Wednesday, August 7, 2024

Emerald Dragon for SFC


Image: MobyGames

Emerald Dragon

The good kind of ED


Genre: rpg - japanese

Publisher: MediaWorks

Year: 1995

System: SFC


Gameplay Score: 4

Gameplay Notes:

Horrible equip menu. You have to go to the Status menu to see what is equipped. The Equip menu is just a list of equippable items with no groupings or even sorting. Truly awful. Chat feature tells you what to do next. Up to five person parties. Interesting battle system. Move around a grid. Movement and attacks use up your turn, which is displayed as a colored square surrounding your player. Once the square shrinks to nothing oyur turn has ended and enemies can move and attack. Attack by running into the enemy, Ys style. This mode is extremely choppy. It feels like an early gen title. Not great, but certainly unique. I liked it far more once I got a party. You control the main character but all other party members auto-battle. Limits what you can do, but they do what you want for the most part. Fast movement, but it's configurable to Fast, Normal, or Slow. And they aren't kidding with Fast. Same weird movement tech as Aretha.


Level Design Score: 4

Level Design Notes:

Standard stuff. Still, the world looks big and the Chat feature makes it easy to figure out where to go, if you need it. Good stuff for the most part.


Theme Score: 4

Theme Notes:

You're a dragon!! But not really. Instead, you are transformed into a human so you can seek out your adopted human daughter. You of course get caught up in the concerns of nations and fight their fights for them. Playable characters drop in and out of our party frequently, and come prebuilt with a static level. This negates the value of grinding, except for your two main characters. Kind of weird. Still, I got caught up in the story. Good stuff.


Art Style Score: 3

Art Style Notes:

The overhead view looks great, with excellent pixel art. The battles...are a mixed bag at best. Performance issues abound which really hurts the experience. Still, the pixel


Audio Score: 3

Audio Notes:

Voice samples. Some music is good but a lot of it is truly awful, like the town theme. The music switches gears constantly, creaating an inconsistent, and jarring atmosphere.


Overall Score: 76

Review ID: 1621



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