The overall design may not be too original, but it does have some interesting aspects. The story follows a young boy named Tao whose home town has been completely destroyed by legions of monsters. The entire story is based around the Demon Tower, which has allowed the people of Modomino to live in peace for generations, holding the evil of the world within its walls. Of course, one terrible day the tower is struck by lightning, and in a series of all-too-common events, young Tao is the only person qualified to save the world. The story may not be winning a Pulitzer any time soon, but it manages to set the stage just fine. From there, Tao's Adventure consists of a few different styles of RPG gameplay. Tao himself has the ability to air-cast, a technique that uses the stylus to draw out shapes, much like in Castlevania DS. Aside from his own attacks, Tao can capture monsters that he battles and use them as his allies (Pokemon?) as he climbs the tower. Battles are turn-based, though when attacking, the bottom screen is used to display a grid a la Final Fantasy Tactics. These elements should come together to create a quality balance of RPG features, but that simply isn't the case.
It seems that every promising aspect of Tao's Adventure has been plagued by terrible use of the DS hardware. To kick things off, Tao supports almost no button control aside from the standard d-pad, so if stylus gameplay isn't your cup-o'-tea, there's no love for your play style. DS was created to offer a new style of play, but to ignore eight buttons on a system for the majority of the game is simply a waste. Character movement is done on a touch d-pad, which allows for eight directions. To run, players double tap the direction. Since it isn't true analog control, however, the precision that the touch screen offers is no different from using the pad itself and feels completely wasted. Why control via a non-tangible touch screen when it offers the same precision as actually feeling a d-pad with your thumb?
When navigating the world, everything is done with touch interface as well. Even talking to an NPC can seem like a chore, as players will have to navigate with the touch screen and tap the "talk" icon on the screen, which is in small, plain text. In fact, every action in the game, including picking up items, attacking, using magic, or even walking away from a conversation is simply listed in tiny text on the bottom screen. Was it really too difficult to allow players to pick up items with A, or back out of a conversation with the B button in conjunction with the touch control? Apparently so.
The DS hardware was made to give designers options in gameplay, and Tao's control isn't an issue simply because it fails to provide traditional and innovative gameplay -- it is an issue because neither option feels comfortable. There's nothing wrong with giving players a different experience in control, it just better be as good as the original. After all, if it ain't broke, don't break it. Unfortunately, nearly every aspect of the design is plagued by poor touch-screen usage. Menu items don't highlight, nor do map locations, so the player never knows when they actually hit the desired button. In fact, many of the map items are amazingly tiny, some ranging as small as a 4 x 4 pixel tile. Again, it's frustrating enough to deal with poor touch interface, not to mention buttons that don't do anything. Games like Advance Wars DS and Another Code have blended touch and tactile control seamlessly, so Tao's control is a shocking step backwards.
Even if players work through the flawed touch control, Tao's Adventure doesn't offer a whole lot of depth. The exploration and monster collection feels a ton like Dragon Warrior Monsters, as the majority of gameplay is level to level and gets repetitive aside from the collection aspects. Battles are turn-based, but allow for some free movement between attacks as well. While the fighting may not be incredibly deep -- run, attack, cast magic, use item -- it is entertaining for a while, and if players can get into the strategy of magic elements along with their companion monsters there is actually some decent dungeon crawling to be had. The problem is it's just too repetitive. Aside from leveling up the same spells higher and higher, the only true progression in the game is to climb up the tower. Levels get more and more difficult, but never really offer a ton of diversity. Take a generic level, fill it with monsters, add a boss or simple magic-based puzzle and repeat. Battles won't hold most players through the duration of the game, and it really boils down to how much time will be spent in an obviously flawed RPG.
That anxiety of playing a less than desirable adventure on a system that has shown nothing but promise is what will throw so many gamers off Tao's Adventure. Not only is the gameplay less than expected on the DS, but the presentation is far too simplistic, hurting the overall product as well. Menus often use basic text and no real explanation of how best to use items or techniques. One of the biggest no-brainers deals with the map, which displays on the touch screen. Since the map is displayed on the touch screen, and the top screen is showing the character and world, the game pauses when it's activated. It would make sense that the player could use the map on the fly, but since the game relies entirely on touch navigation the map actually replaces the controller while it's activated. The fact that players are frozen while looking at the map is baffling, as the very example of an on-screen map is constantly used as a justification for the DS's second screen. Now we have two screens displaying important info, but still hindering gameplay to look at them? Problems like these run rampant in the design, and it hurts bad.
While the DS isn't known as a solid 3D machine, Tao's Adventure actually pulls it off relatively well. The control may be an issue, but the art style does have its appeal. It may be simple, but it's got a personality to it. Since a ton of space was devoted to the art, however, there aren't too many effects added on top of the basics. Magic spells are relatively basic (until the final levels), and the world feels a bit too barren of life. Tao's Adventure handles the audio presentation in the same fashion. The score sounds reminiscent of classic S-NES compositions, and while the quality could be better, the tracks do add to the experience nicely. Tao's sound effects consist of the classic grunts and bumps of nearly every RPG before it, though it offers no character voice-overs or complex audio to speak of. Presentation as a whole is generic, yet passable.