Review: Dragoneer’s Aria

In Dragoneer’s Aria, you play as Valen (who is ultimately joined by three others), a new Dragoon (think of it as a knight class that defends dragons). However, at your initiation ceremony, everything goes wrong: the evil black dragon Nidhogg has reawoken and is causing chaos. It is up to you and your friends to seek out the elemental dragons and protect them from evil to ultimately destroy Nidhogg himself.

DA does have some interesting unique elements, some of which could definitely be refined in future games, and that definitely deserve mentioning to keep those from thinking this game has nothing distinguishing to offer. In fact, were it not for some of these aspects of the game, I would perhaps say it deserved the terrible scores it has received.

Although it isn’t the most unique RPG element, I personally really enjoyed the crafting aspect of the game: it really made it fun to try to find new ingredients and create new weapons. While not without its flaws, without crafting, the game would definitely fall farther on the side of bland than it does otherwise. Basically, the system works this way: you either find or buy recipes, which you can then use to make various items. More complicated recipes may actually require you to craft several other items first (from other recipes) in order to create all the ingredients you need. For example, a higher level sword may require you to use a low-level one via a recipe to create a different low-level sword, that must be combined with other ingredients to make your new, more powerful weapon.

It’s actually surprisingly deep and fun, and an element that really added to my overall enjoyment of the game. The only problem with the system is that you must buy recipes blindly (you don’t know what ingredients you’ll need until after you buy it), and it can be difficult to near impossible to acquire some of the ingredients, as many can only be obtained as enemy drops through chance. While this can be part of the fun in some ways, as it leads to mystery and adventure and the “thrill of the hunt,” it will likely drive completionists insane, as you fight enemy after enemy and never get the “attack rune” you need to create a particular weapon, for example. It’s also a little disappointing that you can’t buy a recipe for all the items you want (i.e., some of those darn hard-to-find ingredients); however, some gamers may consider this adding to the challenge of the game.

Another unique element is the magic system, which has two aspects. Throughout the game, you will obtain a dragon orb from each dragon that will grant you two magical elemental attacks (a single-enemy attack and a multi-enemy attack). Each character can only equip one orb at a time, and the more you use a skill, the more powerful it will become. The other magic spells come from jewels called lusces, which cannot be purchased, but which you will find in treasure chests and as enemy drops. Each lusce will grant a single power, for example, an elemental attack, healing, or reviving a fallen ally. Like the dragon orbs, the more you use the lusce, the more it will luminesce (stronger it will become). For instance, your heal lusce will level up, so that you can heal at level 1 (1000 HP) or level 3 (1500 HP), etc., depending on how much energy you have and how much HP your character needs. The twist with the lusces, however, is you can only equip them if you have open slots in your jewelry.

Yes, another interesting aspect of DA is rather than traditional armor, your characters can each equip a necklace, bracelet, and ring. Various accessories will have different properties, but they will also range in the number of slots available to place lusces. You will soon find you have far more lusces than you can possibly equip, meaning the system introduces an interesting strategic element as you juggle not only which jewelry to use (sometimes you might prefer a lower-level item with more slots over a higher one with less) and also which of the many lusces to bring into battle.

Your characters will also each have 1 additional skill, called their field skill, which can be used while roaming around the open world. The most useful one is the heal skill, which will gradually heal your party until you run out of energy or encounter an enemy.

This leads me to yet another unique concept found in DA. Unlike most RPGs, in which each character has their own HP and MP, in DA what qualifies as “MP” is shared among your entire party. However, it is very different from most other games of this type in other ways as well. For example, you have an energy/mana gauge that maxes out at 1000/10. This is the equivalent of traditional “mana” found in most other RPGs. Whenever you use magic, your gauge will drop: steadily for field skills, incrementally depending on level for lusces, and 1 bar (1000 MANA or 10 energy) at a time for dragon skills. One neat thing about the system, though, is you can fill up your gauge by doing regular melee attacks or guarding in battle. Additionally, you can use items to boost your energy in a pinch, and you will also encounter green circles of light in the field that will also fill your energy gauge. Although it might take some getting used to at first, I actually really liked this system, as you can’t ever permanently run out of MP the way you can in other RPGs, and it also makes combat a little more strategic, as you have to carefully manage and balance magic and melee fighting.

Yet another interesting element is the “guard” system. Unlike other games, where “guard” is simply an option that reduces the amount of damage your character takes, in DA, the system is a little more interactive. Whereas the rest of the game has turn-based combat, the “guard” option plays more like a QTE: a dial will appear and an arrow will move around the circle. You must hit a face button at just the right time so that it lines up with some of the colored arrows. The more of these you successfully hit, the more successfully you will block your opponent’s attack. Your success can range from failure (you don’t hit any) to full success. In the first case, it will be as if you hadn’t blocked at all, and you will receive the full blow. If you guard 100% successfully, then you will not receive any damage (your opponent’s hit will miss). Anything in between, and you will receive a percentage of the full damage depending on how many of the triangles you successfully hit when the time gauge runs out (this gauge will decrease at a slower rate the more you guard). Also, an added plus to successfully guarding is you earn energy for your bar. You may not use this skill much early in the game, but you will find it essential to master as you get towards the end and the enemies get very powerful.

For the most part, DA is a very enjoyable RPG with some interesting elements that can keep things fresh and interesting. However, it isn’t without its flaws. One thing is for sure: Dragoneer’s Aria is NOT for the impatient gamer. The game’s pacing is a little off, storywise, and combat can be very repetitive and tedious. For instance, you must watch all animations every battle, with no way to skip through these to speed things up. Also, you could easily spend hours on a single encounter (I know my battery died during one fight), with regular battles taking longer than most of the boss fights.

This, in and of its self is not a deal-breaker in my opinion. However, what can really frustrate is the fact that you may spend 30 minutes or more fighting some “regular” enemies, only to be rewarded with the same amount of EXP as you would have fighting someone you could have easily killed in one blow. This can be very frustrating, especially since level grinding is essential. This game is pretty hard, and while I did welcome the challenge most of the time, it can get annoying that enemies would never run out of energy/mana, deal enormous damage to all your party members in one blow, and sometimes take multiple hits in one turn (which you never get), not to mention having the ability to heal the entire enemy party (which you never get). Coupled with the necessary level grinding and unfair experience given for these challenging battles, I could definitely see how some could be turned away. As an example, one of the final bosses that was actually very challenging only rewarded each party member with 60 EXP (takes 500 to go up a level), when I had defeated enemies just before that with 120+ EXP as a reward.

The guard skill, which, as I mentioned previously, can be invaluable, especially late in the game, can also go from an interesting, unique element, to annoying really quickly. In the last quarter of the game, you will be forced to guard nearly all your characters all the time, and since increasing this skill only makes the time decrease and not the speed of the dial, it can get old pretty fast. Also, while I love the craft system and the creative use of treasure chests (you must use items or have a certain skill level to open some), it can be frustrating when you can only get a recurring item like an Attack Rune or Arcanastone from one enemy in one section of the map, meaning you will have to leave a lot of chests unopened and a lot of recipes unfinished. Another flaw, although this is minor, is the animations, particularly during cutscenes. Although overall the graphics (particularly on the character level) are very good, it felt almost as if the animators weren’t quite sure what to do with everyone’s arms and so forth in the cutscenes.

Still, the story, while not the best I’ve ever experienced in an RPG, is interesting, even if the pacing is a bit off, and character motivations are a bit forced (although it does have time to poke fun at itself). While your main party members may be a bit cliche, they are very well developed and entertaining (all cutscenes are fully voiced well), and you don’t mind tagging along for the 100-150 hour journey. Yes, you read that correctly. I have no way to know for sure how much time you could sink into this game, but I would definitely place it at the 100+ hour range, depending on how you play. Although the game doesn’t use a save anywhere system, save points are very well paced for the most part, and you definitely want to save VERY often, as you will die - a lot - especially if you try to rush through an area without leveling up first.

Overall, I would recommend this game to those of you who enjoy slower-paced, turn-based RPGs, but aren’t afraid to see some things done a little differently, too. You definitely get your money’s worth, and now that it is available on both UMD and PSN, even PSPGo owners can pick this up. However, if the idea of slow, repetitive level grinding is something that makes you scream in terror, you might want to look elsewhere.

Doin It RIGHT: -Excellent character design - Lots of unique elements keep things interesting. - 100-150+ hours of gameplay will keep you busy for a long, long time.	Doin It RONG: - Guard skill is clever but gets old - Combat/EXP is unbalanced - Expect some very long battles.
FINAL SCORE: 7 / 10