Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

The fifth game in the Dragon Quest series marked its first entry on a 16-bit platform, and fittingly, it attempted to change things up both narratively and in terms of design.  But does it prove to be another engrossing entry in a legendary franchise, or does this prove to be an unworthy Quest? 

Dragon Quest is of course an extremely popular series in Japan, but didn't fare nearly as well in North America.  Despite its relative unpopularity overseas, though, it still attained enough of a following for Enix to localize all four entries on the Famicom, with the last coming as late as September 1992 - just over a year into the Super Nintendo's lifespan.  Dragon Quest V was the first not to be localized, reportedly due to programming issues that couldn't be resolved, and wouldn't be until many years later on the Nintendo DS; in the meantime, Enix mostly became known as a publisher of other company's games (mostly RPGs) until the early 2000s, when they would merge with Square to become the single biggest name in Japanese RPGs, Square Enix.

Dragon Quest V was one that intrigued me for a while; series creator Yuji Horii cited it as his favorite on at least one occasion, and it was said to turn a lot of the series' tropes upside-down in its story.  This is certainly evident right away as the story starts off with your main character as a young child, following his father around the world on a search for the Legendary Hero who will save the world.  The story is considerably more grounded and personal this time, centering on a lifelong trial for the protagonist and everyone who comes into his life - friendships and alliances are forged, he marries and has a child, learns the secrets of his family's past, and undergoes very personal hardships and tragedy before the game ends.  While not the first JRPG to introduce such a personal element to its storytelling, it certainly set a trend, seemingly inspiring some story beats and character building in later games like Final Fantasy VI and VII.  Having a multi-generational dynamic as part of its storytelling would also become a somewhat common trope in Japanese RPGs after this one, seen in games like Lunar, Suikoden, Harvest Moon and Fire Emblem, so Dragon Quest V seems to have been a pretty influential title in more ways than one.

Fitting its more personal and turbulent nature, the game's playable cast is also much larger than any prior game in the series.  Many allies join throughout the journey, coming and going as the story dictates.  As mentioned, your main character also marries during the game, and his wife becomes a playable character - all three choices (two in the original SFC version) have slightly different playstyles and equipment choices too, and you're locked out from recruiting the other two on that playthrough once you've made your choice.  In a new twist for the series, you can also recruit monsters to your side - after defeating them in battle, they have a chance to ask to join your party, at which point you can then add them to your wagon or drop them off at a "Monster Den" for potential later use.  This is a surprisingly full-featured addition, too - each monster has unique equipment choices, stats, learns unique sets of spells and even have widely varying max levels, though they may ignore your commands if their Wisdom is a very low amount (below 20).  Some prove to be rather gimmicky - the Goodybag monster is resistant to many elements and status effects and has quite high stats, though a low level limit of 7 and a capped Wisdom of 5 limit its long-term usefulness.  Slimes are another example; being the archetypal low-level mook enemy of the series, they have unimpressive stats and low growth per level, but surprisingly can equip some of strongest gear and, should one raise a Slime to level 99, they will learn one of the most powerful attack spells in the game.  Metal Slimes and their variants also make very powerful allies, though the odds of recruiting one are extremely low (1/1024 according to most guides), so it's highly unlikely you'll get one without copious amounts of farming.  They do still retain all of their usual resistances and weaknesses, too, so that can give you an edge or become a liability in certain scenarios.

So, there's a lot there in terms of storytelling, emotional impact and nitty-gritty party customization for the powergamers in the audience, but of course Dragon Quest V doesn't skimp on the side-content either.  The series mainstay of collecting Mini-Medals to trade for rare prizes persists in all versions, as does the casino where one can win medals to trade in for powerful items.  From the PS2 remake on, several more get added - a game-spanning quest called "The Knick-Knackatory" where you basically inherit a museum and put various artifacts from your adventures on display is probably the centerpiece there.  The Pachisi board game returns from Dragon Quest III as well, though under the name "Treasures n' Trapdoors", serving as both a means to acquire rare items as well as tweak your characters' stats with a hefty luck element involved.  A small bonus dungeon is added too, which ties the story back to Dragon Quest IV a bit and adds some powerful recruitable monsters to play with in the post-game.

So, having now played it, I can see why Dragon Quest V is considered a high point for the series.  While the core gameplay remains essentially unchanged from the 8-bit entries, it definitely upped the stakes in terms of storytelling and forging an emotional connection therein, giving the player character a very personal stake in the adventure and making its twists and turns that much more gripping.  Monster recruiting added an interesting if slightly underdeveloped new element, though it was relatively novel in RPGs of the time; though predated by Shin Megami Tensei and later taken to runaway success with Pokemon, it did also lay some of the groundwork for Dragon Quest Monsters, a game focused entirely on recruiting and training DQ's iconic critters which has become a fan-favorite franchise in its own right.  But beneath it all, Dragon Quest's high degree of polish, refinement and developer passion makes it shine, taking the player on an engrossing adventure that ranks among the best of its time period and a high standard which many other Japanese RPGs aspire to equal.  It's been criminally overlooked in the west for ages, but any serious fan of the genre should strongly consider giving it a playthrough.

Developer: Chunsoft, ArtePiazza, Matrix Software
Publisher: Enix, Square Enix
Platform: Super Famicom, Playstation 2, Nintendo DS, Android, iOS
Released: 1992, 2004, 2009, 2015
Recommended Version: The later versions add a number of tweaks over the Super Famicom version, including some extra content (mentioned above), having a party size of four rather than three, and some extra items and weapons to utilize.  The only version to be released physically in the west was the Nintendo DS port, though the later Android and iOS ports are based on this version as well, which make it the most affordable way to play the game in English.

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen

The fourth game in the Dragon Quest franchise and the last to be released on the NES/Famicom changed up the format once again, going for a chpater-based approach that would later be copied in games like Wild Arms.  But does Dragon Quest IV prove to be another worthwhile entry to the classic franchise, or does it just fizzle out compared to other games from the era?

Dragon Quest continued on with no sign of stopping throughout the 80s and 90s, getting four entries in as many years on the Famicom and NES alike.  This would be the last one localized for a good while, though, as Enix passed on bringing over 5 and 6 from the Famicom and 7 would see release on the Playstation, while an advertised remake of 4 for the platform would go unreleased due to the company set to localize it going out of business.

The fourth game is also one of the rarer games on the NES platform; little surprise as it saw release in 1992, when the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis rivalry was reaching new heights.  Even RPG fans tended to overlook it, as games like Phantasy Star II and III and Final Fantasy II (actually IV) were coming out on those platforms.  But of course, those who only had an NES to play found a surprisingly good game if they picked up Dragon Warrior IV.

The first three Dragon Quest games all were set in the same world, but this was not the case for the fourth entry, which is set in an entirely new one (albeit retaining many of the series' iconic monsters).  Still, while the core gameplay and overall presentation remain much the same as previous Dragon Quest games, the fourth entry definitely changes up the format in an interesting way.  Rather than just having one story to experience, Dragon Quest IV has five.  The first four are short stories each featuring a different protagonist pursuing their goals, while the fifth and sixth star the game's protagonist and have him allying with the protagonists of the other stories throughout the game.  Later remakes add another chapter to the game as well, serving as an alternate ending and having the heroes ally with the game's final boss to defeat the true antagonist behind all of the game's events (a concept that many of the Final Fantasy remakes would also utilize).  Interestingly, one of these characters in particular (Torneko) would later become something of a face for the series, even getting his own spinoff on the Playstation called "Torneko: The Last Hope" that utilized the engine from the Mystery Dungeon franchise.

Some new elements are added to the gameplay too.  One prominent change (at least in the original NES/Famicom release) is that the player can only control the main character in the latter two chapters; the rest are simply commanded by the AI, though the player can give them general commands to heal, cast spells or simply attack, et cetera.  While this does speed up the game a bit by cutting down on the amount of time you spend inputting commands, the option to assume manual control would be nice; indeed, most of the remakes do allow this, so it seems even the developers heard a lot of fan complaints about it.  The player can now search bookshelves, jars, and so forth to find items, in particular the series staple of "Hero Medals" that can be traded for rare items.  A casino appears that allows the player to gamble and earn some extra cash and prizes.  Finally, the player is given a "Wagon" for use on the overworld, which allows them to swap party members on the fly, rather than having to return to town to do so.

Being a game of the era, though, it does fall prey to a few of the same pitfalls.  The game is still a long and grindy one, with frequent encounters that give only a pittance of XP, requiring you to stop at several points and farm experience and gold for a good while before you stand a chance against a particular boss (which really got me at the end for the final boss; I had to gain at least five levels before I stood a chance, and with battles only giving about 100 experience a pop, that took almost a full day to do).  Limited inventory space is also an issue, particularly as you can only carry a small handful of healing items at a time and have to rely on magic for the rest, so dungeons are a test of your level and endurance than anything else.  Save points are also relatively few and far between in the original release, though some later versions do add a quick save feature that let you save progress from almost anywhere (but erase your save on load).

Even with a few shortcomings, though, Dragon Quest remains one of the standout RPGs of its time period.  With a narrative unlike anything else seen on the NES and quite a lot of content to explore, it was a fine last hurrah for big-name RPGs on the system.  Later remakes only did it more favors, adding in a few modern conveniences, cutting down on the grinding element and even expanding its story, and its legacy was enough to get the hero included in the new Super Smash Bros. game as a downloadable character.  Definitely worth a look.

Developer: Chunsoft (NES), Heartbeat/ArtePiazza (Playstation), Cattle Call (Nintendo DS)
Publisher: Enix
Platform: Famicom/NES, Playstaiton, Nintendo DS, Android/iOS
Released: 1990, 1992, 2001, 2007, 2014
Recommended Version: I've only played the NES version personally, though I am aware that most later ports make significant improvements to the game's presentation and gameplay style, as well as allowing you manual control over your allies.  The iOS and Android ports are currently the cheapest ones available and the most fully-featured.

Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation

The third of the Dragon Warrior games and one that's held in regard as a classic by series fans.  But does Dragon Quest III still prove a worthwhile adventure today, or is this just another one for the history books and little else?

Dragon Quest was huge in Japan and still is today, continuing to get numerous spinoffs and sequels and having surprisingly few changes to its core gameplay despite leaps in technology.  It was not nearly as big in the west, though that didn't stop Enix from localizing three more games on the 8-bit systems alone, and while they may not have been hugely popular (particularly compared to the likes of Zelda), they nevertheless attracted a sizable following.

Dragon Quest III is regarded as one of the best RPGs on the NES platform by many, though, and it isn't hard to see why.  Taking the polished design of the previous two Dragon Quest games and incorporating some elements of the Final Fantasy series into the mix, it managed to introduce some replay value to its format on top of the lengthy adventure it already provided.  It even had a pretty clever twist at the end to tie it into its two predecessor games, though I won't give that away here.

The most significant addition to Dragon Quest III was that it contained a Final Fantasy styled class system.  While the main character themself has a fixed "hero" class, they could visit the guild hall and recruit up to three allies of any class they chose, letting them customize their party for the adventure ahead.  Several of these have direct equivalents to Final Fantasy classes - Soldier is basically equivalent to the Fighter, for example, wielding heavy weapons and armor but being unable to cast spells, while the Pilgrim casts healing spells, similar to the White Mage.  A few are unique, though, like the Merchant class; in addition to being decent fighters, they cause enemies to drop extra items and gold after a party victory, and in the remakes, even get some useful supportive skills like being able to call shops in the field and dig to find random items or money.  A class of dubious value in itself is the "Goof-off" or "Jester", which is a weak class that can randomly decide to take no actions during battle, making them unreliable and not particularly useful; however, they do have high Luck and are the only class that can upgrade to the powerful Sage class without requiring a special item, so keeping one around can be very beneficial in the long run.  Later ports of the game also add the Thief class, who again serves a powerful supportive role, letting the party steal items from enemies as well as temporarily disable encounters and find hidden treasures.

Later ports of the game also add much in the way of new content.  Not only are visual and music greatly overhauled, but much more is added to the gameplay, too.  More than 80 pieces of equipment are added, many of which are tied to finding hidden medals throughout the game world.  Bonus dungeons are added with many new monsters to battle and treasures to find, and the player can now search bookshelves, pots, barrels and the like to find hidden goodies.  Probably the most significant change, though, is that each character now has a "personality" based on a starting quiz which affects their stats, raising some and lowering others by a small percentage.  Some items and accessories found throughout the game can temporarily or permanently alter a character's personality as well, letting the player tweak the party to get more mileage out of their innate abilities.

The core gameplay of Dragon Quest remains essentially the same despite these changes, though - simplistic, turn-based action is the order of the day here.  It also thankfully is not nearly as grindy as its predecessors, though I still found myself hitting a brick wall boss at times and having to break away and level up for a few hours before I could beat them.  This got particularly frustrating toward the end, as I had to spend almost a full day of time farming Metal Slimes to get experience and levels so that I could stand a chance against the final boss.  This may have been addressed in some of the later ports as well (I mostly played the NES version), but I still found it to be a frustrating ordeal.

Despite that, though, I can't deny that this is probably the best of all the Dragon Quest games I've played.  It added some new twists on the format and lets the player customize their party to their liking, giving it an edge over most other RPGs of the era and some pretty good replayability.  The overall length of the journey, plus the amount of grinding and frequent encounter rate, make it one I wasn't overly keen on revisiting, though I imagine this situation is better in the remakes with some of the improvements made to them there.   Regardless, Dragon Quest III is a solid 80's RPG and worth a look for any serious genre fan.

Developer: Chunsoft, Heartbeat, TOSE, Matrix Software
Publisher: Enix
Platform: NES, Super Famicom, Game Boy Color, Mobile, Android, iOS, Switch
Released: 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2009, 2014, 2017, 2019
Recommended Version:  The remakes all have a lot more to offer in terms of content and game balance, though there isn't really a clear consensus on which is the best as they all offer some exclusive content of their own.  The Super Famicom and Game Boy Color versions do seem to have the best value for your dollar though, in the form of a new minigame ("Pachisi") that can affect your characters' stats, animations for monsters and some extra music tracks.  However, the GBC version is the only one of the two that is (officially) available in English; this version also adds a new playable class (the Thief) and some exclusive side content in the form of the Medal Album and a new optional dungeon and boss.

Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line

The second in the Dragon Quest series, noted for greatly expanding upon the original game in almost every way it was possible to.  But did it prove to be a worthwhile RPG adventure for 8-bit RPG players, or was this just overshadowed by other contemporary games?

Dragon Warrior was a modest success in North America (in no small part thanks to a Nintendo Power promotion giving away copies of the game for free), but a monstrous success in Japan, so naturally, a sequel was inevitable.  Several sequels, actually, as the franchise continues to this day, spawning a number of spinoffs and side-games that all expand upon the original format in various ways.  The core series has remained relatively constant in design, though, only getting modest updates and maintaining the same overall minimal design philosophy.

Still, it had to make significant leaps and bounds forward in some places, and Dragon Quest II may just be the series' most prominent example of that.  This is evident right from the get-go, as the first thing you see upon starting is a fairly lengthy cutscene depicting the fall of the kingdom of Moonbrooke, with a single surviving soldier escaping to tell the king of Midenhall what happened.  The player is then given control of the Prince of Midenhall and sets out on an adventure to defeat the evil Hargon.

A world-spanning one in this case, as the action in Dragon Warrior II is no longer confined to a single island, but a world map roughly four times the size of the original.  The game is largely traversed on foot at first, but later in the game one unlocks the ability to teleport between specific points by unlocking teleporters across the planet, as well as sailing on the ocean via the ship (lending a nonlinear element to the proceedings).  Dungeons are significantly longer too, as well as tougher, with quite a few more traps and puzzles to solve to make your way through.  One also has the option to gamble in a few places too, which can earn the player some extra cash and prizes while giving them a short reprieve from constant battles for that purpose.

Going further, the game is no longer a quest undertaken by a single character.  Instead there are now three playable characters, with the Prince of Midenhall primarily being a melee fighter with the ability to equip heavy armor and the strongest weapons, but unable to cast any spells.  The Prince of Cannock joins later and is primarily a supportive character, being only an okay fighter but able to cast healing and supportive spells.  Finally, the Princess of Moonbrooke is the weakest of the three physically, but can cast powerful spells that quickly wipe out enemies.  This lends a bit more variety to the game than the original, as they also have quite a few more spells than were seen in the original game.

Naturally, enemies now appear in larger groups too - sometimes six or seven in a single battle, with enemies often taking on similar roles to those seen in the party.  Bigger hard-hitting types are often seen with HP-restoring "Healers", and a line of strong enemies can be backed by a caster that deals heavy damage and is generally more of a threat than his protectors.  The Wizardry influence is definitely felt here - both from the variety of enemies you face and just the general design of the UI, which consists mostly of windows and monster sprites on a solid black background.  One slightly annoying element is that the player can only target specific groups of enemies and not individual units within that group, which can lead to you spreading out your attacks and enemies getting more turns in.  Magic that targets entire groups does mitigate this to a small degree, but as in many JRPGs, you'll probably want to conserve the majority of it for bosses.

Like the original game, though, Dragon Quest II is a very grindy experience, requiring you to stop at several points and power up before you're tough enough to overcome a dungeon or a particularly irritating boss - a rather lengthy process as most enemies give very little in the way of experience.  It can also get particularly frustrating in some areas, particularly toward the end where you hit a brick wall of difficulty, with areas packed to the brim by difficult enemies that can easily wipe your entire party.  Which is only compounded in the penultimate dungeon, which is a lengthy maze of rooms that one must enter in a very specific way - one wrong turn sends you all the way back to the start to try again.  But even worse than that is the final dungeon itself; while relatively straightforward, it is packed to the brim with encounters containing enemies that destroy themselves to instantly kill one of your characters, and if they happen to hit your healer, your run is pretty much ruined as you have no way to revive him (aside from a leaf of the Yggdrasil tree, which you are only allowed to have one of at a time).  Basically, it doesn't matter how much you level up before coming here - getting to the boss relatively intact is just a matter of pure luck.  Thankfully, most remakes of the game do at least throw you a bone here by giving the Princess a revive spell as well, so you can bounce back, even if at a considerable cost to your resources.

In short, Dragon Quest 2 is a logical extension of the first, adding a bit onto everything - a bigger world, more characters, more varied enemies and tactics, and quite a bit more challenge.  It doesn't stray far from what made the original game popular, but that's part of the appeal for its fans, and for a game that dates all the way back to 1987, it was still quite novel to see a game with depth and longevity rivaling a PC RPG on a console.  It may not be my favorite game of the era to revisit or even my favorite Dragon Quest game, but it's a fun piece of history and a decent RPG in its own right.  Just be ready for it to become downright hateful as you approach the end.

Developer: Chunsoft
Publisher: Enix
Platform: NES, MSX, MSX2, SNES, Game Boy Color, Mobile, Wii, Android, iOS, 3DS, PS4, Switch
Released: 1987, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2019
Recommended Version:  I'd recommend one of the remakes over the original release as they are reworked to be considerably less grindy and more balanced than the original release.  The most easily-found one nowadays is probably the Switch or Android/iOS versions (though the Game Boy Color version is a personal favorite of mine).

Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior)

Generally considered to be the forefather to the entire JRPG genre, Dragon Quest (aka Dragon Warrior) was a relatively popular title in the NES's heyday, aided by a Nintendo Power campaign that would give many fans free copies of the game and an accompanying strategy guide.  But is this quest still worth undertaking today, or is it simply too dated to retain its charm?

Dragon Quest was originally released in 1986 was a massive hit, bringing a complex RPG experience to home consoles and losing little from its PC and tabletop counterparts - the player still had to gather clues from townspeople, upgrade equipment and overcome massive dungeons in order to succeed.  Inspired by the likes of visual novels and, of course, the genre-defining Wizardry franchise, the game proved to be a success, selling millions of copies in Japan and kicking off a massively popular franchise which continues to this day.

In America, however, the franchise had a considerably tougher time.  While all four of the Famicom Dragon Quest games did get ported over, they saw relatively low sales as the RPG genre's popularity hadn't yet grown much.  The first game was the most prominent example of this; despite a large marketing campaign by Nintendo, Dragon Warrior (renamed due to rights issues) proved to be unpopular at retail.  Facing a financial disaster for this, the game was later given away for free alongside subscriptions to Nintendo Power magazine along with a player's guide that essentially provided a step-by-step walkthrough for the whole adventure.

Still, while it is easy to dismiss the game as "basic" and "generic" these days, Dragon Warrior showed quite a bit of refinement compared to many other games of the era.  The game's translation was actually surprisingly good, with virtually no namespace limitations leading to confusion and a well-written script that uses medieval English without coming off as forced.  This in turn helps the player figure out many of the puzzles on their own power, as some NPC or clue in the game world will usually tell you exactly what needs to be done and where necessary items are found - a very strong contrast to games like Castlevania II and Milon's Secret Castle, where the overall design was opaque and the spotty translations made puzzles almost impossible to decipher without outside help.  Enix clearly put a lot of effort into making the game stand out, and it's a bit of a shame that it went largely unappreciated by gamers of the era.

A few elements of the game can accurately be described as "basic", though.  There is only one playable character in the game and their abilities are more or less set - you get the same list of spells and overall gameplay each time you play, with only a very slight variation in your starting stats determined by the name you input for your character.  While there are several towns and dungeons in the game to explore, the game can only be saved at the starting castle, requiring frequent trips back to record one's progress.  Combat is similarly simple, always pitting the player against a single monster at a time, which gradually grow tougher as the player crosses bridges and enter new dungeons further away from the start point.  There aren't really any elemental weaknesses to speak of, either, and only two status effects, so combat is fairly generic overall.  Still, there is a relatively large amount of variety in the enemies, from the iconic Slimes to oddities like Drolls and Druins to, of course, the powerful and dangerous Dragons, most of which still appear in franchise entries today.  Much emphasis is placed on level grinding as well, with it comprising the vast majority of game time - even in speedruns of the game, roughly 80% of one's time is spent powering up  to be ready for the next dungeon.

A few other refinements were made to the NES port of the game as well.  Some extra graphics were added for shorelines, and the gameplay overall saw some tweaking; in the Famicom original, all NPCs would always face toward the screen and the player would have to choose a direction each time they wanted to interact with the environment.  The NES port changes this for the better, giving each character a set of sprites for facing in each direction and having interactions automatically take place where they're facing (or the tile they're standing on).  The Famicom game also utilized a password system to save one's progress, which was just a bit cumbersome; the NES version changes this for the better, utilizing a more convenient battery backup system.

Graphical improvements aside, the game retains a simple but charming style, with simple, tile-based representations of water, trees, grass, swamp and bricks for the locales.  The most detailed elements come in battle, with some surprisingly elaborate enemy designs; still, animation is relatively minimal throughout, with attacks simply represented by vibrating the screen or making a sprite flicker momentarily.  Still, for a game originally released in 1986, it works relatively well.  The music and sound effects in the game are much in the same vein - simple, but iconic.  So much so that they're still used in series entries over thirty years later.

In short, Dragon Warrior/Quest was an icon in its time, as well as a good NES RPG, showing a level of polish that few other text-heavy games of the era did.  It is a bit hard to revisit nowadays, though, owing to its heavy emphasis on level grinding and overall slow pace.  Still, it's at least worth a look as an important piece of history for the JRPG genre.

Developer: Chunsoft
Publisher: Enix
Platform: Famicom/NES, MSX, PC-9801, Super Famicom, Sattelaview, Game Boy Color, Mobile, Android, iOS, Nintendo 3DS, Playstation 4, Switch
Released: 1986, 1989, 1993, 2000, 2004, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2019
Recommended Version: Most of the game's remakes and ports make attempts to update the gameplay a bit to more modern sensibilities, having enemies award more experience points and gold and updating the graphics and sounds a bit to more modern standards.  The Game Boy Color version is a personal favorite, adding more animation and redoing the music in the Game Boy's unique soundfont, making it sound quite nice.  The Switch version is easily available as a relatively cheap download or on a (quite overpriced) physical compilation with 2 and 3.

The Nightmare of Druaga: Fushinigo Dungeon

Arika, Matrix Software and Chunsoft attempt to revive a classic Namco franchise whilst mixing in many trademarks of the Mystery Dungeon series to boot.  But does this prove to be a strong combination, or is this one PS2 RPG that was overlooked for good reason?

Druaga is one of Namco's earliest franchises, seeing a number of releases in arcades throughout most of the 80s, but despite it appearing on several Namco Museum compilations and even being referenced in a couple of other Namco-published games like Tales of Destiny and Baten Kaitos, not too many people still talk about it today.  Fewer people still talk about the attempt to revive the series on the Playstation 2, which saw overall low sales and little coverage from gaming magazines owing to its punishing difficulty.

It was a difficult game by design, though, in no small part because it was another offshoot of Chunsoft's Mystery Dungeon roguelike series.  To that end, it features many hallmarks of the genre - having to identify items before they become usable, a large number of status-inflicting enemies and traps on each floor to trip up the player, and of course, very unforgiving deaths which force the player to redo the entire dungeon and rob them of all of their items (save for a small handful they may have "engraved" beforehand in town, which doesn't come cheap).  In short, a large part of the game is not only knowing how to deal with hazards, but deciding whether it's worth the risk to press on or whether to make a prudent retreat in order to minimize risk, even if that comes at the cost of having to retread all of the dungeon thus far.

Naturally, being an ostensible sequel to the Druaga franchise, Nightmare works in some elements of those games as well.  The player can actually knock down walls by attacking them with their weapons, which can give them a shortcut to their destination or allow them to make a quick escape from enemies; however, this also depletes 5% of their maximum HP every time they do so, so it's best used only as a last resort.  A persistent mechanic is that the lighting in the dungeon will slowly weaken, eventually leaving the player completely in the dark, unless they periodically Offer an item to Ki to restore the light; the rarer the item, the longer the light will come back on for.  Dungeon floors, unlike most roguelikes, are not fully randomized, but do have the player and enemies start in a different position each time they re-enter.  Each floor also has two hidden chests to find - one silver, one gold - and they will only appear after meeting specific conditions, such as defeating a particular type of foe or collecting the door key without smashing any crates.  Each one is different (and the game rarely provides clues for what will make them appear), but as they often contain powerful equipment or just useful items, they're worth getting nonetheless.  Several iconic Druaga enemies appear as particularly dangerous hazards as well - Will-o-Wisps will explode and reduce the player's HP to 1, while Ropers tend to be high-leveled for the dungeons in which they appear and drain HP with each hit they land, making them very dangerous and difficult to kill alike.  Having a good supply of potions on hand, as well as throwing items to destroy dangerous enemies before they get a chance to attack you, is an essential part of the overall strategy.

Sidequests can occasionally grant you some extra gold and items, though they are somewhat strangely handled as well in that you must undertake them with a completely empty inventory.  Your level is also temporarily reset while on a quest and any experience earned is not carried over when you complete it, making them useless for gaining experience and powering through the game and more as a last-ditch way to build back up your gold and equipment after you get wiped out in the dungeon during the main quest.

Thrillseekers can also elect to take on Bonus Dungeons, which can be undertaken in any dungeon floor the player has already completed by approaching the exit and choosing to "break down the door".  This puts the player in a mirror of the next dungeon floor with far higher-leveled enemies and more dangerous traps (and no option to easily escape using a Feather), but the tradeoff is that they have a much higher chance of dropping rare and powerful items.  In essence, a high-risk, high-reward excursion.

Of course, like any good roguelike, Nightmare of Drauga has an in-depth item combining/crafting system as well.  This time it comes in the form of combining equipment of like type (weapon+weapon, helmet+helmet, etc), sacrificing one piece of gear to power up another.  This affixes a numbered modifier to the equipment as well as adding some of the sacrificed items' stats and attributes to the primary gear.  Once a particular piece of equipment reaches "+15" (having added other weapons' attributes to it at least fifteen times), the player acquires the ability to transfer over abilities as well.  Abilities come in the form of either attack skills (for weapons) or defensive abilities on armor such as making certain status effects less likely to affect the player.  But like any other equipment in the game, the player must take care to engrave them or retreat from a dungeon if they are in danger of dying, because they are just as much at risk of being lost forever as any other piece of equipment.

A more traditional crafting system also appears in the form of the Alchemy shop, letting the player combine leaves, roots and other items together to make potions.  There are two characters who do this for the player; Aziel is the cheaper option and will reliably produce useful items, while Sajia costs much more and has a high probability of creating something weak or even entirely wortheless; however, she also has a small chance to craft rare and powerful items that Aziel cannot create at all, so it may be worth taking a chance on her if you have the cash and items to spare.

Nightmare of Druaga is also wise to the fact that difficult games tend to invite savescumming to circumvent some of the challenge.  As a result, the game auto-saves each time the player transitions between screens, and if they reset the console without doing a hard save, the player will be greeted with a long and unskippable dialog scene upon loading that makes save scumming both annoying and inefficient.  One can also make temporary saves as they progress through a dungeon, but these are erased as soon as they are loaded from the memory card, preventing them from being abused as well.  One nice detail is that after creating a hard save, the player is disallowed from continuing the game right away; instead, they must either reset the console or power it down entirely and turn it back on to continue playing, a la several old RPGs from early computer platforms and the NES.

In conclusion, it's not hard to see why many console gamers and gaming journalists alike shunned Nightmare of Druaga; its punishing design, only passable aesthetics, somewhat slow gameplay and heavy emphasis on random elements is very unlike the Japanese-styled RPGs that were the hallmark of home consoles at that point, and it didn't even play a whole lot like the Druaga series it was allegedly a followup to.  Regardless, it is a very competently-made title, capturing the feel of an old-school roguelike to a T, even its more detrimental elements. Certainly not a game for everyone, but those looking for a title with a lot of content and some steep old-school challenge should definitely give this one a go.

Developer: Arika, Chunsoft, Matrix Software
Publisher: Arika, Namco
Platform: Playstation 2
Released: 2004
Recommended version: N/A