Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled tells the story of Kairu. He is a boy without the power of magic. Unfortunate for him, the last person to not have magic was also an evil mastermind, Vai, that plunged the land of Bel Lenora into darkness. Needless to say, people are getting edgy that Kairu can't cast a spell to save his life. His adoptive father, the Duke who vanquished Vai, has no choice but to banish Kairu. The ever loyal Kairu is on a quest to prove his innocence and embarks on his journey to be a great knight.

What's Hot
If old school RPG games are your thing, Black Sigil will be a comfortable fit. The beginning all the way to the end of the game will remind any RPG stalwart of their favorite 16-bit game. The similarities are so striking that you might mistake this for a ported over title like other DS RPGs such as Chrono Trigger. In fact, most of the game attempts to recreate the magic and style of Chrono Trigger throughout the entire narrative. Neither are the characters bland nor the writing lacking. So in many respects, there is a lot going for the game in terms of making it feel like an epic RPG.

Black Sigil does relish in old school charm and glory but that didn't stop it from trying to introduce some newer mechanics. The battle system is something of a hybrid of active time battle system and a strategy RPG type battlefield layout. Black Sigil encourages moving freely around when you are engaged with an enemy. This is a drastically different approach than the traditional way of lining up the combatants and letting them exchange blows. You'll need to think about the situation before you start hammering away with your special moves.

What's Not
Black Sigil is an unpolished game, if there ever was one. There will be times when the game will freeze up on you, rendering your controls useless and forcing you to restart at your last save point. The first time it happened, it was particularly devastating because I hadn't saved a bunch of times. The menu system isn't all that intuitive, either. The battle system, while unique, needed some refinements to work properly. There will be plenty of times where you cannot attack because there is something or someone is blocking your path. You then need to use up one of your turns to get around the obstacle and then wait until you can perform an action again. To top it off, for the longest time I didn't think it was possible to run from a battle until I accidentally did (hold the B button).

You'll want to know how to run because the encounter rate is sky high.

Final Word
Black Sigil starts off slow and progressively gets more interesting. However, as the game continues, the problems with the battle system remain the same. There are going to be gamers that will devour this game and relish how this brand new adventure feels like a ported title from the 16-bit era and some more discerning RPG gamers will lament the fact that some polish and fine tuning weren't completed in time for the final product. Black Sigil can still boast some good writing and the graphic nostalgia might just be enough to get some attention to warrant a sequel... and more polish.