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chuckroLast Dream I ended up loving and reviewed under a separate header. Last Dream: World Unknown, on the other hand, made some unfortunate design choices. To wit, it’s designed for people who played the hell out of Last Dream, including all the bonus content, and wanted to take their overleveled characters out for another full adventure. You can carry over your data, but the difficulty and encounter options are gone, which means you’re locked into default “hardcore player” mode. I skipped a bunch of the bonus content in the first game because I was satisfied with my first experience and wanted a new adventure; this game wasn’t intended for me. (Or in simpler terms: I wanted a sequel. This is an expansion pack.)
Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria - An 8-bit throwback, with three main chapters that parody Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy and Rogue. Lots of grinding to gain levels and buy equipment. Goofy enemy actions, reminiscent of Earthbound. It took me a few tries to really get into it, as the first chapter is both the longest and the most grindy. I did appreciate the system of capturing and recruiting enemies, which rewards catching the strongest one in each area, as they don’t gain levels under your care. This leaves off on an obvious sequel hook.
Dragon Fantasy: The Black Tome of Ice is much more influenced by 16-bit games, primarily Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6. It keeps the monster-capturing system (and depends on it heavily to fill out your party and make some areas playable), though the monsters can level up now. There’s a rudimentary crafting system (you can make a few upgrades for monster troops and some of Ogden’s best stuff) and a quite nice sidequest/mission system (not only does the menu screen track your quests and what you need to do for them; you can get the reward at any thieves guild rather than hunting down the original quest-giver, and the thieves guild provides clues for finding every sidequest you haven’t done yet). It was generally pretty solid, though the way that monsters behave on the map screen (if they see you, they’ll jump into other battles if another monster initiates) means that you can’t really run past monsters unless you’re certain you’ll reach a screen transition; otherwise you’ll end up fighting everything from that area in one big battle. This also leaves a sequel hook, though it resolves a few subplots from the first game. I’ll have forgotten all the details if and when the third game ever comes out.
Rogue Wizards - A roguelike of the “mysterious dungeon” lineage, featuring relatively simple systems, no food meter, and a persistent character that gains levels and keeps equipment across dungeon runs. The isometric perspective is sub-optimal in some places and, like most roguelikes, the systems aren’t actually that well explained. That aside, it’s entertaining for a few runs. The variety of weapons and ability to easily switch is helpful, and the difficulty curve is actually reasonable.
Spaceship Looter - This isn’t actually an rpg, it’s a cross between a roguelike and a bullet-hell shoot-em-up. The idea behind the game is that you’re looting lost spaceships (and fighting the aliens that have infested them) in search of riches. In practice, you have to track your ammo and be very careful about your health; the alternate weapons don’t seem to do much and you have a one-item inventory. Fun for twenty minutes.
Eschalon: Book I – This is very much a “western” rpg, and the Ultima in its DNA is obvious. I decided early on (after my first character was killed by punching a TNT barrel that I couldn’t otherwise interact with) that I’d try this in “tourist” mode using a cheat utility. It clearly tries very hard to implement free-roaming questing, skill checks and variable play styles (it seems that playing a melee fighter, an archer, a stealth fighter, or a wizard are all viable builds, if you understand the system). Lockpicking is essential for any character, though, as trying to bash things open will break your weapons. How well any given idea is implemented is debatable, but I give them credit for trying.
I gave Eschalon: Book II a quick try, as it picks up some time later and adds some variety to the difficulty level but otherwise uses most of the same systems. I didn’t bother with Eschalon: Book III, because I already got my exploration of the system and I don’t really care about the plot.
Overall: This bundle gave me three games I played all the way through, and a bunch more that were interesting to try. Very much worth my time.
Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria - An 8-bit throwback, with three main chapters that parody Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy and Rogue. Lots of grinding to gain levels and buy equipment. Goofy enemy actions, reminiscent of Earthbound. It took me a few tries to really get into it, as the first chapter is both the longest and the most grindy. I did appreciate the system of capturing and recruiting enemies, which rewards catching the strongest one in each area, as they don’t gain levels under your care. This leaves off on an obvious sequel hook.
Dragon Fantasy: The Black Tome of Ice is much more influenced by 16-bit games, primarily Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6. It keeps the monster-capturing system (and depends on it heavily to fill out your party and make some areas playable), though the monsters can level up now. There’s a rudimentary crafting system (you can make a few upgrades for monster troops and some of Ogden’s best stuff) and a quite nice sidequest/mission system (not only does the menu screen track your quests and what you need to do for them; you can get the reward at any thieves guild rather than hunting down the original quest-giver, and the thieves guild provides clues for finding every sidequest you haven’t done yet). It was generally pretty solid, though the way that monsters behave on the map screen (if they see you, they’ll jump into other battles if another monster initiates) means that you can’t really run past monsters unless you’re certain you’ll reach a screen transition; otherwise you’ll end up fighting everything from that area in one big battle. This also leaves a sequel hook, though it resolves a few subplots from the first game. I’ll have forgotten all the details if and when the third game ever comes out.
Rogue Wizards - A roguelike of the “mysterious dungeon” lineage, featuring relatively simple systems, no food meter, and a persistent character that gains levels and keeps equipment across dungeon runs. The isometric perspective is sub-optimal in some places and, like most roguelikes, the systems aren’t actually that well explained. That aside, it’s entertaining for a few runs. The variety of weapons and ability to easily switch is helpful, and the difficulty curve is actually reasonable.
Spaceship Looter - This isn’t actually an rpg, it’s a cross between a roguelike and a bullet-hell shoot-em-up. The idea behind the game is that you’re looting lost spaceships (and fighting the aliens that have infested them) in search of riches. In practice, you have to track your ammo and be very careful about your health; the alternate weapons don’t seem to do much and you have a one-item inventory. Fun for twenty minutes.
Eschalon: Book I – This is very much a “western” rpg, and the Ultima in its DNA is obvious. I decided early on (after my first character was killed by punching a TNT barrel that I couldn’t otherwise interact with) that I’d try this in “tourist” mode using a cheat utility. It clearly tries very hard to implement free-roaming questing, skill checks and variable play styles (it seems that playing a melee fighter, an archer, a stealth fighter, or a wizard are all viable builds, if you understand the system). Lockpicking is essential for any character, though, as trying to bash things open will break your weapons. How well any given idea is implemented is debatable, but I give them credit for trying.
I gave Eschalon: Book II a quick try, as it picks up some time later and adds some variety to the difficulty level but otherwise uses most of the same systems. I didn’t bother with Eschalon: Book III, because I already got my exploration of the system and I don’t really care about the plot.
Overall: This bundle gave me three games I played all the way through, and a bunch more that were interesting to try. Very much worth my time.
