Dragon Force (Sega Saturn)

The release of the Sega Saturn was the first sign of the trials that Sega would endure for the next couple of years; at first Sega's console was head to head with Sony's own Playstation console, but we later learned that the Saturn was destined for failure. Sega's console did have its moments though; a couple of key games were released on the Saturn, and one of these games was Dragon Force. Dragon Force is so fun that Electronic Gaming Monthly even awarded it the runner up position for Game of the Year in 1996 (it was only beaten by Mario 64) and the game continued to appear at the top of many Saturn owners list of favorite games. I admit, after looking at screenshots of Dragon Force I was a bit skeptical as to whether or not this game was worth buying a Sega Saturn for, but after playing it for a couple of days at my friends house nothing could keep me away from this game, and so a couple weeks later I did something I thought I would never do; I bought a Sega Saturn.

Dragon Force is such a memorable experience that I would even deem it with the 'classic' status. Dragon Force is a strategy game that single-handedly boosted my interest in the genre. Even though it was developed for the Sega Saturn this game lacks the presence of polygons, it does however, contain a little FMV but sadly enough there is no voice acting in this game. The story is pretty decent, but this game really shines in the gameplay department; becoming addicted to Dragon Force is not an uncommon thing. Dragon Force just pulls the player in until there's no getting away from this game; it will haunt your thoughts even when you are in the outside world. And what's even better about this game is the fact that it is fairly non-linear and has plenty of replay value; even the casual gamer will find something to like about this game.

The game's story goes something like this; the evil god Madruk was sealed away a very long time ago, this god caused pure chaos in the world of Legendra and is the very definition of evil. The threat of Madruk returning to Legendra is present, and so the 8 members of the Dragon Force spread throughout the land must unite to defeat Madruk once and for all. To unite the members of the Dragon Force the land of Legendra must be totally conquered by one of the Kingdoms, and so thus begins each Kingdom's quest to take over all of Legendra in the name of their Kingdom. While the story isn't exactly Final Fantasy Caliber it certainly gets the job done, and besides, story should never become the main emphasis in a game, gameplay is what counts and is where Dragon Force definitely shines.

Right from the get-go you are given the opportunity to choose which character/kingdom you would like to play as. There are 6 characters to choose from in the beginning, but upon completing the quest as any of these 6 characters, 2 other characters are unlocked. Each character has their own storyline and certain events in the game are exclusive to each character. Also, each character's Kingdom is located in specific areas on the continent of Legendra, and so naturally some characters have natural advantages over the opposition. And if that wasn't enough each character's beginning set of generals generally excels with specific troop types, this grants each Kingdom with specific strengths and weaknesses. After beating the game as one Kingdom you'll probably find yourself going back and beating it as another Kingdom; this is why the game is so replayable.

Now in order to take over all of Legendra each Kingdom is going to need plenty of generals and troops, but instead of purchasing them in standard strategy game fashion, Dragon Force makes you capture these generals and ask them to join your side. Sure, some generals can't join you, but some of them will join you automatically. This is what makes conquering different nations possible; after capturing and eventually acquiring new generals you weaken the enemy and gain more power at the same time, but keep in mind that your generals can also be kidnapped and can also join the enemy so this feature doesn't always help in conquering a kingdom. All in all this adds a separate layer of strategy to this game, and also makes things seem slightly more realistic then your normal strategy game.

Conquering territory is pretty simple, all you need to do is to keep at least one general on a castle and the castle is yours. If you have all of your generals leave a castle then the castle will be neutral and up for grabs by anyone that is willing to place a general at it. To take over an enemy countries castle you must either defeat all the generals in the castle, or cause all the enemies to retreat. Capturing territory is a key to success, with each new castle you claim you gain a medal that can be awarded to one of your generals (more on that later) and you can also recruit soldiers to your army from these castles (more on that later also). Keeping soldiers in castles that are often attacked by the enemy will be very beneficiary; not only can you replenish your armies, generals Hp and Mp, but you also gain positive terrain effect (I'll explain terrain effect shortly) no matter what class the general is or what type of troops they command, but wait, there's more. While your parties of generals are wandering around on the map you can only bring 5 generals per party, but in a castle you can have up to 10 generals at the same time. This makes it a little difficult to invade a castle with 10 generals when you only can carry 5, but it also makes it easier to defend a castle from enemy troops.

On the world map there are set paths for your generals to travel on, they must travel along these paths. The map is displayed via an overhead camera, and you guide your troops along by setting destinations for them; you can t manually control your troops. These paths are set over all types of terrain; desert, forest, grassland, cities, and more; wherever your party is on the map when they get in an encounter decides what type of terrain the battle will take place on. Certain terrain can either make your troops more or less powerful depending on what type of troops your general commands, if the battle takes place in the forest beasts will be more powerful, and so on. This factor will often decide who the victor in a battle will be, if each of your general's troop types are at a disadvantage then it is sometimes wise to retreat.

Battles are played out in a very unique matter; once a battle starts you choose which of the generals in your party facing the encounter will fight in the battle, and the computer selects one of their generals to fight also. Then suddenly both generals appear on opposite sides of a battlefield with their troops in front of them. You then select a formation for your troops, and also a command for them. Commands and formations will usually differ from general to general, and they are often the key to winning. Commands are nice, you can choose what you want all your troops to do (with the exception of the general who is immobile during battle) and they do it, simple enough. Commands range from defending to a straight out melee on the enemy, and depending on what troops you have and what type of troops you are up against you will have to calculate which command will help you the best. For example, most of the time you will want mages and archers to remain on standby because they use projectiles, but with other troops like soldiers and cavalry you will probably want them to attack the enemies. A battle is not over until the general that is currently fighting is depleted of all their life points, or one general retreats. After the battle ends both groups are given the chance to switch generals; you cycle through generals until all of them lose or until you retreat.

Troops types are varied; there are around 10 troop types including soldiers Cavalry, mages, samurai, archers, monks, harpies, beasts, dragons and zombies. Each general commands a certain troop type, but they can only carry a certain amount of these troops with them at once; this number can be increased though through the distribution of medals with a maximum of 100 of the same troop type per general. Each troop type has their specialties and weaknesses, for example; Dragons can destroy almost everything thrown at them, but they are easily destroyed by samurais, Harpies are very strong against soldiers and a couple of other troops, but they cower to the power of archers and mages. Certain troops also gain advantages in battle from certain terrain, so keep this effect in mind before entering a battle in the wilderness.

The world map isn't the only place that you make decisions at; Administrative Mode is pretty important to the game. In Administration Mode you can review how your progress is doing, equip generals with items, search or fortify castles in your possession, save your game, award medals, or even persuade captive generals to join your forces. Really the only bad thing about Administrative Mode is deciding which generals to reward; if a general is unhappy they will leave your monarchy and either join up with the enemies or become a free agent. With each medal you award a general they gain the ability to carry and battle with 10 more troops of any class they can command, but don't give all your medals to the King or everyone will get angry. Searching for items is useful also; if a general in your command has a high Intelligence level then they can search the castle where they are located for items; if they find an item it is added to your inventory and then can be given to a general. Fortifying isn't as useful as searching for items though, it simply allows your characters to fortify a castle to make it stronger. The game will only change to Administration Mode when time runs out in the hour glass in the top left corner of the screen, and so it doesn't always occur when you need it, or even when you want it.

The leveling system is similar to most traditional RPGs; as your general wins battle she gains experience points, and after reaching a certain amount of experience they will gain a level. Gaining a level will often grant your character more Hp, Mp, attack power, defense, a new special move, or even a gain in a couple of less important stats. Even low-level generals can excel though; since the troops do most of the fighting your general will sometimes win a battle without even taking any damage. The maximum Hp a general can reach is 127, I'm not too sure about the other stats but I think Mp can't exceed 100. Hp is like your life force, any hits your general takes will reduce their Hp and once the Hp reaches zero they will lose the battle and will be unable to fight again until they recover; troops however are dispensable and can be earned back in no time at all depending on how many people are living at a castle that you are in possession of; the number increases as time passes.

As I just mentioned, whenever a general loses all their Hp they cannot fight anymore, and it takes them a long time to recover from the damage. If the character that lost all their Hp is unimportant to the story they could actually be slain in battle, so it's up to you to make sure your general doesn't receive mass amounts of damage, you can prevent this by retreating. Most characters that are beaten or retreat can also be captured by the enemy and will eventually be persuaded to join the enemy s force, if that character isn't important to the story that is. When the King/Monarch loses all their Hp in battle the game will end, and you'll have to restart from the point that you saved the game at last.

Special moves are an awesome addition to this game, and they make it so the general does more then just stand around and order the troops around, almost every character can learn these moves. Each general can learn 3 moves throughout this game, these moves range from the ability to bring dead troops back to life, preventing the enemy general to escape, to releasing a sonic boom to obliterate enemy troops and doing damage to the enemy general. There are several moves in this game, and they can all be learned from gaining levels.

But what happens when all troops are defeated and only the two rival generals remain standing? It's simple, a duel between the two starts up, duels are won with either clear advantages or luck. Before a duel starts you are given the option of retreating or dueling' this is your last chance to escape if your character has low Hp. The duel does not end until one of the generals runs out of Hp, so choose your battles wisely.

There are a couple of pretty annoying aspects of this game though; random battles with the characters Paine and Agony get really tedious, and save files for the game take up almost all the space on the Saturn's internal memory. Paine and Agony are two warriors of Madruk that are easy to beat because of the fact that they have a small amount of soldiers, but they will probably appear around 30-50 times throughout the course of beating the game. The amount of space a single save file takes up is remarkably annoying, you can't have 2 save files on the internal memory so you are forced to use a Sega Saturn memory card if you want more then 1 save file.

My Ratings For: Dragon Force

Graphics: 8.5/10
Dragon Force features some pretty lush and vibrant landscapes; the lack of polygons doesn't hurt this game a bit. Really the only truly bad thing about the graphics is how blocky things get during battle; trees, soldiers and generals get very pixilated when you look at them up close. The game also features a little bit of anime influenced FMV, this is always a treat to look at but these cinemas don't occur as much as most of us would like. The different terrained battlefields all look marvelous, but some, like a couple of the castles are a little on the dull side, no big deal really because you'll be concentrating on the battle more then on the boring backgrounds, well only if you are playing actually. This game is a sight for sore eyes, and while most people have already decided that a game can only look good if it's based on polygons most people will find these graphics charming. Dragon Force features some fairly memorable graphics, but they aren't quite good enough to distract you from playing the game.

Character models used for the generals are often overused, but most of the story significant generals feature different profile pictures and different battle models. There are so many characters in this game that it isn't even funny, some are awe inspiring (Gaul) while others are a little on the mediocre side (Leon). What s more is the important characters all have their own personalities and so most gamers will recognize these characters on their second time through the game. One thing is for certain; the people behind Dragon Forces graphics were pretty talented.

As I just mentioned, landscapes are lush and vibrant with color, few areas in this game are lacking much detail. Some battlefields don't look as nice as others, but gameplay overrides any problems I may have with this game graphically. This game just shines, and there is something very memorable about this game's style that adds even more to it's appeal. I wouldn't change anything about this game s graphics if I was given the power to do so, and even though it is about 6 years old it still hangs with the best of them in the 2 dimensional field of games.

Story: 7/10
While the story is perfectly adequate for this game, it's nothing truly special. Sure, maybe a better story would have heightened this game's overall package to the next level, but what's there is just short of phenomenal, and it fits the games style pretty good. Working Designs handled the localization of this game, and so there is some pretty quirky dialogue in a couple of places in this game, overall Working Designs did a pretty good job of translating the title. One cool thing about this game is the fact that if you play through it twice as the same character you will most likely reveal more of the story then you did on your first run through, and each character has their separate storyline.

The country of Fandaria has struck fear into the hearts of many for quite some time; this country is ruled by the evil monarch known as Goldark who appears to everyone as an evil being and so when Fandaria declares war on the whole continent people start talking and getting worried; pretty soon the whole continent is at war with one another, each country is fighting to take over the land of Legendra to stop this violence. One question remains, could Goldark be trying to release the evil god Madruk to destroy Legendra?

Controls: 8/10
Controls are crisp and responsive, but I do have trouble moving the cursor around the map because sometimes it feels a little clunky and is difficult to get the cursor exactly where you want it. Sometimes menus can become a little clunky, but this is rarely a problem and is easily overlooked. During battle you are given total control over the camera; you can zip back and forth across the screen so you'll never miss any of the action. Overall the controls are pretty good, but the few cons set this rating back a little.

Sound: 9/10
Dragon Force has so many different tracks in it that it's not even funny, they range from decent to terrific. What's great is that each Kingdom has a specific song that plays on the world map when you play as them, but after a long time of hearing the same song you may start to get just a little tired of it. There are quite a few different battle songs that play depending on the terrain; the song that plays during a battle in a major castle is my personally favorite song in the whole game. One song that really stick out is the song that plays while you are in Administrative Mode; it's a really soft soothing song that could easily put anyone to sleep.

Sound effects aren't too good in this game; the effects consist of a bunch of different sounds. Each type of troop makes it's own noise as it is killed; Dragons screech, mages and archers scream and so on. The sound that is made after hitting an enemy is pretty dull, but the constant sound of swords clashing makes up for this. The special moves have their own sound effects also, and I would rate these above average.

Fun Factor: 9.5/10
If you are looking for a fun game that will take a while to beat then Dragon Force is your answer; especially if you are a fan of RPGs, Strategy games or both. I have never known a person to dislike this game, and why should they; Dragon Force offers a lot of fun, an expansive quest, memorable graphics, and pretty good music. Even if Strategy games aren't your cup of tea you should still be able to find something you like about this game; it's my favorite game on the Sega Saturn by far, and this game alone is better then almost all of Nintendo's prime offerings on the Nintendo 64.

Overall Score: 9.5