Disk 12: Dragon Knights Glorious (ドラゴンナイトツグロリアス)

Name: Dragon Knights Glorious (ドラゴンナイトツグロリアス)
Type: Visual Novel RPG
Available Languages: Japanese

After several weeks’ jaunt from Sony’s little gray console, it’s time to return to the PlayStation. This week we take a look at Pandora Box Creative Office’s JRPG Dragon Knights Glorious. Yes, dragons again. What can I say, they’re a JRPG staple. Apparently this is volume one of a group of games called the Pandora Max Series, amusingly designated on the front cover of the jewel case as PMS. After the prerequisite juvenile chuckle has been logged, let’s see what this rather generic looking adventure is all about.

The Pandora Max Series, as I will call it because I can’t bring myself to use the shortened designation, seems to be a reduced price group of games for the PlayStation. Considering that this game’s list price is under 2,000 yen, I’m prepared for just about anything. Having no opening sequence, we head from the main menu straight to the game proper. We are greeted with a screen full of static, accompanied with trippy music and what sounds like someone trying to wake us up. Possibly. Maybe. Not what I was expecting, but I’ll roll with it if it means that I can get away from this music.



No, it's not the fault of the device that you're viewing this on. The game really does start out looking like this.

What looks to be the silhouette of the winged dragon-girl from the front cover of the game appears, and she snaps you out of the static via a dual shock attack. That was new. Unfortunately the horrible music remains. The dragon fairy’s name is Puriru, this weird dream is in fact her ‘Mind Mail’, and we’re the first to accept it. I wonder why. She gives us the option of changing her name to something we’d like better, which is kind of desperate and sad, so I’ll be nice and continue calling her Puriru.

When she asks for your character’s name, we get the dubious joy of finding out that it is Daiku. Whatever you say, game. After digesting all this, Puriru asks Daiku some questions about himself, all of which he is apparently happy to answer. After Puriru’s inquisition, the Mind Mail gets cut off before she can finish telling you whatever it is she had to say. How very typical.

After deciding that the whole bizarre sequence was a dream, which would be a logical step if this wasn’t an RPG, Daiku muses about it in a monologue of white text on a silent black screen. It’s about as entertaining as it sounds, but at least that horrible music from the Mind Mail is gone. During this sequence, the player is allowed to make a choice as to the main character’s opinion of said dream, which leads to some character shaping that is somewhat interesting. After some rather deep, destiny-laden thoughts, Daiku is offered another choice as to his opinion on the dragon fairy girl.

We finally reach chapter one, and are awakened by being decked by a guy whose hair looks like something straight out of a Toriyama Akira manga. This is Chiko, according to the booklet, and I like him already. It seems that Daiku was smiling in his sleep, and our companion took offence to it, given that they had eaten quite badly the night before. It then becomes clear that we’re in jail. It quickly becomes obvious that Chiko has serious anger management issues, as he starts a fight with our cellmate immediately after beating Daiku up.


Apparently, Chiko hates joy.

After yet another visual novel style decision making sequence about how to stop the fight, we are introduced to our other cellmate. According to the accompanying booklet, this extremely pretty fellow is Batto, and he gets the honor of being the first person to mention Dragon Knights in the game. During the conversation that follows, it is revealed that Daiku is travelling with these people in order to become a Dragon Knight. It is also his fault that they are in jail, which will look really great on his resume. After discussing their situation, during which Chiko assures Daiku that he is going to kick his…er…hindquarters, we are offered a save point and a flashback sequence. Wow, Daiku sure spends a lot of time talking to himself. He is a classic visual novel protagonist, only way less interesting. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready to get to the fighting now.

When you reach the RPG portion of the game, you will face the enemy in a first person perspective format. The battle system itself is very basic, with five commands appearing at the bottom of the screen between your characters’ avatars and their stats. You can attack, use special techniques, defend, use items, or run. You can decide what sort of basic attack you want to use against the enemy and, depending on which ones you choose, you can unlock a more powerful attack in a later turn. This gives what would otherwise be a barebones battle system a bit more oomph.

The character designs in Dragon Knights Glorious are this game’s greatest selling point, as they are very nicely drawn and emote quite expressively. I’ve already mentioned that I found Chiko to be hilarious, and that is entirely due to his well-drawn expressions. The game’s story sequences take place in visual novel like stills that are extremely basic, which I would normally have a problem with, but the screen is mostly taken up by the characters that you are talking to. Chiko’s rumble with his cellmate takes up almost the entire screen.

The music in this game is actually quite good in many places, when they choose to use it. But on the other hand, there are too many long silences for my taste early on, and of course the horrible opening sequence music deserves a mention again for being just that bad.

Overall, I can say that you can tell that this is a budget game. It is a visual novel with RPG gameplay and mini games that I would have enjoyed more if it hadn’t felt so bland. We’ve seen this hero a thousand times before, and will probably see him a thousand times again. If he were at all interesting it might make his endless internal monologues worth reading and therefore make this game worth the small chunk of change that I paid for it, but as it is, I can say with no hesitation whatsoever that this is the first game that I have posted for on this blog that is a complete waste of time.

If you feel like hearing more of my gaming prattle, feel free to follow me on Twitter. You can find me at @bejiita_buruma

Cartridge 4: Cyber Knight (サイバーナイト)

Name: Cyber Knight (サイバーナイト)
Type: Sci-Fi RPG
Available Languages: Japanese

I’ve been on a space kick recently, it seems, particularly after playing Alshark several weeks back. Between that and Gadyurin, this blog has seen a bit of interstellar travel, but there is room for more, in my opinion. A part of me wanted to dig out my copy of Phantasy Star: Sennenki No Owari Ni so that I could do homage to its greatness, but the truth of the matter is that that game is way too famous for this blog. So with my usual admonition of ‘go play that if you haven’t yet’, I’ll move on to something else. In keeping with my current mood, I’ve decided that that something else is going to be the Super Famicom JRPG Cyber Knight.

After starting the game, naming my character, and distributing six points as I will in his stats, the game itself begins. A spaceship, the Swordfish, is being attacked by pirates, and one of their lasers has hit the main engine. I may not be a futuristic spaceship mechanic, but even I know that that means trouble. Soon, pretty much everything is shutting down from massive damage, and the captain is out of commission. There is nothing left for the crew to do but to use the Jump Drive without a known destination, which is just about as dangerous as it sounds. It’s either that or die here for certain, though, so the commander (that’s you) chances it.



A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

After your wild space ride, the remaining crew lands on an unknown planet with their ship damaged, unable to use the Jump Drive to take them back to Earth. So, there is nothing to do but land your spaceship and, with the five other combat ready crew members available, take a look around the planet we’re on. After trotting through the various rooms on the spaceship to familiarize ourselves with them, it’s time to head to the hangar and find our Modules, which are giant fighting robots. This game just got way better, didn’t it? After choosing which three party members get to have all the combat glory, it’s time to move out. Unfortunately, they’re puny little level ones, so we have no recourse but to level grind.

Luckily, our ship has landed right next to a city populated by humans whose speech we can understand. What are the chances? Apparently this planet is called Far World by the people who inhabit it, which is a useful (and rather strange) bit of information. So after shrugging at the naming sense of the locals, our intrepid heroes learn that there is a college nearby which may be able to help us out of our predicament. There we meet Professor Sokolov, who says that the humans on Far World left Earth 250 years earlier on the immigration ship Europa. It appears that they ended up here as a result of a jump miss, much like us. It seems that whatever remains of the Europa is in the forest to the north, so we should probably go check that out for the Monopo-ru Coil, which is the part we need. After getting a bit more helpful information and a star map from the local scholar, we have to go talk to the President of Far World. It sounds like he’d be a good person to know.

After getting hassled by the President’s surly guards, we meet President Roland. After confirming that Far World is populated by Earthlings who made an emergency landing here 250 years ago, he apologizes to our party. It seems that we were mistaken for invader robots which have been hassling the locals as of late. It sounds like they need us to take care of this problem for them, even though there are only a handful of us. We do have giant robots of our own, after all. But what about our Monopo-ru Coil, you ask? We’re certainly not going anywhere without that, so we’ll take the path that makes the most sense at the moment. We’ll head to the Europa in the forest to the north, and hope that some of these local robots are stupid enough to try to get in between us and the shiny part that we need. Now that sounds like a plan!



A map of the Swordfish, your sweet, but currently useless, ride.

In battle, your screen will be split into three sections. The upper right section displays your stats and the bottom section gives you information about the battle as it is happening. The upper left section shows the battle itself, with your three Modules on the right and your enemies on the left. When it’s your turn, you get a list of options to choose from. You can attack, defend yourself or others, or use the option menu to use items like rocket launchers or missiles. In the equipment menu, you can change your weapons or use defensive field items. You have the option to continue battling or run if you press the B button.

The game really doesn’t look like much, I must admit, but I’m willing to give it a bit of a break given that it was released in 1992 and that its PC Engine counterpart dates back to 1990. The game’s best moment, appearance wise, is in battle, when the Modules and their enemies attack each other. While these little cut scenes can be quite tedious after a while if you’re trying to level grind, they look quite a bit nicer than the rest of the game. The music isn’t bad at all, given the game’s age. It’s rather generic, but certainly acceptable.

I must admit to getting quite bored with Cyber Knight after a while. I feel rather badly about it, given that I liked the premise. But the battle system lags so much that after a while you feel like you’ve been waiting for years to get from one place to another. While those cut scenes that I mentioned earlier are the nicest looking part of the game, they are also the most frustrating part. Every attack is played out that way, not just special attacks, and it takes every bit as long as you would think. If you are a fan of space based RPGs and have a lot of patience, Cyber Night is worth a look, but if you have another game on your docket you may want to weigh your options.

If you feel like hearing more of my gaming prattle, feel free to follow me on Twitter. You can find me at @bejiita_buruma

Disk 11: Alshark (アルシャーク)

Name: Alshark (アルシャーク)
Type: Sci-Fi RPG
Available Languages: Japanese

Today we’re taking a step in an entirely new direction by looking at an RPG that is played on the PC Engine. The game in question is called Alshark, and while the version I’m playing is for the Super CD Rom, it appears on several other platforms. Alshark’s jewel case bills the game as a space opera RPG, which is a bit different than this blog’s usual fare, which I’m pretty excited about. The front cover has an attractively drawn cast of humans and aliens who look primed for intergalactic warfare, so here’s hoping that I’m not disappointed. As usual, I’ll be spelling the names with the anglicized names given in the accompanying booklet for ease of reading.

The game opens with a rather interesting background story sequence, followed by an animation showing the main party members. So far, so good! Once you are able to start the game proper, you will be on the planet Home. The game begins in the city of Kosuma with the protagonist, Sion, being awoken by Kal, his robot friend. If I could set Kal’s voice to my alarm clock, I would. It is truly terrifying. After being literally forced out of bed, Sion drags his way out to see his parents. It appears that a meteorite crashed into Home not far from Kosuma the night before, and his father, Jido, is going to investigate it. Sion wants to accompany him, but since his father is going for work, he refuses, promising to take his son after the investigation is finished.


If Kal's hyper warbling is to be believed, it is, in fact, morning.

After this disappointing setback, we get control of Sion. He immediately goes off to find Shoko, daughter of another of the surveyors and resident pretty girl. She decides to help him hightail it to the Zakusen Canyon, site of the meteorite crash, and offers Sion a handgun to protect himself from the local giant insects. I’m sure her dad won’t mind her stealing his hidden weaponry to blatantly disobey him! It’s for the sake of the universe…probably.

After equipping Sion with his shiny new weapon and cringing at his and Shoko’s level one statuses, it’s time to go out and level grind. Luckily the enemies here are ludicrously weak, and a villager in Kosuma is more than happy to help you on your quest for glory by giving you unlimited healing items. When imminent death seems far less likely, Sion and Shoko head out for Zakusen Canyon to peek at their fathers’ progressing investigation.

Zakusen Canyon is to the north of Kosuma and looks exactly like the world map, save for the fact that your characters have to wend their way through a labyrinthine wall of mountains in order to find their way to the site of the meteorite crash. There are quite a few dead ends and tougher enemy groups further in, which makes the dungeon more interesting and more frustrating in equal measure. Now is about the time that I feel that I should mention that I would love to have control of more party members than just Sion. Thankfully this dungeon is quite short by Alshark standards, and my party reached the crash site unscathed.

That's the strangest looking meteorite our heroes have ever seen.

Shoko hurries Sion along, and they hide behind a conveniently placed rock formation. The ‘meteorite’ that their dads went to investigate certainly looks a lot more like a spaceship to me, but what do I know? A cut scene ensues, in which Shoko asks the million dollar question: what is that? They quickly place it as a warship from the Zoriasu Empire, of a type that they don’t recognize. I do believe that we’ve hit upon the intergalactic warfare portion of the game! Their discussion of the reasoning for the empire being there is cut short as someone exits the ship and a fight ensues. Mamon, Shoko’s father, grabs his head in pain and screams, and when he recovers, it is clear that he is possessed. He proceeds to slaughter everyone, leaving with a few cryptic words about something called ‘Alshark’. Given that that’s the name of the game, I would say that we should make note of it.

Your party manages to make it to Jido in time to hear his last words. He charges us with finding a man named Scrap Joe, who is actually way more useful than his name implies. Jido is certain that something has happened to Mamon, and dies with the word Alshark on his lips. You would think that it was important or something. Sion seems pretty set on getting back at the Zoriasu soldiers that he holds responsible for his father’s death. Shoko begs him not to hate her father, as she is certain that something has happened to him. Sion agrees, laying all the blame on the Zoriasu soldiers, and vows to save Mamon. So much for a seemingly innocent adventure.

Alshark’s battle system is pretty basic. You control the main character, Sion, who is given a list of commands to choose from. He can attack, use special techniques, use items, change any party member’s equipment, check any party member’s status, or run. The other characters move freely, attacking and healing at will. Depending on what weapon or weapons the character has equipped, they will attack one or multiple enemies. While human characters can level up via battle, a robot like Kal can only be leveled up by a talented mechanic like your party member Joe.

 

 

Alshark, unfortunately, doesn’t look like much. The world map is huge and rather bland, and the sprites are tiny and unremarkable. The in battle sprites are more of the same, and are really nothing to write home about. The music in places is rather catchy, though, and kept my toes tapping as I worked my way through the bland, labyrinthine dungeons. The cut scenes, however, are quite impressively drawn, and the voice acting throughout the game ranges from comical to excellent.

Overall, I truly like Alshark. While it is a very basic game, the setting is different enough to set it apart from other RPGs of its ilk. I do admit to comparing every space based RPG to Phantasy Star: Sennenki No Owari Ni, and Alshark is certainly not even close to touching that game’s greatness, but that should not keep an RPG devotee from killing a few hours with an amusing game. It’s not Phantasy Star, it’s not Star Ocean, but it is fun.

If you feel like hearing more of my gaming prattle, feel free to follow me on Twitter. You can find me at @bejiita_buruma