A vastly overrated game with an old-school style that just highlights just how far RPGs have come.
But there, sadly, is the key. The old school charm. Dragon Quest VII is, as its name suggests, the latest in a long-running series of roleplaying games, and despite its flashy graphics or its well-produced sound, it has its humble origins at heart. Its a game that knows where it came from, and is quite happy to stay there, thankyouverymuch, merging classic Japanese RPG gameplay with more modern visuals.
Of course, by classic Japanese RPG gameplay, I mean this formula. Start in town. Leave town. Fight a million and one random battles. reach next town. Realise you need more money so that you can buy that slightly pointier stick. Fight more random battles. Buy stick. Go to dungeon. Realises enemies are far too hard and you need a bigger stick. Fight random battles. Buy bigger stick. Go to dungeon. Fight random battles. Fight obstinately tough boss. Go back to town. And repeat.
Im sure you see what I'm trying to get at here: Dragon Quest has a lot of random battles. Thats not in itself a problem. Its a Japanese RPG, after all; it wouldn't really be the same without them, would it? But where Dragon Quest differs from its contemporaries is that you really need to fight as many of them as you can- because if you don't, well, you'll find yourself not able to afford that pointy stick or shiny piece of armour. and without that pointy stick or shiny armour, you'll find the next batch of random battles in the next area a hell of a lot harder than you'd like. Fortunately, the battles aren't just a case of see-enemy-hit-attack. You'll find yourself having to think your way through most of them, utilising the right spells and attacks to do the most damage to your enemies as quickly as possible. The enemies are no less charming than the rest of the game, either- from the JRPG hallmark slimes to the sluglike creatures with huge lips, the frogs with devil faces on their backs, even the ball-shaped vampire bats, the enemies are imaginative and fun. Sometimes you even feel a little guilty after cutting down that cute little kitty that just wasted a turn washing its face, but then you'll remember that if you didn't the cute little kitty would have mauled you to death. Sadly, though, the battle system is not without its problems. The characters act in a seemingly random turn order- whilst your characters have an 'agility' rating to theoretically determine the sequence they act in, it doesn't always seem to make any difference- even if you get your characters to take the same actions two turns in a row you'll find they often act in different orders. This makes it very difficult when fighting the many bosses, since you never really know exactly when you're going to cast that multiheal spell. Thankfully, the game is soemwhat forgiving. If you're defeated in battle, its not game over- instead, you just restart back at the closest save point and lose half your gold. There are also several spells designed to help you out; you can zoom to any town or place you've visited, and even evacuate from dungeons by casting a spell. But these useful features are offset by other problems. For instance, you can only save the game in a church, which is usually located in a town. So, if you die and are 'respawned' back at the church, you'll have to go right the way through the dungeon to the boss that killed you, fighting random battles along the way, so by the time you get back there you'll already be low on magic points and healing items.
Ah yes, thats the *other* problem with battles. Magic. For some reason, your characters just don't seem to be able to handle a lot of it. There are very few items in the game that let you restore your magic points, and for that matter, not many healing items either, so you'll frequently find yourself short of magic points and having to go back to an inn to rest. Added to that, its quite a long time before you get any kind of resurrection spell, which even then -until you reach the higher levels- only has a 50% chance of reviving a fallen ally, and initially only one character can learn it. So, if he dies, its back to the church to pay more hard-earned gold to ressurect a dead character. Oh, then you'll have to run back to where you died, of course...
perhaps I'm starting to sound a little bitter and negative here, and if so, well, its probably because I am. The game, in itself, is great fun. It looks lovely- the unique visual style and widescreen support give it a great gloss for a PS2 title, and its well presented and well acted. At first, the difficulty is dismissable- you can accept it as the more traditional style RPG that its trying to be, and bear with the difficulty. But as the game goes on, none of the various sidequests- and there are many, and they are for the most part entertaining- nor the likeable cast of characters can really hold the game together. The story is thin at best, rather clumsily obstructing your progress with tasks that become more frustrating as the game progresses. Finding a ship to cross the ocean, for example, is a particularly long-winded affair that quickly drains the game of its sense of pace. There are other niggling problems as well- the dialogue, whilst well-delivered, is painfully long-winded- even if you're skipping it as fast as you can, the cutscenes and even standard dialogues take forever to advance through, with no way to skip them. Added to that are some obstructive loading times; although the areas are big once you get into them, there are some ridiculous problems such as the time it takes to open the menu or look at your map, the kind of delays I've not seen since Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. Coupled with the frustrating battle system that sometimes seems to go out of its way to obstruct your progress by making you retrace your steps time and time again, it makes the game something of a chore to play, and sadly nothing improves as the game progresses. By the time you do reach the final boss, you'll be ready for the tedious final sections of the game to end, and thats never a good thing- particualrly as the games 60+ hours are mostly made up of retreading familiar ground.
What really makes Dragon Quest hard to reccomend though is that there are so many contemporary games that are much more engaging and enjoyable to play, and if you like the old school charm, then maybe you're better simply playing an old school game; pick up one of the early Final Fantasy's for the GBA, for instance, or Secret of Mana. The RPG genre has moved on a lot since the type of game that Dragon Quest seeks to emulate, and whilst its blessed with excellent production values, likeable characters and buckets of charm, it just can't seem to hold itself together. A shame, because it starts with such promise. I know many people will disagree with this review, and thats their perogative- I'm just describing the game as I saw it, nothing more, nothing less.