Dragon Shadow Spell is a strategy RPG from Flight Plan, better known as the developers of the Summon Night games until they went bankrupt in 2010. Dragon Shadow Spell was their first attempt at self-publishing a game, and I have long wanted to see what else Flight Plan could come up with apart from Summon Night. Now I’ve seen it and I’m quite underwhelmed, to tell the truth (disclaimer: I’ve only played 9 hours so far).
Story: I thought it would be complicated because they talk a lot and there are so many characters, but it’s actually pretty simple. Protagonist Kaito is the last descendant of a clan with the power to open a door that hides a super power that everyone wants to get their hands on. Also he has a dangerous forbidden technique that he’s not supposed to use because, uh, I’m not quite sure why not, but he’s going to use it anyway eventually and then we’ll find out why not. He also has a pet dragon he keeps hidden from everyone else, not sure why again. There are a lot of factions skulking around in the shadows muttering away to themselves, but in the end it’s all about Kaito so I’m not wasting too much time trying to figure out what’s going on.
Gameplay wise, there’s nothing actually bad about DSS, but nothing that’s especially good. It’s a Summon Night game with more sluggish battles and no summons. I’m fairly happy about everything in the game but the slow battles are a huge flaw that are really getting me down. I was hoping the pace would pick up once my characters leveled up a bit, but no dice. I even tried grinding a bit in the bonus dungeon, but the stronger your characters get, the tougher the enemies get as well.
Normally this would be a good thing – a little extra challenge usually makes an SRPG better. In this case, however, when I say enemies are “tougher” I mean they just take more hits to kill, not that they’re stronger or smarter or anything. Enemies have high DEF and HP and get lots of turns relative to yours, so even the smallest mook takes several hits to kill. I feel tired and irritated when I finish a battle, not pleased. I can only hope the pace picks up a bit later on.
The sluggish pace is the downside, but there are some things I like about the combat. Matrices, for one thing. Beating enemy monsters gives fills up “matrix bars” that give your characters access to more skills. For example, beating spirit monsters unlocks magical spells like Fire, Blizzard, Bolt, etc. The more spirit monsters you beat, the more such spells you have access to. It’s pretty interesting, though at this early stage magic/special attacks do such crappy damage and the characters have such low MP that spells aren’t really worth pursuing. But there are useful stat-up matrices like AGL+10 and MP+18 available too. Plus you’re going to be beating the monsters anyway, so it’s nice to get some extra rewards for doing so.
Another thing I like is the ability to form sub-parties on the field. This lets you group party members together so they can all act at once before the enemy gets a turn. It’s particularly useful because Dragon Shadow Spell is usually speed-based, making it pretty hard to coordinate actions otherwise. Parties are especially handy for ganging up on enemies with healing spells and killing them before they can undo all your hard work. Plus you get cash bonuses for partying up, win-win.
Apart from that there’s nothing particularly too special about the game, which suits me just fine. I just wish they would do something about the battle speed, rrrgh. I would like the game a lot more if it wasn’t for that, because it has all the features I normally love in a game (bright happy colors! it’s an SRPG!), it just needs that last little kick… well, it’s early days yet. I’ll report back after another 9 hours and we’ll see.
In the meantime, if you’re really interested in how Dragon Shadow Spell plays, user englishsubs4all has done some gameplay vids on Youtube with English subs: link. I haven’t watched them myself ‘cos I’m avoiding spoilers, but it’s the closest you’ll ever get to seeing this game localized. Definitely check it out if you get the chance.
Hello I wrote back a few times but I think my internet connection cut out or something so I will write it again just in case it didn’t go through. Thankyou for your suggestions and encouragement! X3 I have purchased two programs human Japanese an app and textfugu online course that are both aimed towards people learning on their own that have great reviews. The college near here doesn’t have any courses in Japanese sadly but I think these will be my best choice to start for now. Learning a new language is so exciting breaking language barrier and someday being able to read, watch, play in Japanese will open a whole new world of stories 😀 I’ve started studying it already. Have you played norn9 or amnesia memories on the ps vita? Those two games and summon night 5 are why i’m considering buying a vita as my next console. Plus I have a goal to have all gaming systems eventually lol
I don’t have a Vita, so I haven’t been able to play Amnesia and Norn9 yet. And actually I wouldn’t play them even if I could because I don’t really like visual novels. The Vita is on my To Buy list, but more for all the RPGs and dungeon crawlers than for anything else.
In addition to what you’ve already bought, I recommend buying a subscription to Tofugu’s kanji learning product, WaniKani. I would say you need to know around 1000 kanji before you’ll be able to comfortably understand even the least kanji-heavy RPGs and otome games. WaniKani teaches approximately 1700.
Also, Textfugu won’t get you far enough with grammar. Think about buying the Genki books to get you through the beginner stage. Once you finish those, Tobira is highly recommended for intermediate study.
Be prepared to commit at least 90 minutes per day to your Japanese studies. Anything less and your progress will be unacceptably slow.
Thanks for the additional tips. I don’t know anything about apps, so that’s a big help.
Do try to get some scheduled time like english subs suggested, but don’t feel like a failure if you skip a few sessions here and there. If you fall off the wagon just climb back on and keep on learning. Even with two steps forward and one step back you’ll still get there eventually. Ganbatte!
What do you think about http://japaneseclass.jp/
Is that a good way to learn japanese? It sound fun at least…
That sounds like a tremendous amount of fun for a gamer. I took a look at the vocabulary and practice lessons and it looks a bit hard for a beginner, but once you start learning some kanji it would be a nice way to add more vocabs.
If it’s free then you have nothing to lose by adding it to your daily routine. And if you’re competitive I imagine it would a real kick to see yourself at the top of the scoreboard one day.
There’s also a free Japanese-learning “RPG” for beginners that you can try = http://lrnj.com/
Funny to see how most of the retro-looking RPGs on the PS1 and PS2 never made it to the West. Publishers must have thought that western gamers only wanted 3D and would have snubbed isometric projection and good ol’ sprites. Well, I certainly wouldn’t have. Heck, I think I would have gladly purchased a Playstation if these games had been published and advertised in the West!
Given the popularity of Disgaea and other NIS SRPGs, I would have thought other publishers would have jumped at the chance to release competing products. Maybe western gamers really didn’t want such games, and we’re in the minority. Or maybe the Japanese developers overestimated the worth of their game and were asking for too much as a license fee. We’ll probably never know the true story behind what got released and what didn’t get released.
I should get around to playing this unless you come out with a bad impression overall when you’re finished.
Disgaea 1 was actually considered “too Anime(TM) to localize” back before Atlus actually took the risk and turned it into a success.
I don’t think NIS’s other SRPGs not named Disgaea were ever successful, which is why at some point they basically did nothing except Disgaea… and sales of that series are kind of going down too.
You can play the Summon Night games while you’re waiting. It’s pretty much the same thing.
I think in Flight Plan’s case, ordinary is just fine. I like their games for the same reason I like Imageepoch’s. Neither company ever developed a standout game, but both companies delivered consistently good titles over a decade (let’s forget about Poison Pink and Time and Eternity). Flight-Plan made a huge contribution to the SRPG genre, especially during an era when FFT-style SRPGs were (and still are, sadly) scarce. Without Flight-Plan games, on the PS2, you’re pretty much left with Idea Factory junk and…Elvandia Story!
Thanks for plugging my translations. I dropped the DSS translation due to extreme lack of interest. Part of it is the video format as opposed to a patch, but the Last Ranker videos got about 5x the interest of DSS. I have no idea what to translate next.
Last Ranker was such a fun game, I was really hoping for a sequel.
And the lack of interest in DSS is probably because… it’s not a very interesting game. I find it pretty hard to psych myself up to play it, and I consider myself an SRPG + Flight-Plan fan.
What to translate next… uh… gee, I dunno. If there’s anything I want to see that badly, chances are I’ve already played it. Hmm, how about the original Ore no Shikabane wo Koete Yuke? There might be some interest in that because the sequel came out. Or put a poll out to your viewers and see what you get.