I picked this up for the DS the other day and I've put in ten or so hours into this very basic RPG. Sadly it's mugs like me that get lured into buying handheld RPGs like this early on in a console's lifespan, especially so in this case as I was after a bit of decent gameage whilst I'm out on holiday for a bit. I was kind of hoping that this would be quite different and a step on from all the GBA RPGs that I'd played - many of them were quite uninspiring really, particularly in the story department; even when the game mechanincs were quite good fun, the plots and characters were simplistic, second-rate affairs.
Dragon Song does little to change the trend, however. In fact it really just feels like a GBA game that has been shoehorned onto the DS. Graphically it's dissappointing with poorly animated sprites in an isometric world. Golden Sun honestly looks more impressive than this.
The gameplay is very much a product of old rpg design; it's simple beyond belief, too simple really. There really isn't enough control involved to make the battles at all satisfying or tactically engaging. All commands for your three characters have to be input before each round of moves, and then all the moves are carried out in order of agility stats. You can't even choose which enemy you want each character attacks; the artificial unintelligence decides this for you, often making the least tactically sound decisions, much to my frustration. e.g. two enemies can be taken down in one hit, one does a lot of damage when it attacks, the other does next to nothing. so which one does the AI attack first? the weaker one, naturally
Since there aren't many magic options, most of the time it's just attack, attack, attack. The inclusion of an auto mode (where characters automatically attack) and a speed-up option (by holding the L or R buttons) almost seems like a concession to the fact that Dragon Song really isn't interesting in the battle department.Now I'm not one of those sorts of people that feels every DS game should be using its host hardware to innovate in every game - not all of the most enjoyable games I've played are necessarily innovative - but in terms of how Dragon Song utilises the DS's functions, it's possibly one of the least inspiring displays on offer. Technically, almost the entire game can be played with the stylus and touchscreen alone; arrows on the edge of the lower screen contol movement and all selections can be made by touching the relevant icons on the lower screen. However, playing the game with the conventional button and pad controls is by far the more convenient option and most, if not all, players will soon move back to this after some experimentation with the touchscreen. The microphone is also used for running from battles - given the problems I had playing touch wario in an aeroplane, I imagine this might pose similar problems in places with loud ambient noises.
The plot is completely linear and there's no option as to who of the five playable characters will make up your three-person squad, which is currently frustrating me as I'm at a point of the game where I have no healer. In fact, given the choice, I'd probably never want to take out either of the two attacking optional characters since their attacks are so much weaker and ineffective than the lead character's combo attacks and the AI does not adapt its tactics to account for this. There's also the frustrating matter of how running in the field of exploration reduces your HP, forcing you to walk through most of the sections in a frustratingly slow manner. And then there's the way in which you have to pick whether you earn experience in battle or items that can be used to make money - one or the other only, which forces you to effectively level up twice as much - once for the levels and again to make enough money to buy decent equipment.
Lunar Dragon Song does it's best at every corner to shoot itself in the foot with its design choices. Then it saws off the injured leg and pours salt into the wound.
That being said, I haven't given up on it yet and I am still playing it. That'll probably be the level-upper in me just wanting to grind my way through it I suppose. I think the problem is that some developers feel it's the format of RPGs that fans are after, and Dragon Song does provide a game in the RPG format for DS owners on the move. But RPGs it's the other stuff that the format of RPGs offer that are the real attractions: tactics, growth, character development, plotlines, exploration, etc. And still many handheld RPGs lack this.
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