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Lunar - Dragon Song: Reviews

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Game Score: 2/10

Before starting. I will first admit that I am one of the dedicated lunar fans. I loved this game so much that I begged my aunt to buy me that limited edition lunar: eternal blue game (Came with a soundtrack cd and a punching bag). And I really want to choke adam sandler for ruining the classic opening of the silvar star game in the segment "The horror of songs". I loved the songs of both the games that I will really sing them in an anime convention if I was chosen to.

In short, I'm a lunar fan. And I hate dragon song.

Maybe your expecting that I'll just give this game an instant 9 out of 10 since it's Lunar for crying out loud. It's the third english installment for a very long time. So why am I putting this into 2 out of 10 hell?

Let's start.

Now many fans who have played lunar will remember the battle system which is unique as it has you moving your characters towards the enemy to attack them or run away and defend if they're going to dish out something like a devastating area magic. Strategy is always present in the game as you don't just blindlessly attack an enemy especially a boss. You will always look at what they are doing while you choose what to do in each turn. The enemy might be emitting an evil aura or brandishing a giant sword at you. At such circumstances, the defend button is emphasize (This is one of the few RPG games that you rely on the defend option rather than just use it to skip a character's turn. Oh and remember what I said here for later).

So what were they thinking when they made this crappy battle system. It's as if they coppied it from dragon quest or an old school japanese RPG (The ones we shall never see) since you see the enemies are all facing you and all lined up. But the main problem with this game is the absence of being able to choose WHO to attack. That's right, even in manual mode, all you do is just press the attack button and let the character themselves attack whoever. I bet your thinking "Maybe the AI is way better at choosing who to attack". The AI in this game is the dumbest of any game I have seen. They won't choose who to attack, they just pick at someone random. Your uber strong main character who can kill with one attack will pick a weaker monster over a stronger monster whom he can easily kill, meaning that that stronger monster will be able to take a huge bite out of your aZZ before you can kill him. Even the offensive spells can't choose a target, they just hit everyone. And it takes forever to finish a battle since you can only have three party members while the enemy could be as many from 2 - 8 baddies on both screen. You can speed up the battle by pressing the R button, but eventually you'll let go of your DS and wait for the battle to finish by doing other stuff. While I was playing Lunar this week, I put it on auto while I was using the computer.

What the heck happened? Where's the strategy that we have loved from the lunar series? How could they have let that happen, that you'll just let you character go ahead and attack while you do something else? Now remember what I said about the defend option? Well this game doesn't need it, in fact, it's no where to be found. This game won't test out your noodle for thinking how to win a battle. But test out your patience in clearing out a dungeon of enemies. That's just sad.

Then there's the screwed up system where you choose whether to level up or gain items via switching modes from combat (items) to virtue (experience). And there's a problem with the two modes. The items are various junks that sell for a measly amount of money, though you will need this mode to attain monster cards (unfortunately, there's no card battle game in single player mode) will really help you in the game (Fully replenish your health, magic points, option to escape, increase defense, offense and speed). And then there's the virtous mode which you will always pick in this game as it not only give you experience points, once you clear the map of monsters, you will gain 30% mp and hp as well as unlocking a blue treasure chest.

If you want to gain a decent amount of money, you have to accept a frustrating fetch quest or a job at a gad's express building where random people will want a number of your various junk. But getting the certain amount of junk for a job, you need to beat a lot of monsters which will rarely give you that junk. When you finally retrive those junk, you'll go to the village, town or city of the client whom you'll still need to go around town to find. Added to your frustration are the names of the client which the translaters happen to screw up. Say you accepted to deliver a package to a guy named "Dolom" whom you will find after going around town for half an hour is a woman named "Delane". No pictures, no address or name of a building and no profile of your client is give except for the name of the town and their names. But that's not all, they don't give you the cash once you deliver the goods... junk, you will recieve a reciept which you will need to cash in by backtracking waaaay back to the place you accepted the job. And you won't even have a transport spell or easy way to get a town till the end of the game. Gaining items through combat mode will be useless and a waste of time as there is a certain town with shops that sell the various junks your clients are asking. So why would the game makers think of that mode in the first place? Are they thinking that gamers or hardcore lunar fans will actually get those rare junks to gain a large amount of money?

Finally in virtue mode, there is an issue. You see, those monsters you will find all throughout the game are as strong as you are. What I mean is that they grow stronger as you level up. Even if your characters are level 99, you'll still wait for a long time as your support characters will deal little amount of damage. Couldn't they just thought of having a certain area full of totally uber monsters who gives out a pile of experience and gives the player a challenge instead of making the game even more frustrating by having every monster in the game gain more health points as you gain more experience?

And finally the story. I didn't mention this earlier as I want to save this for later, that lunar has the most memorable story, characters and atmosphere that I would like to calle lunaresque charm. Every major character that the two hero's meet in the past games have a rich back story and how much the characters are affected by the story all throughout the game shows how much the game makers then think of not just the main plot but the cast and the stage.

So what does dragon song have to offer? More of the tired old powerful mad man wanting to take over the world plot and an average guy just happens to be involve in the mess cliche plot. Dragon song has the poorest quality of dialogues (A lot of it may be due to the faulty translation of ubisoft) which was the heart of the lunar series. The humor and wit can hardly be seen as the character's dialogues are so dull. And there isn't even an explanation as to how the main villain, who was once a dragonmaster, started doing the powerful mad man routine. In fact, most of the main quests are hardly explained. The only time you will feel anything from a dialogue in this game is when the hero meets the four dragons whom has at least some of that lunaresque charm you are looking for.

Dragon song shouldn't have been this awful. It felt like the makers rushed this game to the market as it wanted to be one of the few launching RPG titles. If they have realeased this game one or two years later, they might have come up with a better battle system and have concentrated more to making a rich background of the other characters in the game. With so many flaws with the exception of Toshiyuki Kubooka's original character design, This game isn't even a decent RPG for those new to lunar and a fan of the RPG genre. The crisp and colorful graphics and character, monster sprites animation are eyecatching and is the only thing this game has it going for. As painful as it is, this game is a 2 various junk out of 10