 |
| December
7, 2015 by Shinobi |
| INTRO |
| Dragon
Force is a real-time strategy/RPG developed by Sega and
published by Sega/Working Designs. It's set in the
knights and magic fantasy world of "Legendra". You control one of
eight monarchs destined to unify them into the "Dragon Force" against the
evil Madruk.
Thanks to Working
Designs' hard work on localization, Western gamers can enyoy this
Saturn
gem. Dragon Force is in the same league as Langrisser
V and Mystaria,
albeit with real-time battles instead of turn-based hex battles. |
| GRAPHICS |
| Other
than Shining Force III,
strategy games never seem to have great graphics. Especially in the
battle mode, Dragon Force is a cut above in the visual department.
It's a mixture of static background menu screens, some cut scenes, a map
view and side-scrolling battle views. It all works well together
and portrays a familiar anime flair.
The overworld map
is top-down with various castles and static routes between them.
The battle scenes are loaded with up to 200 soldiers and 2 generals at
once! As far as I know, this is another Sega first.
The units are a bit pixelated, especially if you zoom in close to the action.
Round it off with some pretty cool magic explosions and such, and you get
an eye-pleasing experience for the many hours you'll be playing. |
| CONTROL |
| The
game flow is to handle Domestic affairs such as awards, equipment, character
interaction, statistics, search for items/generals, fortify castles, map
check and save games. When you finish that, you enter the real-time
mode in the map view. Now you check castle strength, review generals,
move troops and recruit troops. Whenever opposing forces share the
same space on the map, you enter the battle mode. Initially, you decide
to battle, talk or retreat. Within battles you select generals (with
their armies), arrange various offensive/defensive formations, and use
techniques/magic until a side dies or retreats. Be careful, if your
monarch dies in battle, then it's back to the title screen.
It may sound complicated,
but it's easy to learn and hard to stop playing. In the long run,
the only parts that become cumbersome are the fortification and searching
for items. Strategy and tactics play a huge part in deciding if you
win and by what margin. |
| SOUND |
| The
voice acting lacks any sort of passion, but is acceptable. What do
you want? Be happy it's in English! The music soundtrack is above
average, but it's no Panzer
Dragoon Saga. The little jingles that you hear repeatedly
are not annoying, which is a relief. Lastly, the sound effects are
above average and easily convey things like sword strikes and meteor showers.
So I'd say very effective and certainly won't have you looking for the
mute music option. |
| FUN |
| I
absolutely love turn-based strategy games, and to some lesser degree, RTS
games. Although not entirely real-time, Dragon Force
is a huge step in that direction, which suits me just fine. I'd rather
have some time to think about what I'm doing, instead of going on a mind-blowing
marathon of thought and reflexes (like today's RTS games). Add in
the fantasy world of knights and magic to pretty much get me hooked.
There's something addictive about doing battle, winning and watching your
characters' stats level up. |
| BOTTOM
LINE |
| I
was probably too busy playing Dragon Force and working when
it first came out to review it properly. So I finally got around
to it now, because it's a worthy game for any serious strategy/RPG fan.
Sega
always seems to come up with great games like this. Remember Herzog
Zwei on Genesis, or Dark
Wizard on Sega CD? If you can, play this
game on a Saturn or an emulater, and you'll know the meaning
of "Sega quality games". |
| RATINGS |
| Overall:
9.0 | Graphics: 8.5 | Control: 9.0 | Sound: 8.5 | Fun: 10 |
|
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