{"id":10535,"date":"2013-09-27T00:01:57","date_gmt":"2013-09-27T00:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=10535"},"modified":"2013-09-24T12:05:26","modified_gmt":"2013-09-24T12:05:26","slug":"dragon-fantasy-book-ii-ps3-vita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/27\/dragon-fantasy-book-ii-ps3-vita\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragon Fantasy Book II (PS3, Vita)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DRAGON\"<\/a>Back when I was in high school, I was really into 16-bit RPGs on the Super Nintendo. I played nearly nothing but games such as Final Fantasy IV, Secret of Mana, FF6, Chrono Trigger, Lufia 2, and many others. But as the technology and memory storage of games got more advanced in the 32-bit days and beyond, I kind of lost interest in RPGs. One or two may have grabbed my attention since then, but nothing like back in the 16-bit days. So what happened? Well, I feel that modern RPGs have become too long and meandering, and focus more on story than gameplay. Plus, life, work, and other commitments have kept me from investing the 40 to 50 hours needed to finish today\u2019s RPGs, so it\u2019s not entirely the games\u2019 fault. But every now and then, I still miss the 16-bit days of RPGs. So if you\u2019re like me, I have some good news for you! Dragon Fantasy Book II was recently released on PS3 and Vita as a downloadable title (reviewed on PS3 here), and it\u2019s a throwback to nearly everything you loved about 16-bit RPGs!<\/p>\n

The story is typical of any old-school RPG. You scour the world looking for magic stones before evil gets their hands on them. You mostly play as a bald knight out of retirement, an odd choice for a main character. I guess that\u2019s one of the nitpicky problems with this game is the characters aren\u2019t quite as likeable as in past RPGs. Since the story takes place right after Dragon Fantasy Book I, maybe had I played that first I might\u2019ve been more attached to the characters, even though you don\u2019t really need to play the first game to enjoy the second one.<\/p>\n

The game is kind of a mix of styles from classic RPGs. At one point your party splits into three and you can choose which story to play first, just like that one part in FF6. While there is a \u2018Mode 7\u2019 scaling world map, battles happen directly in the dungeons without switching to a second screen, like Chrono Trigger. And the dialogue and enemies are silly and goofy, just like Earthbound. Speaking of monsters, they even make fun of Dragon Quest\u2019s slimes with Dragon Fantasy\u2019s Rock Monsters. There are several different types, and my favorite is one that wears a blue helmet and is called \u201cRock Man.\u201d (Get it?) One of the slightly unique gameplay gimmicks is that while in battle, if you whittle down a monster\u2019s HP enough, you can use a Capture Net to catch it and it\u2019ll join your party and fight and gain experience with you! So fans of Pokemon style games will enjoy this one, too.<\/p>\n

Dragon Fantasy Book II has a few problems, though. However, most are just nitpicky and are a byproduct of me being overly critical of what this game is trying to be. But I\u2019ll list them all anyway. Even though you get a quest guide that tells you where to go next, sometimes the text still isn\u2019t clear as to where you need to go. You can also do side missions and bounties, and while those get put into the quest log, too, you have to remember who you talked to when it comes time to receive your reward.<\/p>\n

Other minor problems include the graphics, which look a bit janky and blocky on the PS3. I played it on the Vita at PAX and it looked much better on a smaller screen. Luckily the game supports Cross Save so you can play it on both, and save at any time, too! And while the graphics are decidedly 16-bit, the sound is more 32-bit. It\u2019s still good music, but it makes the game feel more like a misplaced PSOne RPG with 16-bit graphics and CD quality sound (like Beyond the Beyond or Tales of Destiny). More 16-bit sounding music would\u2019ve helped the game\u2019s authenticity. And while the referential humor is funny, it does get old after a while (and yes, Muteki, I did catch the subtle Portal joke). I think that if this game were released in the 16-bit days, it probably wouldn\u2019t have been one I would\u2019ve bought, but rented a bunch of times instead and then I wished I would\u2019ve bought it later. It just doesn\u2019t live up to the greatness of the games it\u2019s trying to imitate. Even so, I think it\u2019s still worth downloading if you enjoy old school RPGs. It\u2019s even the right length, too. Not too short but not too long either.<\/p>\n

\"DRAGON_SCREEN\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dragon Fantasy Book II is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence, Alcohol Reference, Mild Language, and Crude Humor. Even though you do hit enemies with swords and spells, the 16-bit visuals keep the violence from looking very graphic at all. You can visit pubs in the game, but most of the alcohol references and crude humor reside in the text only. And I didn\u2019t even notice any bad language in the text yet, so it must be used very sparingly. I\u2019d be fine with any age playing this, but reading skill is a must. I played games like this back in the day when I was a kid, and I think I turned out OK. But the game is probably best enjoyed by older gamers who remember the 16-bit days and would get all the references here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back when I was in high school, I was really into 16-bit RPGs on the Super Nintendo. I played nearly nothing but games such as Final Fantasy IV, Secret of Mana, FF6, Chrono Trigger, Lufia 2, and many others. But as the technology and memory storage of games got more advanced in the 32-bit days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10535"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10538,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10535\/revisions\/10538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}