problem. Also, item descriptions aren’t all that helpful, which leads to confusing gameplay.

Tao’s Adventure falls into the same trap as many early DS titles; it tries to force the touch functions into the game. While most developers have begun to wise up and use the touch screen only where it makes sense, Tao’s Adventure uses it for nearly everything – from spell-casting to inventory management to movement. Such extensive use of the touch pad is unnecessary and overly complicated.

Using the touch pad for spell-casting is especially cumbersome. In order to use any of Tao’s spells, you’ll have to doodle a symbol on the bottom screen. At first it sounds like a neat idea, but it really doesn’t work all that well during the game. First off, you have to pull up a special casting screen before casting a spell, then you have to remember the correct symbol. With over 40 spells in the game, it is unlikely you’ll remember them all, so you’ll also have to thumb through Tao’s spell book, adding another step in an already cumbersome task. The task became such a hassle that I actually found myself using magic only when I really needed to.

With the exception of presentation, there are major breakdowns on nearly every level of Tao’s Adventure. Gamplay isn’t interesting and the controls are a mangled mess. Except for the few die-hard dungeon crawler fans out there, Tao’s Adventure is hard to recommend.