| Lunar: Dragon Song review |
|
Optimism might suggest that in every bad game there is a good game trying to get out. Yet such optimism is difficult to uphold after several hours with Lunar: Dragon Song (released under the less DS-o-lific title of Lunar Genesis in Japan and Europe); the first few instances of frustrating game design are often forgivable, nestling under the pretence that the game should have a chance to improve and shake off its early demons. But when a game fails to change at all as the hours slowly trudge by, when its most infuriating aspects turn out not to be as temporary as initially hoped, when a game just keeps finding new ways to hamper what is an otherwise competently put together experience... that’s when all the chances you can possibly give a game finally run out. The way in which some aspects lack inspiration and originality is not Lunar DS’s greatest fault, rather it is the nature in which the game simply wants to punish and irritate the player for daring to try the game at all.
For instance, the player cannot run on the field of exploration without incurring a damage penalty (unnecessary when being under-levelled when facing a tough foe is surely penalty enough for running around and dodging battles), nor is it even possible to select which enemy to attack in battle. Marvelous Interactive have kept fights far too basic for these simplistic, one-dimensional encounters to be at all satisfying. The majority of fight time will be spent simply attacking (most often targeting enemies in completely the opposite order to which you would want), with only a light smattering of healing and support options, that is if the game’s plot decides you’ll be allowed a healer in your party at all. Battles are offensively channelled even further into one path by the protagonist, Jian, being the only really significant damage-dealer in the game. There is so little to really do or think about that most players will soon look to the game’s auto-attack and accelerate time options in order to negotiate these passages of play in the most painless way possible. It really speaks volumes about this part of Lunar: DS when the inclusion of these two features almost feel like an apology from the developer for making the player endure these tiresome, slowly animated sequences.
It would be nice, at this point, to be able to turn and say that other areas where the developer has tried to make changes to the staple aspects of the RPG genre have come out alright, but the truth is that the rest of Lunar: DS is still plagued by these curious design decisions that don’t really add anything to the game. Growth and progression have been made to feel unnecessarily awkward, with players having to elect to obtain either experience or items from battles. Items must then in turn be sold or delivered as part of jobs for Gad’s Express (a seek-and-deliver courier of sorts) in order to be turned into money. The whole currency-earning process is far too random and drawn out for anyone other than the most saintly-patient of players to ever bother seriously with, and even then most attempts at earning a steady wage will simply end in frustration at learning that no jobs want the items you’ve found, or that you cannot find enough of the randomly dropped items that each job may request. Most will simply avoid this part of the game until they absolutely have to buy that expensive new item from a shop (a situation most likely arising out of the annoyingly haphazard destruction of weapons and armour in battle), as spending the time gathering experience instead will prove to be a more time-efficient method of overcoming tougher foes.
Whilst the rest of Lunar: DS is constructed competently enough (bar a single saving glitch in the game), it just lacks the imagination necessary to make the game shine. The character designs are attractive enough, but their personalities feel fairly shallow and predictable. Similarly, the recycling of sprites with colour palette changes for NPCs takes some of their individuality away, and sprites in battle could use a few more frames of animation.
The plot offers little to play for either; set long before the events of previous Lunar games, Lunar: DS charts the wholly unoriginal adventures of a boy who must rise from humble beginnings to save the world of Lunar, the goddess Althena and the girl he loves from the dark forces who would destroy it all. It’s not exactly a cringingly horrible plot, but it fails to hold any real excitement. The story almost tackles interesting topics such as racism between humans and beastmen, but then falls over itself when it turns out pretty much everything in the Lunar world is decided through combat.
The developers have made an admirable attempt at implementing the DS’s touchscreen controls into the game, however, with most options being accessible through the system’s lower screen. The onscreen touch buttons are large enough and well spaced so even the largest thumbs ought to find them accessible, though the game’s menus are all so simple that most RPG veterans will default back to the game’s more familiar and comfortable pad-and-button controls before long. A wireless link minigame also allows players to compete for cards found in the game which can cast spells and status effects, though none of these DS-specific additions really engage the player enough to feel like a real revolution in RPG design. They’re all nice additions, but none that you could hardly live without.
Lunar: DS really is held back by its design. Parts that should be kept simple have been made frustratingly complicated, whilst others that could use a little elaboration have been left far too basic, all these decisions seemingly being made for the sake of producing a game that’s a little different. The end result feels like Marvelous Interactive have produced an RPG just to get an early steal on the DS market, whilst forgetting about all of the core ingredients that actually make the genre so appealing to its fans. A compelling storyline, interesting characters, thoughtful combat, a rewarding growth system; despite the basic competencies of game production being on display in Lunar: DS, it is impossible to ignore how the game is missing all of these things, making it a very difficult game to recommend indeed. Even the biggest of Lunar fans will find it hard to enjoy where this title is bringing the series and its overly simplistic nature is likely to appeal only to players who are absolute beginners in the RPG genre.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
System: Nintendo DS
Genre: Role Playing Game
Developer: Marvelous Interactive
Publisher: Ubisoft
Players: 1
Version: United States
Reviewed: Mar 2006
Writer: Edd Hewett
|
Pros:
- Overly simplistic design may appeal to RPG newcomers
|
Cons:
- Changes from RPG conventions and designs are merely frustrating
- Plot and characters fail to excitingly engage the player
- Far too simple an experience to be really satisfying
|
|
|
Lunar: Dragon Song Video: 6.6MB
|
| |
|
|
|
