Dragon Fantasy 2

Dragon Fantasy II; as you’d might expect it’s a fan game, a mix between final fantasy and dragon warrior. Although it may seem like a fan game, the game really seems to hold its own, with interesting gameplay and battles with several classes to choose from at the games beginning.

Gameplay: 3. The battles were good and well balanced, although puzzles weren’t very common and the dungeons lacked difficulty and variety.

Battles in the game were essentially the main focus, as puzzles didn’t seem to be numerous, and the dungeons didn’t have a whole lot to them. The battles were relatively balanced, although requiring high levels as you slowly continued onward, I thought that was good though. The game lets you choose from several classes with a variety of spells and characteristics, so there can be a little bit of replayability I guess. Although the beginning battles are a little boring, since you just started out and you need to get your spells and level up, get your equipment etc. This tends to make the game a little grindish, especially since the stats are relatively low, and getting higher levels would help make you feel safer. One thing that bothered me was the complete absence of any item or spell descriptions. While I understand this was hold the old games did things, and you’re trying to replicate that atmosphere, I don’t think it’s worth sacrificing something extremely important just for extra points in atmosphere. I want to know what items do what, what I can keep, what spells do etc.

One thing I noticed in that game, in terms of enemies, is that a lot of them enemies seemed to use spells that cast status effects on your entire party. While I think the concept was to make status effects more effective and dangerous because of the fact that they all dissipate after battle, I’m not so sure if that was the best way to do things. Even if you try to cure the status ailments, the enemies could just cast the spell again; and there was no equipment that protected from the status ailments, as of yet. I’m not sure if that was the best thing to do. Oh and about items again, I noticed the healing herb only healed about 8 health; the first healing item in the game. The healing herb does heal enough for its large cast at the beginning of the game; I didn’t bother wasting any of my cash to buy any. Also, I noticed later on the in the game, close to the second town where you better equipment, in the dungeons before then, you find items that you can buy at the first town. You find a bronze sword, a shattered orb and others. Really, those items were extremely cheap to buy in the first town; it’s kind of pointless to put low end equipment in a place that’s close to the second town where you’re only going to buy better equipment anyway. I think you should replace those treasures with maybe items from the second town or something in between.

Although the puzzles were pretty easy, there was one that confused me a little but and was kind of hard. It was after going through the south zebon cave in the beginning and reaching that house. There’s a piece of paper in the one jar that says something like, “to the east in the center shaped like a box.” When it said this, I thought it was referring to the world map, and not the actual area around the house. This really confused me at first, maybe you should word it differently, or maybe make the area you’re supposed to search seem “suspicious”? Although, the similar puzzle after that one was easier, seeing how I realized my misinterpretation. But I really feel disappointed at the lack of puzzles and difficulty in the game. Maybe this was you’re intention, have few puzzles and make it easier at the beginning of the game, but it just feels like all your doing are battles. I think you should just add in just a few more puzzles, and interesting ones, not just “find the key” or “find the chest”.

Graphics and Mapping: 3. The maps were made to have that old school type feel, although the user was limited for details because of the chipsets he used. Battle animations would have been nice, as well as battle backgrounds.

The mapping was done to the best of what the author had available; though most of the maps were still well decorated. The world map was basic, mountains and steeper mountains, grass, poison swamps, forests etc. as said before not too much was available. Some maps like the dungeons, and the underground caves felt somewhat empty and could have used more detail but there wasn’t much he could do. The graphics were rips from the Dragon warrior series, utilized to make the game seem retro. They were effective, of course. I felt some of the maps for the dungeons could have been bigger, since they weren’t difficult at all to navigate, and were pretty straightforward. (Although maybe because it was the beginning of the game) Oh, and I realized the creator tried to recreate that “bump” thing from the Dragon warrior series where that sound would play when you bumped into the wall and you would stop for a fraction of a second. This is emulated perfectly, but while I appreciate it as an aesthetic, it can get quite annoying when you accidentally hold up for too long, walk into that wall, and have to wait a third of a second to move again. My opinion would be to at least remove the time frame where you stop movement, but leave the bump noise.

I noticed with battles that there were no battle backgrounds; I think some of the older games used to do this, which adds to the atmosphere. Although, there is really no point in having no background. The game already has enough feel to resemble an old school game; backgrounds would make battle more interesting; it’s better than looking at some bland black screen. I also noticed that spells and attacks didn’t have animations; spells just flashed the screen. Again, I think it would make things interesting if you used maybe low tech animations in the least; there’s no excuse for you to have no animations and no backgrounds for battles.

Music and Sounds: 5. The music fit well with each area, and I heard a decent variety and usage of sounds.

The music seemed to fit all the areas. The towns sounded all peaceful, the dungeons dangerous etc. All of it or most of it was dragon warrior music, and I think I heard Zelda music somewhere, which I’m kind of iffy about. I know you’re making a fan game, but should you really use music from the actual series? I think I’m leaning more towards using different music, but I think its fine, plus not everyone can get or make music. I heard some sound effects too, all in proper areas. Opening doors, drinking from the water springs etc. They were all used quite well.

Atmosphere and Setting: 4. The game captures the old school feel greatly, but in terms of the story, I’m not sure what other type of atmosphere should be present. Not a whole lot about the world or surrounding environments have much information about them either.

Since the story is vague or rather, not very complex, the atmosphere is essentially either straight forward, or confusing. Some evil emperor has stolen this “Crystal Orb” of which apparently he can cause chaos and death or something. Most of the citizens of the towns seem unaware of this fact, as not any of them mention anything about it, but there are some citizens who are worried about sudden disasters, such as darkness invading the passageway to the town of Zubei. (or whatever it was I can’t remember.) The towns also seem quite peaceful despite the evil going on in the background, but I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. It could resemble the “easy days” before the bad stuff to come, where things seem carefree and happy until the plot starts to draw near. But it could also be to capture the retro feel of the older console and dragon warrior games. Regardless whether it needs change or not it is interesting.

For the setting, not a whole lot is told about the world, or of the many environments of the world. We realize there are poisonous swamps, but there aren’t people or things telling us perhaps why the swamps are there or how they formed or whatnot. I think players should know a little more about the world they are going to explore, so they know what type of world it is, and how the people live in it are and feel. Of course, as previously stated, I believe this was to capture the retro feel. But this gives no uniqueness to the game. It would be just a dragon warrior/old school game clone. It needs more backstory or history to it. There is some history and story told along the way, such as the case in the beginning with the phoenix fire and how the poor knights were forced to protect it and whatnot. That was a good example of story telling and lore sufficient enough for my standards. (in terms of a retro game)

Story: 3. The story is straight to the point, with lore and telling along the way. There’s no real character personalities, mostly because the characters you are around are only really met with once.

The story is really basic because of the retro style of the game; an emperor has stolen a crystal orb which apparently brings about death and destruction etc. So you as the heroes must go stop him. Along your journey there isn’t much mention or addition to the story, or any real plots. It’s mostly about just getting to this place, then finding out what to do and so on. Basically you’re just walking around blindlessly into the next area without so much information about the story or anything could link with it. I think the game could probably work like that, since it’s a retro clone, but by my standards I think the player should not only be guided more, but receive like little “updates” or connections to the main story. I don’t know if maybe you’re going to do that in the future or not, but that’s my preference at least.

What I liked: I liked the balanced battles and the classes available to the character, and the natural feel of its resemblance to an old school game.

Closing Statements: I think Dragon Fantasy II just needs to brush up on its gameplay, maybe get more specific with the story and introduce some things that would make itself unique and stand out from other games, but it’s a great retro type game if you just want to play a dragon warrior type clone.