Hi all, love the work y'all doing here, ta for all r/r/c's :-). Hi to jovichick123 xxx and all my b...
Hi all, love the work y'all doing here, ta for all r/r/c's :-). Hi to jovichick123 xxx and all my buddies new and old. My guestbook is always open for anyone wanting to chat or whom needs help :-)
Member since:17.03.2006
Reviews:14
Members who trust:17
This is an RPG made by Square Enix whom you might recall as being responsible for the ever popular Finally Fantasy games.
£29.99 from Amazon. £32.99 from some retail outlets and I saw it in GAME for £25.99 - so take your pick.
It's a 1 Player game - you play as the hero and control the other 3 members of your party too.
I haven't finished playing it yet, but I've managed to clock up 59 hours. So its going to last a while.
Its suitable for people aged 12 +
STORY
A land of magic and monsters, an evil long ago suppressed has begun to rise. Trapped in a magical sceptre by seven wizards generations ago, the evil Rhapthorne has awoken and is capable of controlling whoever takes hold of the staff. So a not so pleasant wizard named Dhoulmagus has taken the staff from the castle in Trodain and engulfed it in thorns turning the king into a small green monster and his daughter into a horse. Whilst all in the castle have turned to stone, a trustworthy member of the Royal Guard, You! (you can name your character at the beginning).
So after this has happened, they decide to go after Dhoulmagus in order to lift his curse and return the king, his daughter and castle back to normal. The evil wizard is going on a killing spree and our hero is not far behind. To release Rhapthorne from his prison, the seven blood descendents of the wizards whom trapped him, must be killed. So on the way we meet Yangus, he joins us after our hero saves him from certain death. Then we get to the first town and discover a murder has been commited, so following the trail we discover which way he is going. When we get to the next town, we meet Jessica, her brother has just been killed by Dhoulmagus. So she joins our quest to catch this evil doer. A couple murders on and its an Abbot of a church this time, So our friend Angelo, a knight of the Templar, joins us to avenge the death of his surrogate father.
Now that we have our team together, we must go after this evil and destroy it, but it gets more complicated,
many sub quests and side stories all intricately entangled to tie in with the main plot come at us like hurdles.
So that's the basic plot!
GRAPHICS
I must say, the graphics are very appealing to the eye. They are very colourful and they have paid close attention to detail. For instance, you can even sit and watch as the sun sets at the end of each day, same thing with dawn. There are various landscapes from waterfalls, oceans, deserts, abbeys, statues, entire towns and even a dark region which is void of colour.
There are 265 Monsters in the game, each look authentic, some scary, some just downright funny. For example the 'Fencing Fox' reminds me of Antonio Banderes' character in Shrek 2.
The characters are kind of manga cartoon like and there are literally hundreds of them scattered throughout the lands.
Its obvious that a LOT of work has gone into the graphics, making the experience that much more pleasant and enjoyable.
SOUND
Each place you visit has its own music playing in the background, the music is constant no matter where you are! Most of the tunes are pleasant and fit the atmosphere they are catering for perfectly. However, this is not where the sound gets its marks. The voice actors in the game are aplenty, coupled with the humorous comments and different accents they are done very well indeed. For example, Yangus is a cockney guy, using lots and lots of rhyming slang. There are some who speak with a French accent, some Spanish, some high pitched, some very posh (like the king).
The only person that doesn't speak in the game is our hero. Which in my opinion gives it more of a feeling that YOU are the hero.
GAMEPLAY
It plays a lot like Final Fantasy, but for those of you who haven't played them, I will be going in-depth. The controls are very basic - Left analogue stick moves, right one does the camera, L1 & R1 rotate the camera, X button is your run of the mill action/examine/confirm, Square is map, circle opens the menu and start lets you talk to your companions.
You run around on a giant world map with random encounters with monsters, getting progressively harder as the game goes on . You will encounter dungeons, towns and other places of interest.
I'm going to sub categorise in this section, because its just too darn big to pull off in one section.
Fighting -----------
Battles begin with random encounters, you are taken to the battle screen which has a background of the relevant area you are in. It is turn based, so you may choose to attack, cast a spell, use an item, flee, use an learnt ability, defend and psyche up. You can control all members of your party or just the hero, or mix and match, in the Tactics menu you can decide who does what from healing to not using magic.
Battles can last from 10 seconds to half an hour, depending on which foes you are up against. Some require tactics, some just brute force.
Levelling up ---------------
As you gain more experience points in the game, your character will begin to level up. In doing so, he/she may learn new spells and abilities. Your max HP and MP go up by random amounts - 15 is the most I've seen so far. Your Strength , Magic, Agility and Defence also increase. Then you are given a set number of skill points. These skill points are to be immediately used in the skill window, where each character has their own set of skills to master. It could be for a weapon that you want to master or fighting barehanded or magic. There are five to choose from and each can go up to 100. As you acquire more points, you will learn new skills and abilities and spells. For example Yangus upgraded his humanity and learnt the underpants dance which shocks opponents lol. Jessica uses her sex appeal to stun enemies etc….
Weapons and Items ------------------------
There are plenty of items and weapons in the game, seeing as each character can equip 3 types of weapon, you can imagine the magnitude of how many there are. My characters use a boomerang, whip, Scythe and Bow, but which weapon you choose is up to you. Some weapons can be bought, some found and some can be made using the alchemy pot. The Alchemy pot is a device the king made to help you on your travels. By combing two or more items, you make a new, more powerful one. For example, a thief's key (allowing you to open locked chests) can be made with a bronze knife and an iron nail. As the game progresses you will find useful recipes to use in them, so don't sell something unless you have more than one is my advice.
There are also slots for you to equip armour, a helmet and an accessory. These along with your weapon are in your characters inventory - you may only carry 8 items into battle, however, you have a bag with you, allowing you to carry an unlimited amount.
Healing herbs, key items such as the world map, seeds which increase your permanent stats are just some of the items available. You will find many surprises the more you progress.
Like most RPG's Dragon Quest is packed with sub quests, there is an arena where you capture monsters and make a team to fight them there. There is a casino, with slots, bingo and roulette. There is also a sub quest where you must search the world for mini medals. All of the above can be vital to the progress of your game as you can acquire rare and valuable items from them.
Travelling Around -----------------------
At the beginning the only way to get around is by foot, but as the game gets further in, you will be able to ride a sabrecat, drive a ship and transform into a bird to fly wherever you want.
Menus ---------
By pressing the circle button, you open up the menu screen, here you can check your inventory, equip your characters, view your skills and attributes, cast spells and on the miscellaneous tab you can heal your party, view battle records, use your alchemy pot or just use the in game help system to get you started.
Saving ---------
To find out how many Exp. Points you need to level up, you must go to a church and consult with a priest. This is the only way at the beginning that you can ressurect a fallen ally, remove a curse or save the game. The priest asks for your confession and thus you confess your journey to memory card. Rather funny if you ask me.
OVERALL
The game is simple to master, it does require some strategy on the harder bosses. Its colourful, pleasantly done and very very big. Overall I will give this a 9 out of 10. I love the game and am just upset that Japan chose not to release the prequels over here. This has become my favourite RPG to date and will keep anyone happy for at least 60 hours (maybe more).
I hope this helps you
Ash
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Another fantastiic review and I wouldn't mind playing this game - Karen x
newty1977 23.05.2006 01:55
very goods detailed review dude ;-)
g-virus 18.05.2006 17:50
read alot about this one, have the complete walkthrough too. guess im gonna have to get the game too hehe!
great review, informative and well writen!
james :p
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