Reader Reviews Retro Special

Dragon Force (Saturn)

by Lutz

Sega made great RPGs. They really did. They also made some awkward consoles, hence why the Saturn and its dual processors died a painful death. But not before several AAA titles were released. One of them was this gem, Dragon Force, which was released in pitifully small amounts and now commands a nice £60 to £80 price tag on eBay. Thankfully I own it already, phew.

Set in the fictional land of Legendra the world is ruled by four Kingdoms, two Nations and two Empires. War is about to break out throughout the land and you must unite it under your own banner, for whichever of the eight kings or queens you choose to follow. Each one has major strengths and weakness to consider however. Whilst the Kingdom of Palemoon is isolated and a bit tougher to attack its troops aren't brilliant, where as the Samurai nation of Izumo has good troops but is hampered by a lack of variety and the presence of the Fandarian Empire, the main bad guys, right on the northernmost boarder. In other words, there are pros and cons for each one but each one has its own challenges.

The story is a "stop the dark god from being reborn" type affair. Many centuries ago the Dark God Madruk burned the land and all but destroyed it. In a climatic battle with the legendary dragon Hersgalt, Madruk was sealed away, asleep. A return to power was thwarted with another Dragon Force later, but again he couldn't be defeated fully as the members quarrelled with each other and refused to unite. Once again his disciples and minions are trying to bring him back to life and once again the Goddess of the world, Astea, is at hand to save the day. Well, all she does is approach your king or queen and makes their hand flash with a dragon and that's about it. Oh, and the instructions of "Go find the others and earn your keep you lazy ruler" or words to that effect.

So thus starts the game. The playing field is set, the countries are ready and everyone is ready to "do war". Commanding a small contingent of generals you have to conquer the country, which is dotted with towns (Which are useless) and castles (Which are not so useless, as they make troops). You have to manage your generals, of which there are 12 distinct types, who in turn have to manage your troops, ten different varieties of, ranging from Soldiers to Dragons. You tell the generals where to go and off they go to hack, slash, rend, pillage and burn. Each army can have up to five generals and each general can control up to 100 troops. So, 500 troops per battle? Each? Cool!

Not quite so. Each battle is broken down into skirmishes between two generals and sadly each general can only command one type of troop. So you'll get a maximum of 200 troops on field of only two types, with two generals providing back up via magic (Which looks awesome). Still, it certainly looks good as they all start hacking into each other, or in the case of Mage and Archer troops, shooting the opposition. It also plays great too, as you command your troops through a variety of formations, ranging from pincer to protect to out-and-out charges. It really starts to pay off when you capture enemy generals and shove them in the dungeons to sweat it out.

Graphically the main game isn't stunning - it's a basic top down view with a slight 3D kick on affairs. In fact the whole game is like that, 2D made to look 3D; sort of like an odd isometric angle on the camera. However the storyboard graphics are smooth and flawless and add a lot to the game. The battles are very good two, with no slow down anywhere. Not bad for a machine with a combined total of about 4MB of RAM. Musically each kingdom has it's own "theme", as does each different battlefield type of which there are about ten. Each piece is well made and only the odd one or two earn the title of "annoying".

Gameplay though is brilliant. The tasks of assembling your own nation followed by conquering seven other opponents, on up to four fronts simultaneously will certainly keep you busy. Then there's the added fact of eight nations to do it with. Each one has an underlying story that is broadly the same and swaps characters around to fit the plot. But each one also has it's own side quests and also adds in a lot more to the history of each nation and the underlying politics behind the entire feud. Just because some things can't be done with one nation doesn't mean they can't be done with another, and at least two full plays of the game with two (Very specific) separate nations are needed to understand the whole plot.