Dragoneer's Aria

  • Players: 1
  • Vibration
  • Widescreen
  • Multitap
  • Eyetoy
  • Disc: 1
  • Digital Control
  • Analog Control
  • Pressure
  • Headset
  • Network
  • Save Size
  • Progressive
  • Online
  • ESRB: RP

Off-Key Aria

Dragoneer's Aria is a valiant attempt at a console-level RPG, but it falls flat in some key areas.
Author: Sam Bishop
Published: August 25, 2007
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That said, there is a very, very obvious increase in the power of your players. It means grinding, sure, and there is always the wild card of that enemy that just up and spanks the hell out of everyone, but an enemy that would kill the whole party like two or three levels ago is chump change once you've leveled up enough. Still, once you're at that level, only then can you start spamming battles to level up spells (sorry, "lusces") and skills to get everyone in place.


To top it all off, the battles themselves are painfully clunky. I blame the absolutely amazing fluidity and speed of Brave Story's fights on turning me off here, but even taken on its own merits, Dragoneer's Aria has a dreadfully slow system. The the number of seconds from issuing a command to actually finishing it can number in the double-digits, and that's absolute murder for a game that requires so much level grinding.

There is also the issue of the game just not looking all that nice. Yes, I can appreciate the scale to some of the cities, and later on the game at least has enough variety (cookie-cutter though the environments may be) that you feel like there's a fairly sizeable world out there, but between the framerate, the clunkiness of the pacing and the texture detail, the game just doesn't feel terribly striking, visually. The characters themselves are animated with a serious lack of grace or personality, leaving only the localization to hold the game up, and it falters from time to time.

Aurally, the same holds true. I already mentioned the voice acting, which rarely ever gives the characters any oomph, and often just makes them all sound like poorly-accented, cartoony representations of what the text is trying to deliver. It's not like the Japanese voices are much better, but they're certainly more even. All of the effects lack any punch and the music doesn't really mesh with the presentation, though that might be a byproduct of things feeling so stilted to begin with.

The days when I would cautiously recommend a game like this are coming to an end. It may have taken a couple years, but the PSP is finally starting to get a few quality RPGs, and nearly all of them are going to have more life than Dragoneer's Aria. It's not an outwardly hideous game, but no one part of the game manages to do anything more than set par for the course. Unless it becomes a bargain bin offering or you just end up absolutely dying for a run-of-the-mill RPG experience, this is a song worth skipping.
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The Verdict
5.0

Dragoneer's Aria is simply average in almost every way, there's no getting around it. Parts of the storyline can be entertaining, but only as much as the localization gave the characters a little pop. Otherwise, it's a purely paint-by-numbers game.

6.5Graphics:

Blah texture work and modeling, horribly stiff animation and not nearly enough variety to the tone of the game just makes everything come off as clunky.

5.0Sound:

An uninspired soundtrack, weak voice acting, and limp effects give the game a painfully middle-of-the-road aural backdrop.

8.0Control:

Hey, it's an RPG, there's not much to mess up here, though the menu system can sometimes go a little too deep for its own good during battles.

6.5Gameplay:

For what it is, the battle system fundamentally works, it's just the execution and presentation that kills it. Level grinding in games is fine, but the battles need to be quick and enjoyable, and neither apply here.

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