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> Results: Dragoneer's Aria
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The ESRB Says
Fantasy Violence: GamerDad fought countless battles in bloodless, turn-based combat. Language: Some of the first characters you meet use words like 'hell' and 'damn' and it continues throughout the game. There are defining moments in every gamers experience - moments that link you to a game forever. One of my best moments is the Jedi Training area in Jedi Knight II - the combination of John Williams lifting score and the catharsis of coming into your powers really struck me then and continues to this day. Not one of my best moments is an early play session with Dragoneer's Aria. I was in bed in the evening, had played some of another PSP game and then switched to this one. I had already played a bit - enough to get past the first series of cutscenes and into the area where I had some control and engaged in combat. I started playing and had to wait for area loads, for drawn-out battles, for cutscenes, for everything. And before long I found myself nodding off to sleep during a battle. So that is my singular memory for Dragoneer's Aria - it managed to take me from very awake to fast asleep within about twenty minutes. Dragoneer's Aria is a solidly mediocre game with no terrible features - nor any good ones. The story is boring and mundane, the combat system is torturously slow and makes the unfortunate choice of emulating Final Fantasy II, and the crafting system is bland and simplistic. The characters are all stereotypical and even the seemingly interesting theme of having dragons integral to the story fails as the game relies on combat to carry the day - and when I say that combat is boring, I am saying that it can easily take ten minutes to resolve a simple conflict If Dragoneer's Aria was a book it might be called 'A Series of Mediocre Events'. However, it is a game that essentially boils down to two key attributes - boredom and frustration. It is amazing to me that as I played this game I was constantly referring back to Blade Dancer, a game I thought was deeply flawed - and thinking that it was better in almost every way! There is not a single element in this game I would call 'bad', but the way they are assembled it makes for an almost totally unenjoyable experience. I relish long games, and have no problems when a game makes it clear that I will have to level grind to survive - those are all part and parcel of being a RPG lover. But games that seem to go out of their way to waste my time raise my ire like nothing else I know.  
OK, kids ... you've seen this all before - androgynous lead characters, mild flirtation, and random characters who like to say 'hell' and 'damn' on occasion. Oh, and battle after battle after battle. The story has no emotional depth, no sense of learning about sensitivity to others or any other extra qualities that make it compelling. The gameplay offers no puzzles or challenges or otherwise 'thought intensive' moments as you are led through this entirely linear affair. And given that I'm an over-40 gamer and consider myself quite patient, I couldn't imagine either of my kids sitting very long through the dreadfully paced combat and cutscenes. In other words, while this has little interest for adult gamers, it has even less for younger kids - and expect a 'PSP tossing moment' if you put it in the hands of an impatient youngster.
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