Just posting this for closure so no one asks me for a Dragon Shadow Spell update. I reached the 20-hour mark after spending the past two days playing DSS exclusively, but it still didn’t rock my world. If anything it turned into a drag, and for someone like me with a tendency to stick with SRPGs no matter how bad they are, that was a sign to get out immediately.
The final straw was a boss battle that forced me to use a character I had benched long ago and another character I had only just gotten and hadn’t had time to train. It was a tough battle that dragged on way longer than it needed to until I just turned the PS2 off and went to bed. DSS is so stingy with both money and EXP that grinding will be a further waste of time, plus who knows when the next crappy boss battle is coming up? Nope, I’m done.
My overall opinion of Dragon Shadow Spell is that it didn’t completely suck but came close enough to sucking that it might as well have sucked. At least then it would be memorable. The graphics were really nice (I especially liked the character designs), bright happy colors, the system was interesting at least on paper and the ‘Chosen One’ premise is like *shrug* I might as well stop playing RPGs if I start objecting to that one.
The problem is there were just too many factions on and off-screen doing this or that or the other that I lost interest in the story pretty quickly. That’s just a personal thing, of course. There are probably plenty of players who would like it for just that reason because they’re sick of most games just being “The good guys vs. the bad guys” with nothing in between. All good and nice, but I found it boring sitting through one too many skit featuring random bad/sorta bad/dunno-if-bad guys who my party hadn’t even met at that point and who kept tossing strange terms and jargon around without explanation, etc etc. Too much of a good thing, you know?
I’ve also documented the problems with the combat in previous posts, so I won’t go over it again. So you take an SRPG, ruin the battles and mess up the story and what do you have left? I don’t know, but it’s nothing I’d want to play. Enough already, I’m moving on. But moving on to what? I still can’t find the 3DS. I almost want to cry now ;__________; At least my PSP and DS are still around. Hey maybe they know something about the mysterious disappearance of the new handheld “haha you want to replace us, not a chance, now die” etc etc… I need a nap…
Haha! What a way to end! :D, I was there when I played Ragnarok Tactics, completed the game one time, then to know I had to do it two times more and in every playthrough the monsters get powerleveled… (I will still do it, but not now ;( )
Don’t cry please… Retrace your steps, Did you take it to another place? When and where was the last time you used it? Answer these questions and maybe you get a light out of the tunnel!
I always lose thing because I put the things on the same spot lol!
Remember, “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”, so please get a port to sail and move on 🙂
Thanks for the encouragement. I’m sure it’s somewhere really obvious, so I’m trying to take my mind off it and play other things while I wait for it to turn up.
I finished Ragnarok Tactics three or four times in a row because that’s how I like to play strategy RPGs. Even if the story is kind of crappy, as long as the battles are decent I’ll just play and play and play. That’s why I’m a little shocked I couldn’t even finish Dragon Shadow Spell. But after 20 hours it’s not me, it’s the game, so I’m not going to worry about it any longer.
Guess I’ll skip this game if the gameplay’s not stellar
Please do. I don’t even expect stellar quality from SRPGs; my only criteria is “Don’t bore me and don’t frustrate me” and it didn’t even manage that much.