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chuckroThe human world was destroyed and the island of the Drakkhen rose, but the gods decreed that humanity could be saved from their folly if they could uncover the mystery of the Ninth Tear. Four warriors set out to challenge the eight drakkhen royals and save their world.
I was inspired to replay this (I played on an emulator, though I own the actual cart and have played it a few times before) by the CRPG Addict playing the PC version of it. Apparently they improved it a lot in the SNES port, because his version apparently has a lot more deaths (instant and otherwise), a tougher-to-use interface, a more complicated story, and no map/compass screen. Also, the method for getting the proper ending sequence in the PC version was apparently significantly more obtuse.
(Which is not to say this version is easy, mind you, just significantly more playable if you know not to touch water or bump into tombstones, you flee from all constellations and black silhouette monsters, you know where the hidden store is, you save constantly, and you abuse free healing at the Anaks to grind.)
Apparently the plot was streamlined for the SNES version--the PC version comes with a novella about an idiot paladin who kills the last dragon and dooms the human world, and a group of explorers who find the isle of the Drakkhen and cause trouble there. The SNES version gives you a quick info-dump right at the beginning: The humans killed the dragons, so the gods created this new world for the Drakkhen. The human world will be spared if you collect the eight Drakkhen tears.
This is a curious game, the likes of which haven't really been seen since. Non-grid-based, 3D world map, with a real-time day/night cycle and changing scenery, which was amazing for one of the first SNES rpgs. The sequel game, Dragon View, was much more of an action game with rpg elements; and much more of a console game. This feels much more like a ported PC game, though for weird reasons: For example, the castles often give you a sentence or two of detail about rooms as you enter them (which often doesn't match the sparse environment you see), which I feel like was a staple of PC rpgs (making up with text what you can't manage with graphics) and was generally unknown in console rpgs (which often tried to minimize text, especially in this era, and just let you imagine all the details).
The game looks more like a wide open sandbox than it actually is--during the first part of the plot, if you try to cross into areas you're not supposed to be in yet, a mysterious old man will force you to go back. There also is a linear series of events, and you're generally not allowed into castles until the plot says you're supposed to go there. So it's only open in the way many Dragon Quest games are: You can visit areas with stronger monsters, but you can't do anything else there until you properly advance the plot.
The combat is a relatively primitive auto-battle, but ultimately not that different from what Final Fantasy 12 used more than a decade later: Your characters and the monster wail on each other with their equipped weapons and spells until somebody dies. There are a dozen spells of varying effects, and your characters can equip one at a time to use in battle, plus a staff that casts an additional defensive spell.
I kinda love the fact that the shields and weapons hanging on the walls of every castle are, in fact, real items you can (and should) pick up and use. This is fairly common with crpgs, much less so with jrpgs; and it's rare that particularly useful weapons can be found this way. (Because armor, especially shields, tend to break in battle, the fact that these items respawn is particularly handy.) This is actually your most reliable source of equipment, because except for one (hidden) shop, you can only buy and sell from randomly-appearing traveling merchants (who have limited inventories). The other option is to pick up random drops from monsters, which can be a losing battle if you're in an area where they break your equipment a lot.
From what I can tell as your level/stats increase, the rate at which equipment is broken decreases. I think this is a game balance design choice: You can't just sneak into a later area, load up on the best equipment, and rock the game from there. You need to also grind some levels, or that fancy high-level equipment will get broken very quickly. The levelling system is otherwise oddly coded, as there doesn't seem to be a level cap, but you only need to be in the mid-teens to beat the game. In theory, you can grind and gain levels until your stats wrap around.
Overall: This is a cultural artifact, interesting for its historical value and innovations, but not the masterpiece many later SNES rpgs would be.
I was inspired to replay this (I played on an emulator, though I own the actual cart and have played it a few times before) by the CRPG Addict playing the PC version of it. Apparently they improved it a lot in the SNES port, because his version apparently has a lot more deaths (instant and otherwise), a tougher-to-use interface, a more complicated story, and no map/compass screen. Also, the method for getting the proper ending sequence in the PC version was apparently significantly more obtuse.
(Which is not to say this version is easy, mind you, just significantly more playable if you know not to touch water or bump into tombstones, you flee from all constellations and black silhouette monsters, you know where the hidden store is, you save constantly, and you abuse free healing at the Anaks to grind.)
Apparently the plot was streamlined for the SNES version--the PC version comes with a novella about an idiot paladin who kills the last dragon and dooms the human world, and a group of explorers who find the isle of the Drakkhen and cause trouble there. The SNES version gives you a quick info-dump right at the beginning: The humans killed the dragons, so the gods created this new world for the Drakkhen. The human world will be spared if you collect the eight Drakkhen tears.
This is a curious game, the likes of which haven't really been seen since. Non-grid-based, 3D world map, with a real-time day/night cycle and changing scenery, which was amazing for one of the first SNES rpgs. The sequel game, Dragon View, was much more of an action game with rpg elements; and much more of a console game. This feels much more like a ported PC game, though for weird reasons: For example, the castles often give you a sentence or two of detail about rooms as you enter them (which often doesn't match the sparse environment you see), which I feel like was a staple of PC rpgs (making up with text what you can't manage with graphics) and was generally unknown in console rpgs (which often tried to minimize text, especially in this era, and just let you imagine all the details).
The game looks more like a wide open sandbox than it actually is--during the first part of the plot, if you try to cross into areas you're not supposed to be in yet, a mysterious old man will force you to go back. There also is a linear series of events, and you're generally not allowed into castles until the plot says you're supposed to go there. So it's only open in the way many Dragon Quest games are: You can visit areas with stronger monsters, but you can't do anything else there until you properly advance the plot.
The combat is a relatively primitive auto-battle, but ultimately not that different from what Final Fantasy 12 used more than a decade later: Your characters and the monster wail on each other with their equipped weapons and spells until somebody dies. There are a dozen spells of varying effects, and your characters can equip one at a time to use in battle, plus a staff that casts an additional defensive spell.
I kinda love the fact that the shields and weapons hanging on the walls of every castle are, in fact, real items you can (and should) pick up and use. This is fairly common with crpgs, much less so with jrpgs; and it's rare that particularly useful weapons can be found this way. (Because armor, especially shields, tend to break in battle, the fact that these items respawn is particularly handy.) This is actually your most reliable source of equipment, because except for one (hidden) shop, you can only buy and sell from randomly-appearing traveling merchants (who have limited inventories). The other option is to pick up random drops from monsters, which can be a losing battle if you're in an area where they break your equipment a lot.
From what I can tell as your level/stats increase, the rate at which equipment is broken decreases. I think this is a game balance design choice: You can't just sneak into a later area, load up on the best equipment, and rock the game from there. You need to also grind some levels, or that fancy high-level equipment will get broken very quickly. The levelling system is otherwise oddly coded, as there doesn't seem to be a level cap, but you only need to be in the mid-teens to beat the game. In theory, you can grind and gain levels until your stats wrap around.
Overall: This is a cultural artifact, interesting for its historical value and innovations, but not the masterpiece many later SNES rpgs would be.
