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Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria
PC (Steam)
Old and Tired
2/5 stars
Long, long ago, when I was a wee whelp infatuated with the likes of “Dragon Quest 4: Chapters of the Chosen” and “Final Fantasy 4,” I often wondered why Squaresoft and Enix didn’t collaborate and create a new RPG series that captured the best of both companies. I imagined that this fictional collaboration would be called ‘Dragon Fantasy,’ and that it would be glorious.
Apparently, I wasn’t completely alone, as one Adam Rippon and the Indie mobile gaming developer, The Muteki Corporation, had the same idea, and was able to bring it to life as “Dragon Fantasy Book I,” which was later renamed to “Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria.”
Beginning life as a mobile game, “Dragon Fantasy Book I” eventually found its way to PC and PlayStation Network, and even received a sequel. Unfortunately, “Dragon Fantasy Book I” fails to live up to the standards set by the ‘Dragon Quest’ and ‘Final Fantasy’ titles that inspired it in every conceivable way.
Presentation
The PC and PSN versions of “Dragon Fantasy Book I” feature optional 16-bit style graphics. Other version of the game are strictly 8-bit styled, with rather bland-looking sprites and environments. In 16-bit mode, the game’s overworld features a lot of intentional distortion, as if in heavy-handed homage to the Mode 7 overworld used in “Final Fantasy 6.” Enemy designs are clearly modeled after enemies found in the original “Dragon Quest,” as are all of the UI menus and chrome. In general, the visuals in “Dragon Fantasy Book I” smack of misplaced nostalgia and a lack of understanding regarding why older ‘Dragon Quest’ and ‘Final Fantasy’ games are considered enduring classics.
While the visuals are rather milquetoast, the audio is actually offensive. Apparently the soundtrack was composed by an ‘acclaimed’ local artist (whose name escapes me). But instead of a series of catchy, memorable tunes that one might find themselves humming even while not playing the game, “Dragon Fantasy Book I” is accompanied by discordant, a-melodic, abrasive, repetitive music that is an actual insult to the classic chiptunes and MIDI of the 8-bit and 16-bit eras.
Story
“Dragon Fantasy Book I” is divided into four individual chapters (hence the ‘Volumes’ of Westeria in the game’s addendum subtitle), in clear homage to “Dragon Quest 4,” which saw the player guiding a large cast of characters through their individual introductory chapters before uniting them all in a climactic final chapter. Unfortunately, “Dragon Fantasy Book I” is completely devoid of the charm of “Dragon Quest 4,” as well as a climactic final chapter.
Chapter One introduces us to Ogden, the presumed ‘main’ character in the ongoing story of ‘Dragon Fantasy.’ 30 years prior, Ogden was a “Dragon Quest” style lone hero who saved the princess and killed a bunch of dragons, getting his hair completely burned off in the process. Now a semi-retired (and very bald) member of the Queen’s honor guard (and presumably the Queen’s lover), Ogden is abruptly pulled out of retirement when a Dark Knight and some undead skeletons (named Biggs and Wedge) attack Westeria castle and kidnap one of the twin princes. Ogden gets dragged through all of the obligatory “Dragon Quest” references and tropes (wooden stick, grinding for gold, swamps, etc.) in a quest to recover the ancient Hero Equipment and reforge it in the fires of the Dark World, before putting the Dark Knight’s Darker Master out of his misery.
Chapter Two follows the parallel exploits of Prince Anders (who is the non-kidnapped twin) as he does his best to figure out exactly why the Dark Knight’s Darker Master is up to no good in the first place. Joined by some super-generic NPCs and possibly a Secret Character, Anders wanders fairly aimlessly in search of a magical McGuffin before reuniting with Ogden.
Chapter Three introduces a thief named Jerald who, together with his niece Ramona, is trying to escape the totalitarian desert kingdom of Sandheim, whose ruler has gone insane and is apparently in cahoots with monsters. Jerald and Ramona spend the entirety of their chapter pulling side jobs for the local thieves’ guild in order to save up enough money to buy a passport from a corrupt city guard. But one of the items Jerald palms in his adventures turns out to be rather important…
The fourth chapter, dubbed ‘Intermission M’ is a fourth-wall breaking homage to “Minecraft,” where Ogden, Anders, and Ramona all find themselves shipwrecked and injured on a desert island that also happens to be a “Minecraft” server. It’s up to the Woodsman, Woodsey, a mysterious supporting character from Chapter One, to recover “Minecraft” creator, Notch’s, magical Swedish hat in order to escape the island and continue on their way.
In general, each of the four chapters feels painfully short and rushed. I feel like I took my time with “Dragon Fantasy Book I,” and I completed all of the chapters in less than 9 hours. Each chapter is roughly 1-3 hours in length and generally devoid of clever writing, interesting scenarios, character development, or, you know, any of the things that classic RPG fans enjoy about the genre. Even the GameBoy Color remake of “Dragon Quest,” which provided double experience and gold per battle and sped up the pace of the game significantly, was roughly 12 hours… and that was a complete game with a beginning, middle, and end. “Dragon Fantasy Book I” is a disjointed series of introductory vignettes with no ultimate payoff.
The worst thing about “Dragon Fantasy Book I’s” writing is that it could have been good. The premise of a washed-up old hero being pulled out of retirement to save the world yet again, could have been great, but the writing just isn’t there, and what writing there is all seems to be focused on giving enemies silly attacks.
Gameplay
“Dragon Fantasy Book I” is all about simplicity and old-school RPG mechanics. There is an overworld with random encounters and a number of dungeon environments where the encounters can either be set to random or visible (at the player’s preference). The player’s party consists of 1-4 characters. Turn-based battles are the order of the day, with the player issuing commands at the beginning of each turn and characters executing them in order of their agility.
In Ogden’s chapter, Ogden is the sole player character, but it is possible to fill-out the rest of his party by capturing monsters, in an obvious nod to “Dragon Quest 5: Hand of the Heavenly Bride.” Unfortunately, while “Dragon Quest 5” allowed captured monsters to wear equipment and level-up like any other character, the monsters captured by Ogden are static. They gain no levels and can wear no equipment. Instead, Ogden must simply capture stronger replacement monsters as he ventures further afield. Annoyingly, the only way for Ogden to capture allies is to use consumable items called Capture Nets. While some of these nets are given to Ogden in treasure chests, most of them must be purchased for an escalating amount of gold that starts at 200 but caps out at 4000, providing Chapter One’s main money sink. This monster capturing mechanic returns in Chapter Three, where Jerald and Ramona are given a scant few Nets and can’t buy more, and in Intermission M, where Woodsey has the ability to cast a cheap spell to capture monsters instead of using a consumable item.
Balance in “Dragon Fantasy Book I” feels generally off. Right out of the gate in each chapter, the enemies feel nearly insurmountable, and the threat of dying and loosing half the party’s gold is always immanent. However, after a short (sometimes very short) amount of time spent grinding for experience and gold to purchase non-terrible gear, every chapter devolves into mindless boredom. Very few monster allies have special abilities to use in combat, but that’s not a significant problem, as the bosses in each chapter don’t require any amount of strategy. Of course, with the lack of buffing spells, the old chestnut of debuffing spells being garbage with a 0.00001% chance of success, and every battle turning into a slapping contest with the occasional healing spell thrown-in, strategic gameplay doesn’t really have a toe-hold in the game to begin with.
Overall
Instead of taking the best of 8-and-16-bit ‘Dragon Quest’ and ‘Final Fantasy’ and merging them together, “Dragon Fantasy Book I” just takes worn-out old tropes, points at them saying, “Hey, hey, remember this?!” and pins the whole thing together with a few unfunny jokes. The ridiculously short length, bland gameplay, and lacking story all fail to justify the price for this game.
Presentation: 2/5
Story: 2/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Overall (not an average): 2/5
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