Review
Release Date: 12.1996
Platform:
Sega SaturnDeveloper:
Sega of JapanPublisher:
Working DesignsReviewed by
Dan Bailey on 4.7.2003
| Review Rating: 10/10 | User Rating: 8.7/10 |
Strategy titles like that of Dragon Force are few and far between. Dragon Force is a strategy RPG that has a differing battle system then most pick your spot and move Shining Force or Tactics Ogre style RPGs. In Dragon Force you don't have the standard turn based combat where you characters can only walk a certain number of steps then attempt to attack as in many other titles of its mini genre. Dragon force is also more property objective with you trying to collect and inhabit as many castles for your nation as possible. This is a fairly unique and successful approach to a strategy RPG. There are 3 main modes in Dragon Force, Administrative, Map and finally battle. I will explain all of these in detail later.
Storyline: The story in Dragon Force isn't all that fantastic but this is not the game's emphasis, either. The story is that long ago the Evil god Madruk wreaked havoc upon the land of Legendra. Now Madruk has returned and it is up to the 8 members of Dragon force to destroy Madruk and save the land of Legendra from his evil. While there is this background story line the main point of the game more or less is really to try and conquer the entire land and get all 8 members of DragonForce to unite in order to stop Madruk and save the kingdom.
Outline of the game: When you begin the game you first have the option of picking your character/monarch and his or her kingdom. There are 8 characters/monarchs to choose from at the beginning. Each character has their own unique abilities, castles with are originally in their possession and generals. Each character also has their own mini storyline going for them and certain things can only be done with certain character and certain nations don't need to be conquered with certain characters as head Monarch. They will peacefully join your kingdom rather then force you to try and conquer them. Also certain generala will not ever join certain monarchs or are more likely to join some then others. What happens throughout the game differs significantly from monarch to monarch so playing through the game once with just one character will not give you the whole experience that Dragon Force has to offer. Depending on what character you pick you have different goals and alliances.
Levels and Items:
Like in almost every other type of RPG Dragon Force has a system of levels the higher your level the higher certain stats of your generals are raised. These stats are usually just health points and magic points but other stats like Wisdom, Strength, Command and intelligence. The more powerful your general is the better he is at suiting his troops in battle. There are also a variety of items in the game that can be found while searching castles in administrative mode. Items allow you to use new types of troops, increase the stats mentioned above, and allow the use of weapons for generals. There are also items used to heal injured generals more quickly and as mentioned improve the various attributes of the generals. Using items to improve your army is a key to any Dragon Force player’s strategy.
Generals:
Throughout the course of your game you will acquire a lot of different generals in your party. In the game itself there are over 200 hundred generals all with individual stats and characters. There are 10 main classifications of generals that are Fighters, Spirit Users, Knights, Magicians, Monks, Priests, Samurai, Ninjas, Beasts, and Thieves. Whichever character you have initially you start out with a certain group of generals; whenever you capture an enemy general you can try and persuade him or her to join you. By doing this you can dramatically increase the number of generals in your party. However some captive generals will under no circumstances join you. And some generals can't be captured at all. Once you have the generals in your party it is a good idea to build up their strength by giving them badges which allow them to add 10 max troops to their party each or items or weapons which increase their stats or allow them to better win duels. If you ignore generals for long enough some of them may become unhappy and even leave your party entirely and join opposing kingdoms. So by sim0ply checking in on all your generals and conferencing with them via the administrative mode you can find out who is unhappy and who is not and try to prevent people from becoming traitors. Like each monarch many generals have their own personality and while some lack to lay back and not have to battle others want to be in on the action. Trying to properly fit the active generals with active areas can be difficult but well worth your time. You can also find new generals by searching castles. If you find a general in one of your castles via a search you can attempt to get him to join you. The more generals the better especially if you just need extras to keep castles far away from enemy lines occupied.
Troops:
In Dragon force like with generals there are 10 main classifications of troops. They are soldiers, cavalry, mages, samurai, archers, monks, harpies, beasts, dragons and zombies. There is a system of checks in balances within troops. For example: While Dragons are usually the most powerful they get destroyed by samurais or harpies who are one of the stronger suits of troops in general have lots of trouble battling mages and archers. Usually generals have a set type of troops then can use but by using various items in the game you can add certain types of troops to any generals arsenal. Strategic planning who will battle what general based on types of troops is one of the most important things to think of when battling in Dragon Force. Also certain troops are more effective in certain types of attack formations. Proper use and dispatching of troops is one of the biggest factors in battles.
Administrative mode. In between days you can go into administrative mode. Administrative mode is VERY important and gives you a lot of options in playing with your army. When you first start administrative mode you are given a list of battles and how well you did. For every battle won you get a medal which you can bestow upon any of your generals. For every medal you give your general it allows for ten more army members (until you reach 100 which is where it maxes out) for your generals party. This helps add to their strength in battles. You can also add items to your generals to help and or keep them happy. You can also have an audience with your generals where you can talk to everyone and see who is happy and who isn't since unhappy generals are likely to leave this gives you good insight into who you should give awards and or items to. You can also have an audience with captured generals and try and convince them to join your army, while it doesn't always work and some generals will never join you it sure helps build up your numbers when captured generals do. You also have the option to look over all your generals stats and basic info this is good for deciding who needs items and or needs troop replenishment when you return to the map screen. You then have the ability to search your castles. By going into search mode you can search the castles in your kingdom for items and hidden generals. When a castle can be searched it will be highlighted as will the generals who can do the searching, the higher the intelligence level of the general searching the more likely they are to find things. Then there is the fortify command which allows you to build up castles levels and strength. By selecting a general to fortify you can build up castle strength. Then there is the map option. With the map option you can look over the map and see where your strength and or enemies strength is by looking over the map and seeing who inhabits what castles. Finally there is the save option which is pretty self-explanatory. Those are the basics of the Administrative mode.
Map Mode:
In the map or over world mode of Dragon Force you have the ability to plan your battles. The castles inhabited by your army all will have your armies flag on them. By pointing and clicking on your kingdoms castle you can look at your castles stats, levels and the generals in habiting the castle. You can also look at enemy divisions and see how strong they are, this is good for deciding whether or not to attack an enemy or not. Once you click on one of your own castles you have a variety of options, the first of which I will mention is the deploy option. The deploy option allows you to deploy your troops & generals and move them from one place to another. This may be to attack another castle or army descending on your castle as well as to move from one part of your kingdom to another. Deploy is basically the option used to move your army around. I will also now note that only 5 generals can be deployed at once. Another option when you are on your of your own castles is to recruit more troops the bigger the castle the more troops can be held for recruitment. From the option screen on one of your own castles you can also change the troop class for generals who have more then one class of troops they can use. You can also release troops from one general’s army so that other generals can recruit them. Another map option you have is the ability to check in on the stats and power of armies on the move. This lets you know all about incoming armies attacking you and gives you time to prepare for their attacks. You can also select your own armies and then redirect them, for example if an enemy castle you planned to attack just had several new generals join and you decide to turn back and not attack that castle you can do so by using the direct command. You can also look at the status of your army and the opposing armies by hitting start while not selecting an army or castle. One other option worth mentioning is a map that lets you see how the land is distributed between other armies and finally suspend which lets you save your game without having to wait for administration mode to start off. One disadvantage with Suspend is you can only use that save once. Once you use it the save will erase. So try not to use suspend to often.
Castles:
Castles in Dragon force vary in many ways. Like characters the castles in Dragon force also have a level system. The higher the castle level the greater the advantage in battle to the army that occupies it. This can be a BIG factor in battles when attacking in large high-level castles. Another thing worth pointing out is that the higher the castle level the more max troops for recruitment can be held. This is very important for a castle that gets attacked a lot. The more troops that can be held the easier it is to replenish your troops. The more often a castle is battled in the more likely the castle level is too drop. You can try and use the fortify command via the administrative mode to try and raise castle levels. The higher the castle level of castles you inhabit the better off your army is both in battle and for creating more troops to recruit.
Battle Mode:
Dragon Forces battle mode is very interesting and fun. Before almost any battle you can attempt to talk to your opponents to avoid battling, however talking to your enemy gives you the disadvantage of if your talks fail you have to fight the other army with no troops, be very careful when using talk. Your next option is to retreat from the battle or as you will most often wind up doing which is go on with the attack. Then after you have selected attack from the options and before a battle begins you see an initial screen with the list of generals in both armies. By looking over what kind of troops and in what numbers they are you can try and match a general in your party against whichever general the other army puts out. Try to strategize who well do well against who before going into battle. Once you begin a battle both general will line up with their troops in front on a side of the battle screen. Then you can select an initial strategy for your troops to use. Once you have selected your battle strategy the battle begins and the troops follow your commands. The troop VS troops part of the battle really depends on the type of troops battling and the strategy used by both you and your opponent. During battles you can also use magic. Magic can be used to clean out enemy troops to make it easier for your troops to reach the enemy general and to protect yourself, directly attack the general, both of the aforementioned options or resurrect some of your troops. The magic used depends on the general and what level they are. For example only a very small number of generals can use the resurrection spell. Once you or the enemy general is defeated the loser is captured, slain or injured. If captured the general is now in the hands of the other army and may potentially join them, if slain the general is dead and finally if injured the general will return to his monarch as injured. If both generals run out of troops the battle goes down to a duel or you can retreat. Some generals are better then others at duels so be very careful who you do and don't select for duels. If you have a weak character then don't go into a duel just retreat. Once all the generals in the opposing army (either your army or the enemies) are defeated the battle is over and then you collect all captives and then the winner of the battles will own the castle. One other thing worth noting is that if your monarch is ever to lose a battle the game is over and you have to restart at your last save point.
The graphics:
The graphics in Dragon force are very sharp and clean with nice looking anime characters in battles. While the map screen is rather plain looking there are nice anime scenes shown in administrative mode and several anime scenes sparse throughout the game. The basic character design is very nice and when you look at the sheer number of highly detailed troops on each side, the look of generals, sharp looking stills and nice anime scenes it more then makes up for the plain looking map screen. Overall I thought the general look of Dragon force was very impressive and the highly detailed battle scenes really make you wonder what the Saturn could do if put to the test. While the animation is a little pixelated and the map screen is a little dull overall Dragon Force is a sharp looking game.
The sound:
The music in Dragon force is nice with each monarch having his or her own theme. Well none of the tracks in the game stood out as being fantastic nothing was bad either and all the sounds in the game were fitting. There is also some anime cut scenes in the game as mentioned before with of course dubbing. The dub job while not very significant due to the lack of anime scenes in the game was very well done with an excellent opening narration. Overall the sound in Dragon Force was excellent and very fitting of the game.
The packaging:
Dragon Force comes with some fantastic packaging, but this is to be expected from Working Designs. The game features a hard stock cover with die-cutting and foil on the outside. The cover art is gorgeous and the manual is full color on high quality paper stock as well. The game came with a set of stickers and as a bonus there is multiple sets of disc art, making certain versions more collectors items. Overall, Working Designs did an excellent job on packaging this game.
Overall:
Overall Dragon Force is truly a fantastic game and is my all time favorite strategy RPG. After playing this game you start to wonder if anything barring crack can be more addictive. By the same token however Dragon Force is a very complicated game that a lot of people may have trouble getting into. One of the reasons I was so in depth about the game play system in Dragon force was to give a good explanation of the game and to let people decide for themselves based on their own play habits as to whether or not this game is for them. Dragon Force is a game that takes a little while to get used to gameplay wise and is VERY time consuming as it is such an additive game (I've played through it 3 times already with 3 different monarchs). Like any game it has a few flaws. Like mentioned above it takes a while for a player to get used to the gameplay and I have heard from many gamers who had so much trouble learning the basics of the game that they just gave up. Another small complaint is that sometimes the game drags on with battle after battle after battle barely giving you any time to save. My final opinion on the game is that if you don't mind taking the time to learn the basic setup it is well worth the time effort and money to pick up and play Dragon Force. This is easily one of my favorite games ever and is my favorite Saturn game. For fans of strategy RPGs it is a can't miss title that will keep you addicted for hours with unparallel fun. However For the less patient player it may not be worth picking up. Beware, though, Dragon Force is a game that is highly addictive and will "Drag on" for hours on end.
