Here Be Dragoneers
Hit Maker's second PSP RPG is on its way and we go hands-on with an early build of Dragoneer's Aria to see how it's coming along.
Published: June 28, 2007
You know a game is early when entire parts of the audio are missing, but in a way, it's actually fun to peek at a work-in-progress version of something. All too often, developers (or publishers) are too afraid of showing a game's unvarnished sides for fear that it might detract from the impressions. Here at TPS, at least, we treat it a little like a peek behind the scenes of a TV show or movie. It's a chance to have a looksee at how the basic concept -- if not the actual execution -- is shaping up.
In the case of Dragoneer's Aria, we got to peek behind the curtain a little and see how Hit Maker's second PSP effort improves on first portable RPG. On the surface, the two are actually fairly similar. Rather than random encounters, the world is populated by iconic monsters that actually initiate combat, so you can choose to avoid battle most of the time if you want to (and given that the monsters respawn after a short time, you might end up having to make a mad dash between major locales or to a save point to rest up).
Once you do pop into battle, things are fairly standard fare, which isn't a bad thing (the PSP is still short on good traditional RPGs, so it's nice to have a slice of familiarity here). That's not to say there isn't some semblance of fresh air, though; while all of the characters can smack enemies around with physical attacks, serious damage is dealt with magic (fine, "lusce") but all characters pull from a combined pool of reserves which fills as attacks are dealt and taken. Once the meter hits a certain threshold, then that level of spells can be kicked off, as well as special attacks that suck a little energy as well.
Though the characters have innate abilities, an item upgrades system a la Final Fantasy VII's materia feature really drives the spellcraft in the game. Equipment carries a varying number of Lusce Frames, allowing you to bolt on multiple elemental attacks and boosts to each character to round them out. Better still, as the lusce is tapped, it levels up, growing more powerful with repeated use. Ditto for the more powerful Dragon Orbs that are handed out and freely equippable between party members, allowing you to either play toward a particular character's natural affinity or rounding them out a little more.
It's an interesting way to balance out strategy in combat, and it's further enhanced by certain chain attacks that deliver a stronger punch against enemies (which can range rather wildly in the current build, though balancing is obviously something that will come into play as development progresses). Even outside of battles, Field Skills allow you to tap the lead character's innate abilities to heal or scoot around a little more quickly, for instance (and swapping out the lead character is as simple as pressing a button). It's solid stuff, though the game certainly doesn't stray too far from Japanese RPG truisms.
As the story goes, NIS America parent company Nippon Ichi Software was so impressed with the concept of Dragoneer's Aria that they jumped at the chance to publish it for developer Hit Maker. Whether or not the story, which so far has been your classic "hero and friends save the world" fare, was a part of that is something we'll have to learn as we play through a more complete build of the game, but it has a decent enough start.
We actually explored the main themes of the game in our first preview, but we were a little confused at first about whether or not the dragons in the game are actually good or bad. Turns out, it's a little of both as leading man Valen nears what should be a pre-ordained graduation ceremony and scheduled meeting with the six elemental dragons that were once part of a greater dragon that saved the world long ago. Except Valen's scripted, pre-set life is thrown into upheaval when the Black Dragon decides to crash the meeting and starts wrecking the crap out of everything -- including removing the ability to just bamf on over to the dragons' usual abodes to check and see what the hell just happened. And so, forced to hoof it the old-fashioned way instead of just teleporting there, androgynous pretty-boy Valen hooks up with peppy could-be love interest Euphe set out into the world to get the bottom of things.
Like most NISA releases, the game will support both English and Japanese voices and the game is fully voiced in a nice touch, though much of the voice acting (and again, some of the music) was missing from the early build we played around with. Still NIS does a solid job of at least not offending the ears when it comes to hiring voice actors, and we love that the game has a console-quality level of production values.
We'll take another look at things as we get closer to the game's release. Updates then!
In the case of Dragoneer's Aria, we got to peek behind the curtain a little and see how Hit Maker's second PSP effort improves on first portable RPG. On the surface, the two are actually fairly similar. Rather than random encounters, the world is populated by iconic monsters that actually initiate combat, so you can choose to avoid battle most of the time if you want to (and given that the monsters respawn after a short time, you might end up having to make a mad dash between major locales or to a save point to rest up).
Once you do pop into battle, things are fairly standard fare, which isn't a bad thing (the PSP is still short on good traditional RPGs, so it's nice to have a slice of familiarity here). That's not to say there isn't some semblance of fresh air, though; while all of the characters can smack enemies around with physical attacks, serious damage is dealt with magic (fine, "lusce") but all characters pull from a combined pool of reserves which fills as attacks are dealt and taken. Once the meter hits a certain threshold, then that level of spells can be kicked off, as well as special attacks that suck a little energy as well.
Though the characters have innate abilities, an item upgrades system a la Final Fantasy VII's materia feature really drives the spellcraft in the game. Equipment carries a varying number of Lusce Frames, allowing you to bolt on multiple elemental attacks and boosts to each character to round them out. Better still, as the lusce is tapped, it levels up, growing more powerful with repeated use. Ditto for the more powerful Dragon Orbs that are handed out and freely equippable between party members, allowing you to either play toward a particular character's natural affinity or rounding them out a little more.
It's an interesting way to balance out strategy in combat, and it's further enhanced by certain chain attacks that deliver a stronger punch against enemies (which can range rather wildly in the current build, though balancing is obviously something that will come into play as development progresses). Even outside of battles, Field Skills allow you to tap the lead character's innate abilities to heal or scoot around a little more quickly, for instance (and swapping out the lead character is as simple as pressing a button). It's solid stuff, though the game certainly doesn't stray too far from Japanese RPG truisms.
As the story goes, NIS America parent company Nippon Ichi Software was so impressed with the concept of Dragoneer's Aria that they jumped at the chance to publish it for developer Hit Maker. Whether or not the story, which so far has been your classic "hero and friends save the world" fare, was a part of that is something we'll have to learn as we play through a more complete build of the game, but it has a decent enough start.
We actually explored the main themes of the game in our first preview, but we were a little confused at first about whether or not the dragons in the game are actually good or bad. Turns out, it's a little of both as leading man Valen nears what should be a pre-ordained graduation ceremony and scheduled meeting with the six elemental dragons that were once part of a greater dragon that saved the world long ago. Except Valen's scripted, pre-set life is thrown into upheaval when the Black Dragon decides to crash the meeting and starts wrecking the crap out of everything -- including removing the ability to just bamf on over to the dragons' usual abodes to check and see what the hell just happened. And so, forced to hoof it the old-fashioned way instead of just teleporting there, androgynous pretty-boy Valen hooks up with peppy could-be love interest Euphe set out into the world to get the bottom of things.
Like most NISA releases, the game will support both English and Japanese voices and the game is fully voiced in a nice touch, though much of the voice acting (and again, some of the music) was missing from the early build we played around with. Still NIS does a solid job of at least not offending the ears when it comes to hiring voice actors, and we love that the game has a console-quality level of production values.
We'll take another look at things as we get closer to the game's release. Updates then!
