Your name is a lie, Dragon View!
Dragon View was a game SNES Drunk pointed out once or twice on YouTube. Something about it called out to me, but I put it off for over a year. I had a feeling it was gonna suck. I have good news!
Dragon View is an action RPG. You get your attack, defense, HP, and magic stats, but it's showcased in a side scrolling hack and slash combat. Your primary method of attack is a wide and fast sword swing, but there's also an axe (?) that works like a boomerang, three forms of magic, and a couple of miscellaneous items like bombs, arrows, and water bending to harm demons. These are more limited in nature, but they're there.
But that's only in dungeons! There is a world map here, and it's explored in "3D." And it's first person! It's an interesting idea that makes the world feel massive and exciting, albeit a bit cumbersome sometimes. You're gonna accidentally bump into trees often, and you need to line up city and dungeon entrances just right sometimes. But it's novel enough for me to give it leeway. While on the world, clouds will assail you, leading to a puffball dimension where your enemies are. These are quick battle rooms that are over in a matter of seconds. I've read you get more exp and jade (money) in random encounters than in dungeons, but I never experimented to check.
And that world is populated with a litany of towns filled with NPCs and side quests. Each area, including towns, has unique music as you travel. Nothing blew me away from the OST, but it was all enjoyable. It helps to break up the monotony of saving the world from all the bugs and lizardmen. Lotta lizardmen...
The story is pretty simple. Your girlfriend gets kidnapped, and you save the world because you're both the chosen ones. But the devs try to make the few bosses interesting. I liked the game, so I found them just absorbing enough to be shocked by my final thoughts on them. Alex, though, is pretty basic. He's a himbo with a heart of gold and a sense of vengeance. The gameplay and Zeldaesq dungeoneering are the main draw to Dragon View.
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Plot: shockingly fine. I may have been lenient, but I liked the characters enough to get through the basic and unremarkable plot. 7/10
Gameplay: well defined. The love child of Golden Axe, Zelda, and Elder Scrolls: Arena is Dragon Age. If you like them, you'll find something here. 9/10
Sound: worth a listen. As I said, nothing blew me away, but I might pop in the OST every now and then to vibe. 8/10
Art: the weak part. The plethora of pallet swamps is a bummer, and the stiff animations from a few villains make me think this is a budget title. And my eyes hate southward dungeon exits. 5/10
Charm: competent. A living world would have been so rad, but the hardware limitations are probably to blame for the lack of birds. But I doubt I'll be replaying this, and the basic story makes a replay meaningless. 5/10
With no negatives, although maybe speed up climbing stairs, Dragon View gets a solid 34 out of 50. It's a simple and straightforward game, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's a rad pallet cleanser between bigger projects, especially with a running time of twelve hours.
I've never played Drakken, the game Dragon View/Super Drakken is the sequel of. I've heard it sucks, though. The sequel isn't gonna set the world on fire, but it can be a lot of fun. Chalk it up as a cult classic, and give it a play if you have battery problems on a Steam Deck but still have to travel!
Thursday, January 23, 2025
Thursday, January 16, 2025
So I played SaGa Frontier...
... it was quick and pointless.
My long begotten friend-neighbor introduced me to the SaGa franchise. He bought both games, so I dabbled with them once upon a time. I didn't get far for a number of reasons. Some stories need esoteric knowledge of where to go, and others have tough boss battles that block advancement. And I was a dumb eleven-year-old! But I vaguely remember I tried SF1 again during my dark ages. Again, though, I didn't get very far for the same reasons. But will that change in 2025?
No.
I tried to play at least one scenario this week, and I quickly got bored. Aesellus's story starts slowly, with a lot of backtracking and unexplained ways to get out of Transylvania, starts to ramp up about a mermaid for some reason, and then becomes Dragon Quest VI's aimless walkabout. I looked up a walkthrough and saw a bunch of places to go, none of which had obvious reasons as to why. So I could live in an open world game for no reason, but I hate the battle system.
Between the random stat gains, random skill learns, random equipment slots, excessive characters, and lack of enemy variety let alone difficulty, I'm bored.
SaGa Frontier doesn't come off as a good game to me. I read into some of the characters, and they seem very interesting. Aesellis, for example, has three endings! I'd love to see them, but I'm not going through it. Maybe if they all came together in the end for something, but nope!
As a quick pass through...:
Plot: maybe interesting. The characters have deep and meaningful arcs and backstories, but I don't like how it's played out. 7/10
Gameplay: absolutely garbage. It's all convoluted and confusing. It's not fun for me in any way. But it's a first for my review... 0/10
Sound: the draw. While I didn't hear much while playing, Square Enix has been slowly uploading the OST to YouTube. It's pretty good! 10/10
Art: mixed. There are a lot of doors and paths that I got lost searching for. But there are plenty of cool backgrounds and colorful locations. Enemy variety needs work, though... 6/10
Charm: ...whatever. Maybe it's a cool world? Maybe exploration is rad? 4/10
Add in the two awful mechanics, and the loadings screens have loading screens for a -6, and SaGa Frontier gets a low 21/50.
Unlimited SaGa was the first game I ever returned because I thought it sucked. Frontier is another game I'm quitting on hella early. I think the SaGa franchise isn't for me, so I'm gonna move on. What a bland week.
My long begotten friend-neighbor introduced me to the SaGa franchise. He bought both games, so I dabbled with them once upon a time. I didn't get far for a number of reasons. Some stories need esoteric knowledge of where to go, and others have tough boss battles that block advancement. And I was a dumb eleven-year-old! But I vaguely remember I tried SF1 again during my dark ages. Again, though, I didn't get very far for the same reasons. But will that change in 2025?
No.
I tried to play at least one scenario this week, and I quickly got bored. Aesellus's story starts slowly, with a lot of backtracking and unexplained ways to get out of Transylvania, starts to ramp up about a mermaid for some reason, and then becomes Dragon Quest VI's aimless walkabout. I looked up a walkthrough and saw a bunch of places to go, none of which had obvious reasons as to why. So I could live in an open world game for no reason, but I hate the battle system.
Between the random stat gains, random skill learns, random equipment slots, excessive characters, and lack of enemy variety let alone difficulty, I'm bored.
SaGa Frontier doesn't come off as a good game to me. I read into some of the characters, and they seem very interesting. Aesellis, for example, has three endings! I'd love to see them, but I'm not going through it. Maybe if they all came together in the end for something, but nope!
As a quick pass through...:
Plot: maybe interesting. The characters have deep and meaningful arcs and backstories, but I don't like how it's played out. 7/10
Gameplay: absolutely garbage. It's all convoluted and confusing. It's not fun for me in any way. But it's a first for my review... 0/10
Sound: the draw. While I didn't hear much while playing, Square Enix has been slowly uploading the OST to YouTube. It's pretty good! 10/10
Art: mixed. There are a lot of doors and paths that I got lost searching for. But there are plenty of cool backgrounds and colorful locations. Enemy variety needs work, though... 6/10
Charm: ...whatever. Maybe it's a cool world? Maybe exploration is rad? 4/10
Add in the two awful mechanics, and the loadings screens have loading screens for a -6, and SaGa Frontier gets a low 21/50.
Unlimited SaGa was the first game I ever returned because I thought it sucked. Frontier is another game I'm quitting on hella early. I think the SaGa franchise isn't for me, so I'm gonna move on. What a bland week.
Saturday, January 4, 2025
Crystal Project
Is it the greatest indie RPG of my lifetime?
I've seen this game mentioned several times over the last couple of years. The gameplay is lauded, and reviewers rave about how open ended the combat is. I finally checked it out, and the first thing I saw was how it's clearly a love letter to Final Fantasy. Crystal Project is a game about having jobs, mastering them, and combining them into one fantastic character. It's very FFV in that manner. The initial jobs are even just the same as FFI. And with those jobs, you explore an open world in search of crystals!
From there, though, it starts to hone its own identity. Exploration is an open world platformer. The camera is top down, so that's pretty standard, but it's the hopping you need to do that sets Crystal Project apart. Bridges can be jumped, cliffs can be scaled, and homes can be broken into by falling through their chimneys! There is no fall damage, so enjoy the open world! There are also some Metroidvania aspects with this too. You'll gain a ~chocobo~ quintar mount to leap further, a goat to jump higher, and an owl to glide. There's also a fish to explore the vast, deep sea!
This applies to most dungeons, but even those often have something unique about them. Swimming, ice puzzles, Zeldaesq... The dev tried and succeeded in writing love letters to his favorite games. Walking around is a fun experience, never knowing what you may find beyond this cliff or on the otherside of this wall. What treasure may be within that chest on the hill? Could it make my damage dealer better? And there are so many secret areas filled with secret bosses that drop or guard secret gear. It's an incredibly rewarding experience!
There are seventeen jobs in Crystal Project, all awarding a new job. But the "main story" only brings you to about nine. Some of those jobs are more hidden than others. And all of those jobs fit classic roles, but how they perform in them are vastly different. One is a single target healer, while another can be an AoE one. Do you want MP mages or AP mages? Do you want your tank to be a hybrid or a pure support? We've got multiple red mages and elementalists, folks!
And all the while, an assortment of whimsical, wanderlustful, and ominous sounds play during your seemingly aimless walkabout. A part of this feels sullen because it's all licensed music, but I'll let it slide for this. Crystal Project was developed by one dude over five years. Not everyone has access to all talents, and Andrew Willman might not be a musician? Seems plausible. But he does have damn good taste!
The story is, well...
---
Gameplay: perfect. The amount of jobs, actions, and differing dungeons makes Crystal Project an engaging and fun experience. I spent fifty hours, and there's still more to do! 10/10
Sound: perfect. The music Willman chose to accompany his game world is astounding. It adds everything a game needs. 10/10
Art: perfect. I don't know how much art was in house or, like the music, licensed from stores, but I found it all to be as lovely as the music. The character sprites are abundant and fitting, and the battle effects are clear and plentiful! 10/10
Charm: perfect. Imagine an open world with no loading times and is interconnected in twelve ways, feeling alive with a few roaming NPCs. That's Sequoia! There are many mini games scattered across this place that further reward exploration! Crystal Project has that unknowable It Factor that's already making me want to replay it. And thanks to mods, I might do that! In fact, I shall,
Story: ...not perfect. I'm going to drop some SPOILERS here, so you may want to skip ahead.
There isn't really a coherent story here. Your party of four randomly appears in a peaceful meadow, and they begin their search for adventure. What adventure means is up to you, but there's an evil king trying to force his vision onto the populace. Whether you want to or not, you, in theory, end up facing this king for no apparent reason. This evil ruler disguised themselves as a trusted ally until the end, which is shocking, but why? It's never explained why this happens, and the ending is a total mystery. Our opponents poof away, with my favorite not even saying anything. It's implied that the king wants to be overthrown, or it's a wink to this being a video game, but I hate breaking the fourth wall.
END SPOILERS
I'm just confused and feel unrewarded, which is unlike everything else. While your party are mute mimes, at least the villains are interesting, even if the shock kinda feels meh. 5/10
I spent fifty hours on this playthrough, and I skipped a lot. There are so many super bosses and secret areas I didn't explore. I haven't even bothered with the quintar breeding. I walked around this world with my stuffed animals and had more fun than I've had in a long time. I seriously haven't had an experience like this since high school. And, fun fact, there are mods on Steam. I can add new jobs and even make the game more like Final Fantasy. I'm gonna do that and have a run with my FFI friends. Get the band back together! There are a lot of frustrating parts when it comes to the platforming and boas difficulty, but there are plenty of difficulty sliders and switches that can be adjusted. You can even start random and impossible/rouge-like games after your first run. There's so much to that that it makes up for the lackluster story and minor annoyances.
Crystal Project gets a fantastic 45/50 points. I cannot recommend this enough.
The game posits the question: "What is an adventure?". From there, you can seek out crystals, explore and uncover the map, fight bosses, find powerful gear, race fish, get a job, and maybe kill god. The amount of stuff to do in a game made by one dude is astonishing!
I've seen this game mentioned several times over the last couple of years. The gameplay is lauded, and reviewers rave about how open ended the combat is. I finally checked it out, and the first thing I saw was how it's clearly a love letter to Final Fantasy. Crystal Project is a game about having jobs, mastering them, and combining them into one fantastic character. It's very FFV in that manner. The initial jobs are even just the same as FFI. And with those jobs, you explore an open world in search of crystals!
From there, though, it starts to hone its own identity. Exploration is an open world platformer. The camera is top down, so that's pretty standard, but it's the hopping you need to do that sets Crystal Project apart. Bridges can be jumped, cliffs can be scaled, and homes can be broken into by falling through their chimneys! There is no fall damage, so enjoy the open world! There are also some Metroidvania aspects with this too. You'll gain a ~chocobo~ quintar mount to leap further, a goat to jump higher, and an owl to glide. There's also a fish to explore the vast, deep sea!
This applies to most dungeons, but even those often have something unique about them. Swimming, ice puzzles, Zeldaesq... The dev tried and succeeded in writing love letters to his favorite games. Walking around is a fun experience, never knowing what you may find beyond this cliff or on the otherside of this wall. What treasure may be within that chest on the hill? Could it make my damage dealer better? And there are so many secret areas filled with secret bosses that drop or guard secret gear. It's an incredibly rewarding experience!
There are seventeen jobs in Crystal Project, all awarding a new job. But the "main story" only brings you to about nine. Some of those jobs are more hidden than others. And all of those jobs fit classic roles, but how they perform in them are vastly different. One is a single target healer, while another can be an AoE one. Do you want MP mages or AP mages? Do you want your tank to be a hybrid or a pure support? We've got multiple red mages and elementalists, folks!
And all the while, an assortment of whimsical, wanderlustful, and ominous sounds play during your seemingly aimless walkabout. A part of this feels sullen because it's all licensed music, but I'll let it slide for this. Crystal Project was developed by one dude over five years. Not everyone has access to all talents, and Andrew Willman might not be a musician? Seems plausible. But he does have damn good taste!
The story is, well...
---
Gameplay: perfect. The amount of jobs, actions, and differing dungeons makes Crystal Project an engaging and fun experience. I spent fifty hours, and there's still more to do! 10/10
Sound: perfect. The music Willman chose to accompany his game world is astounding. It adds everything a game needs. 10/10
Art: perfect. I don't know how much art was in house or, like the music, licensed from stores, but I found it all to be as lovely as the music. The character sprites are abundant and fitting, and the battle effects are clear and plentiful! 10/10
Charm: perfect. Imagine an open world with no loading times and is interconnected in twelve ways, feeling alive with a few roaming NPCs. That's Sequoia! There are many mini games scattered across this place that further reward exploration! Crystal Project has that unknowable It Factor that's already making me want to replay it. And thanks to mods, I might do that! In fact, I shall,
Story: ...not perfect. I'm going to drop some SPOILERS here, so you may want to skip ahead.
There isn't really a coherent story here. Your party of four randomly appears in a peaceful meadow, and they begin their search for adventure. What adventure means is up to you, but there's an evil king trying to force his vision onto the populace. Whether you want to or not, you, in theory, end up facing this king for no apparent reason. This evil ruler disguised themselves as a trusted ally until the end, which is shocking, but why? It's never explained why this happens, and the ending is a total mystery. Our opponents poof away, with my favorite not even saying anything. It's implied that the king wants to be overthrown, or it's a wink to this being a video game, but I hate breaking the fourth wall.
END SPOILERS
I'm just confused and feel unrewarded, which is unlike everything else. While your party are mute mimes, at least the villains are interesting, even if the shock kinda feels meh. 5/10
I spent fifty hours on this playthrough, and I skipped a lot. There are so many super bosses and secret areas I didn't explore. I haven't even bothered with the quintar breeding. I walked around this world with my stuffed animals and had more fun than I've had in a long time. I seriously haven't had an experience like this since high school. And, fun fact, there are mods on Steam. I can add new jobs and even make the game more like Final Fantasy. I'm gonna do that and have a run with my FFI friends. Get the band back together! There are a lot of frustrating parts when it comes to the platforming and boas difficulty, but there are plenty of difficulty sliders and switches that can be adjusted. You can even start random and impossible/rouge-like games after your first run. There's so much to that that it makes up for the lackluster story and minor annoyances.
Crystal Project gets a fantastic 45/50 points. I cannot recommend this enough.
The game posits the question: "What is an adventure?". From there, you can seek out crystals, explore and uncover the map, fight bosses, find powerful gear, race fish, get a job, and maybe kill god. The amount of stuff to do in a game made by one dude is astonishing!
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