Dragoneer's Aria for Europe

Koei has said it will be publishing Nippon Ichi role-playing game Dragoneer's Aria in Europe next February.

The story is based around a group of dragoons who protect six elemental dragons keeping the world in balance. However, a nasty black dragon turns up and starts killing things so the dragoons have to fight back. But they soon discover their puny powers are no match for nasty new scaly beast, so they recruit the help of a young knight called Valen - and we have a feeling he might have special powers and everything will work out okay.

Fresh ideas here take the form of a chain attack system, where your group of four characters attack in turn and can trigger special combos - much like in the excellent Valkyrie Profile series. Guarding your team also brings about a musical mini-game for you to click in time to - your performance resulting in the amount of damage you block.

Elsewhere, wondering around will grant you field skills to use as you move, there will be visual enemies not hidden ones, and team abilities will be granted to reflect who is leading the group - healers replacing life on the move will transfer the skill to all of the team.

Dragoneer's Aria was released in August in the US and Japan, although reviews suggest it doesn't quite live up to its promise. We will give you our thoughts as soon as possible.

Meanwhile you can pop into our Dragoneer's Aria gallery to see what it looks like.