Ah Dragon Quest. What RPG gamer DOESN’T like that series? One of the most influential RPG series ever, and also one of the most popular. This is a remake of the fifth game in the series. It was originally released on the Super Famicom in Japan, and eventually got a PS2 re-release(with upgraded graphics!) in Japan as well. This is the first time the game comes out in English (yeah, I know there’s unofficial translations, I played those too), and it’s completely revamped.

Is the DS version any good? Read on and see what I have to say about it!

Looks and sounds
This game is part of the 3 remakes SE are making of Dragon Quest games: 4, 5 and 6. I have played the DS version of 4 and am pretty excited for DQVI. But there I go and see this game suffers from Star Ocean PSP remakes syndrome. Remember how I mentioned in my Star Ocean: Second Evolution review that the graphic and gameplay engine in both Star Ocean remakes were exactly the same? Well they’ve done it again. Square Enix used the exact same graphic engine from the DQIV remake in the DQV remake. There’s pretty much no change at all between both of them, other than character sprites. The environment is in 3D (it looks fine, not the best 3D ever but it does the job) and the characters/monsters/whatever are 2D sprites (completely revamped from the SNES version). That’s all fine, but was it too much to ask for the games to not use the exact same engine? Really?

Well, the graphics look fine, there’s a good variety of locales and such. Not exactly as good as the PS2 remake of the same game(which, judging from videos, looks pretty damn good), but still good enough. It just feels like they could’ve done more than that.

The game sounds fine. The music is what you’d expect from a Dragon Quest game. The rest of the sounds are the same as in the DQIV remake but that’s to be expected.

Story (minor spoilers)
I quite like the story here. It takes a different approach than any previous Dragon Quest game, or any previous RPG for that matter, and very few games did something like this. One of the things I really like here is that you go through the whole life of the character you control. You see his birth, then you go through a few adventures during his childhood(when he’s around 5-7 years old), then you do stuff 10 years later, then you get married, have kids, and continue your adventure with wife and kids in tow. 

The story itself is not too bad. Other original thing though: You don’t control the hero. You just control… some guy who’s had an unlucky childhood. After trying to save a Prince and being stopped by a mage of sorts, your father dies protecting you, and you and the Prince are taken as slaves. As your father dies, you are told your mom is still alive and you are tasked to finding her. 10 years later, you’re still a slave, building a temple of sorts. You help another slave and you escape the slave camps or whatever and you go back to places you’ve already been. In your Father’s hometown you find a sword and are told that you need to find the legendary hero who can wield the sword. And that hero is obviously not you as the sword drains your energy when you try using it(and you can’t actually equip it). The rest of the game centers around trying to find the magical equipment for the Legendary Hero and finding said hero, getting married and getting kids on the way (who obviously join your party).

Overall I really like the way they take on the story. It’s different from the usual “You have to save the world” tale, or at least a different take on it. It’s original and pretty interesting. The only thing that could’ve been done better is the characters, I feel they could be a lot more interesting.

Gameplay
This game follows the exact same gameplay as the SNES version. Which is pretty much the same gameplay as with the NES games. It’s as basic as an RPG can be.

In battle you get the usual “Attack, Magic, Item, Defense” choices, nothing special here. Targeting is like the previous title. Instead of targeting particular enemies, you target groups. Let’s say you get in a battle with 2 slimes and 2 dragons, you’ll target either the 2 slimes or the 2 dragons and you can’t choose exactly which one you want to target. You want to hit the dragon on the right? Just hope the game decides it’s the one you hit. It’s kinda annoying, but it still works. There’s weapons that target entire groups (there’s 7 slimes in your way? just hit them all with a whip!) or even all the enemies.

The one new element here is the monster “capturing”. It works almost exactly as it does in the Dragon Quest Monster games. After buying a wagon, you can capture monsters. That’s done by… hoping they join you after beating them in battle. There’s a limit to the number of monsters you can have, and that limit changes depending on the number of human characters you have in your party. But, in general, monsters seem more powerful. The difference is that they’re a bit more limited to what they can equip than human characters.

Otherwise, we’ll there’s not THAT much to do. Talk to people in towns for hints at where to go next, advance the story, go to casinos with simple mini-games (including the board game where you can find treasure and fight monsters, finding good stuff if you get to the end), and go through dungeons, which are mostly big caves and castles that you need to traverse to get to the big boss fight. There’s rarely any puzzles to do, and if there are they’re quite simple. There’s also a few sidequests.

Overall
Dragon Quest is one of the essential RPG series out there, and the series of remakes is a pretty good idea, moreso for American DQ fans that never got to play 5 and 6(coming sometime this year, probably). This one offers a relatively original story, the monster capturing is fun as it enables you to build a team as you want it (you CAN go through the game without that though, it’s optional) and the gameplay is simple yet fun.

A good pick if you want a good RPG on the DS. I’m a bit annoyed that SE just reused the same graphics and gameplay engine for this one like they did with the Star Ocean remakes, but it’s a good entry anyways… let’s hope they won’t do that with the third Dragon Quest remake…

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I was pretty surprised when this was announced, and even more when it suddenly came out. Having played quite a bit of RO (on private servers) back when I was in high school, I was pretty excited to see what they’d do with it on the DS.

First things first though. This game is in Japanese. I don’t know Japanese. I did manage to understand most of the basic gameplay and navigation through menus, but because of my complete lack of Japanese knowledge I have no idea what to do in quests and what the story is about, and there’s lots of stuff I just don’t know about the game. So don’t count this as a review, but more of a first impressions thing coming from an old RO fan. Also, this will be a relatively short post.

MOAR after the jump!

Graphics
When completely zoomed in, the graphics are near identical to the PC version. Yeah, surprised me. But being completely zoomed in makes the game pretty much unplayable, so you have to zoom out at least once, which lowers the graphical quality quite a bit. But otherwise the game uses pretty much the same graphics as before. The same monster and character sprites(though for now “bosses” were just bigger monster sprites and looked like ass), the same NPC sprites, the same item sprites, everything is the same.
The spell effects I can’t really tell. I haven’t seen that many other than some bolts, and the magnum break (which I never used in the PC version), and the other spells I’ve seen were used by a Shaman, who doesn’t exist in the PC version.
Overall though the game retains pretty much the same quality as the PC version of RO. 

Sound
Just a passing mention. As of now the sound effects I’ve heard are all exactly the same as in the PC version. The music though seems slightly changed, even if it’s the same tracks. And not all the music from the PC version is here.
The only annoying thing is that, when you’re in a map that might have enemies, you always hear the Poring sound, whether or not there’s something around, which can get annoying. 

Gameplay
Don’t get too surprised when I say this: The game plays almost exactly like the PC version! *gasp*
Well there is one major difference: It’s not online! Despite having “online” in the title, the game itself isn’t. There is one part of the game you can connect  with other players. After going far enough in the game (which I didn’t because I’m currently stuck), you can access the Mirage Tower, which is a 50-level tower with increasing difficulty, and you can either go it alone with a few NPCs at hand, or play with other people online. Yay. Kinda sucks for a game with ONLINE in the title to only have something like this for online play… Though if the Mirage Tower is challenging enough, it might be really cool to tackle it with friends.

Now, the basic gameplay. Well, like the PC version, you use the touch screen(instead of the mouse) to choose where to move and touch enemies to fight them. As you level up, you can gain skills, which are used by first clicking it in your shortcut bar(you can have up to 3 of those shortcut bars) and then do the proper “drawing” on your target to initiate the attack. For example, the Swordman’s bash requires you to draw a line on an enemy, and Magnum Break(well, i think it’s Magnum Break) requires you to draw a circle in the area you want to affect. Also, if 2 enemies are really close to each other, it’s possible to hit them both with one attack, or if you’re using a spear you might hit enemies who are between you and your target. Otherwise it’s pretty much like on the PC.

During the story (yeah, of course it’s a story-driven single player game for the most part), NPCs will join your party. You can tell them what to do by clicking them then clicking an enemy (yay for limited control) or you can set them a “tactic”(Conserve SP, full assault, stuff like that) so they control themselves automatically. There’s not much more to say. They level up themselves so you have no control over that, but you can change their equipment.

Leveling is done just like in the PC version… No surprise here. Each time you level up you get stat points which you can assign to stats, and each time you level up your job you get skill points to learn skills… damn this game is simple in that aspect. But depending on what skills you equip, your style of play will change greatly, just like before.
Equipment can have slots, they can be upgraded at the blacksmith, just like before, and the cards from the PC version are back here without changes… From what I’ve seen. Though as of now I haven’t seen a piece of equipment with more than one slot for cards. 

Also, in this version, instead of walking through towns, you’re treated to a menu to get to various places. This is also where you save your game. When you enter town the Kafra employee directs you to where to go. There’s sub-menus for shops/buildings, guilds to start different classes and some town-specific buildings, as well as a “get out of town” option that gives you the different places you can exit town through.

One slightly disappointing part is the classes/jobs/whatever you want to call them. You get most of the normal jobs (my memory is very fuzzy on those) Sword Man, Mage, Archer, Thief, Acolyte, Merchant and Taekwon Kid when your novice reaches job level 10. When you chose your first class and reach level 30, you get to upgrade your class once again! But this time you only have the 2-1 classes, and none of the 2-2. That means no Crusader or Rogue or Monk or Alchemist or Sage or Dancer/Bard or Soul Linker. You only get Knight, Assassin, Blacksmith, Wizard, Hunter, Priest and Taekwon Master.
But not all hope is lost, as you get access to 2 completely new classes: the Shaman and the Dark Knight. Those can only be acquired through quests and I have not done them since I have no idea how to and, again, can’t read the japanese anyways, but for the RO fanatic there’s surely some fun to be had by trying those 2 new classes. 

There’s more I could dwell on, but my complete lack of japanese knowledge can only bring me so far. I know there’s quests and such, but I have no idea what to do in them, and as such I can’t really explain those, or anything else in the game.

Overall
This game is quite fun. Relatively faithful to the PC version, despite a few flaws and differences. Looks almost as good as the PC version, sounds pretty much the same, and near unchanged gameplay except for some differences in skill input and such.
Overall an RO fan should like playing this, despite the game being mostly an offline experience.  The online portion might be really good (I dunno…), so if you’re interested in that check it out.
If you don’t want to trial-and-error through the game like I’m currently doing… well it’s pretty much the only option until they announce an English release, which I am not holding out for, I really doubt it will come… AAAAND there’s always the pirate way, with inevitable translation patches someday…

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Just to follow up on Dave’s review of Prince of Persia. This is Prince of Persia : The Fallen King, which Ubisoft released on the same date as the PS3/360 version, to cash in on the popularity… I guess (being pretty confident there aren’t they?). Featuring the same Prince as in the console release, but using a more cutesy graphic style, this game basically tries to emulate a similar style of gameplay from the console versions. So let’s jump right in see if this attemp at cashing in on the latest PoP sucks balls or if it’s actually fun.

Graphics
As mentionned before, this goes for a completely different graphic style than the console versions. It goes for a chibi, more cartoony style. I mean, the Prince looks like a little kid. I’d say the graphics aren`t bad at all, the style works, the animations are mostly fluid, the models are okay. The only problem is that it’s really repetitive. The level design, while not bad, is kinda lame as all the stages look pretty much the same. There’s differences from time to time, but overall it’s just sand everywhere.

Story
I actually have no idea about this. None at all. It’s hard to say where it takes place in regard to the console game. Most likely after, but it’s really strange. Elika isn’t there, but Ahriman is free and is spreading the corruption. At some point the Prince is joined by some flying wizard thing named Zal, though little is know of him and frankly I didn’t care. Now the corruption is a lot worse than before it seems, with the god of light or something being corrupted as well. That’s really all I gathered of the story, because, frankly, they didn’t even try to make it interesting. At first I was trying to follow it, but soon I just found myself skipping all the dialogue because it was boring me. A lot.

Gameplay
Ah, now let’s dive into what makes this game surprisingly “meh”. Let’s start with the platforming. Basically, the Prince goes where you’re pressing on the stylus, and depending on how far you press it from him, the faster he runs.  At first I thought that, to jump on walls and sutff, I had to press exactly where I wanted to go, but to my surprise I was completely wrong. You just have to press in the general direction of where you want to go to do it. Well that sucks, and removes a big part of what could have made this game good.
There’s various obstacles. Traps, pits, spikes, all the usual stuff. Some holes you have to jump down, and the only way to do that without dying is to hang on to the wall and slide down with your claw. But that’s a not easy. After a while the Prince will do it automatically, but if you want to speed up things you have to double tap under him. But lots of the time he won’t recognize your input properly and jump to the opposite side, either latching on to the other wall or down to his doom. 
The rest of the platforming is quite straightforward. Jumping over pits, rolling under things that are too low (by double tapping in the general direction to where you want to roll), walk slowly through spikes and…. that’s about it. The stages offer a relatively good amount of checkpoints so you’ll never be set too far back if you die.

The new thing here is Zal, who follows you around instead of Elika. He’s a bit annoying to control, as, when you use him, you can move the Prince at all. To use him you must press  button (any button) and use to touch screen for his powers. When he joins you he can only shoot magic bullets or something, which can activate switches or make enemies twitch. As you advance through the game, much like Elika, he’ll gain more powers. He’ll be able to move weird… things… which will move platforms, latch on to… some weird objects, and open certain doors. He’s relatively interesting to use, but it would nice to be able to control both him and the Prince at the same time.

Now to fighting. Well there’s really not much to say. Tap an enemy to attack him, until it dies. Get hit too much, and you die. Some enemies explode if you get too close so you just have to hold them back with Zal until they die, other have shields you have to remove with Zal, and others you have to get the right timing to attack. The normal battles get easy and boring as you learn the simple timing.
But the boss battles, now they really tried here. The bosses have patterns, and you must learn them to be able to hurt them, and when they get weaker they’ll have more attacks and such. And figuring out their patterns isn’t simple sometimes. They really managed to make the bosses interesting to fight.

Really, the only really enjoyable part of the game is the boss fights. The platforming has lots of issues of the Prince not doing what I want, Zal could have been implemented better, and normal battles are really boring.

Overall
Do not buy. Really, they could’ve done something really interesting with this. But the gameplay has little variety, the controls are unresponsive or they don’t respond properly, the fighting is really lame(other than the bosses), the story is boring. If you’re a really big fan of the console versions you might want to check it out, but wait for a price drop.

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Hey guys, Kyolux here.  Haven’t done any review in a while with school and stuff.  I’m starting to catch up now.

It’s always fun to go back to the roots of a favorite franchise. This is why I was happy to get my hands on Star Ocean First Departure, to revisit Claude’s parents adventure. The game is a remake of the original Star Ocean that was released on the Super Famicom at the end of its lifespan. This remake uses the Star Ocean The Second Story’s engine. I’m a bit lite on it since the game as been out for 2-3 months now, but hit the title for the full review.

First and foremost, some people might notice I don’t use the official names of the characters. This is because I am used to the ones the translation patch had given to them on the Super Famicom version, which overall, seemed to be the one used in the sequel, for the few characters that come back.

Graphics

The original game spawned beautiful 2D animations graphics for its time. And like I mentioned, this one uses The Second’s Story’s 3D graphics, which dates back to the PlayStation 1. The character sprites are still in 2D, but the whole environment as been reshaped in 3D, changing the area to area roaming of the original to a world map system, just like in TSS. This is in some way means that it shows its age in look, and I would have somehow preferred an updated 2D graphics look to the TSS engine, simply to stick to the original’s feel.

Story

Ratix (Roddick), Milly (Millie) and Dorne lives peacefully on their under-developed planet, defending their village from crooks from time to time. That is until the day people started turning to stone, including Dorne. On their way to find a flower who might cure Jonas from this strange disease on top of a mountain, Ratix and Milly witness something that changed their fate. Ronixis (Ronyx) and Iria (Ilia) are two Earthlings who teleported to Ratix’s planet to figure out a way to save its people from a third party’s biological attack on it. They happened to appear right next to Ratix and Milly, unexpectedly. The four of them will have to go on a quest to Ratix’s planet, 300 years in the past to find the cure to this petrification disease. Along the way, they meet different characters, some will join you and some will not, depending on your choices and actions.

I never finished the Super Famicom version. So I was glad to finally be able to see the full story. Frankly put, don’t expect anything really outstanding there, most of the stuff is found in a few other RPGs in the 90s. Except it takes the science fiction and the fantasy and mix them up together, while retaining mostly the fantasy part. The game is really short, story-wise too. You’ll be at the end and be surprised that you’re there already.
One last thing I should mention about the story, is that it is altered depending on who joins your party. Also of note is the private actions. Those have you enter a town by yourself and lets your party members do whatever they feel like inside it. You can then go see them, and sometimes you’ll assist to events that makes the bond between Ratix and that other character grow. It’ll also affect how characters acts in the ending sequence.

Gameplay

Like any of your old-school RPG, random battles is the deal here. But these aren’t your Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy turned-based battles. The fights are in real time, controlling one character and letting the others go by the AI you want them to use. If you’re familiar with the Tales series, you can have a bit of an idea how this works. You use X to launch a melee attack and you can chain those into a combo. The triangle will bring up a menu and stop time to choose spells, items or run away. I personally used only melee characters, so I haven’t really went and used much spells, other then have Milly heal my team. Back when I played through The Second Story, I had two characters using spells all the time, and it would get time consuming watching the animations over and over again. The game is fairly easy, so you don’t really have to feel obligated to choose one character over the other. Anyway back to the controls, square will let you switch between targets and circle between the characters to control. You can also set special arts (badass techniques) to the L and R shoulder buttons.

As you level up, you learn skill points. Skill points you put into learning skills that will boost your stats, let you do some different kind of crafting, different artistic abilities and some fighting techniques. I really enjoyed this system, but maybe not as much as it was in The Second Story.

Like I mentioned, the game is easy. Easier then it was on the Super Famicom. That’s in addition to the fact that it’s also fairly short. From the point you get to level 45-50, you can then find a way to get enough fols (the game’s currency) to buy a Silver Trumpet, then have one of the characters that has some specifics talents (those are statics to the characters, but can be learned by some that don’t have it from the get go, but must be pre-disposed to it) get to musical skills to level 8, then play (after composing it) the Devil’s Aria, and fight a monster you can fight over and over again and easily hit lvl 105-110 in the spawn of two hours. By then, you’re overpowered and ready to finish the game. Obviously, you don’t need to do this, like I said, the game is fairly easy, but that’s the amount of leveling I needed to do to be able to cradt some of the best weapons in the game. Which I wanted to do, review purpose of course.

So the game is fun, but a bit on the short side. At least half my play-time was in the bus grinding levels for the fun of it. So I took about 25 hours to beat the game, and I was fairly overpowered like mentioned.
For those liking distractions, there’s an arena where you can go solo as any of your party members and take on a suit of monsters on one on one matches. There’s even a character you can have joining you that you meet in one of those matches. It also gives you so decent armor that can last you to the end of the game if you want to go through all the ranks with one character. You can repeat it with any other too for the same result for any other party member.

Sound

Nothing major here, the BGM are good, nothing outstanding. The voice of the characters can get annoying during fights, but for the story voice-over, it’s nothing bad.

Final thought

While the game is good, I’d say if you can, simply rent it or get it used. I’m not a big fan of buying used, but in this case, that’s my suggestion. Best thing would be to wait and get The Second Story when it comes out. You’ll get much more content for your money. Especially if you’d have to choose between both of those. You won’t miss out much on the story. Two of the main characters in this one just happen to be the parents of one of the main characters in The Second Story.

The addition of 2 new characters, and one or two bonus dungeons is nice.  But really, the challenge of the overall game is so low, and you have plenty of characters to choose from, and can’t recruit all of them, so this is fluff you don’t really need.  Unless you’re the type to go through and through again the same game.

Screenshots

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