Dragon Valor

"An excellent game, with a bad reputation"

Okay folks, here’s my review for Dragon Valor, an Action game with a few RPG elements. It’s for the Playstation, and is one of my favourite games.

Storyline: 6.0

While there isn’t anything really outstanding about Dragon Valor’s storyline, there isn’t anything especially wrong with it. You start off as Clovis, a young man who just returned home to his village to find it burning down, seeing his sister die before his very eyes. You then meet a Dragon Valor, a warrior capable of wielding magic swords used to slay Dragons, the warrior tells you of the Dragons which did this vile act, and then, overcome by his wounds, dies before you as well. Angry with the Dragon for killing your sister, and burning down your village, you take the Dragon Valor’s magic sword and hunt him down. Through two choices, one in the first chapter, and, if you choose a certain path in the first chapter, one in the second chapter, you determine who shall be your descendants, for you, the player, to control in the following chapters. The story changes depending on the path you take, but no matter which of the three paths you take, you’ll end up fighting the same foes in the last two chapters. As said, it’s a solid story, but nothing special, however, unlike a lot of games I prefer, the story isn’t this games strong point. Note that I won’t spoil much of what goes on later, but there are a lot of different story elements later on, depending on what path you take, from your kingdom being overthrown by rebels, to a quest for riches by a thief who’d lost the only person who cared for him, sometimes some of the chapters are great when it comes to story, but unfortunately, some aren’t quite as good. Does have a good little moral at the end of the game though.

Graphics: 8.0

Again, nothing really special here, the graphics are all right, however, there isn’t anything much that really stands out with the graphics, though, I must admit, some of the enemies do look extremely nice. Some of course, look crud, but that’s to be expected. The designs of your characters are good, but how they actually look in the game is yet again, average. The landscapes are also above average though, a lot of them looked really good, in my opinion. Also, I do admit that the introduction is extremely well made and it does look fantastic. Finally, there is the art, which can be viewed in the art gallery, unlockable at the end of the game, and more art being added each time you finish a different path, while some of the things in here are just sketches, and earlier character ideas which don’t look very special, some of the final art is wonderful, very nice to look at, that’s really what brings this game’s graphics up to an 8, a 6.5 being what it would be if I didn’t include art in the Graphics score.

Sound and Music: 8.5

The music in this game is one of its strong points, all the tunes fitting in exceptionally well with whenever they’re played, and sounding extremely nice at the same time. Heck, sometimes I just like to sit and listen to the music, instead of playing. However, the sound effects aren’t anywhere near as good as the music, a lot of the effects sounding cheap, or just plain bad, and I’ve yet to find one of the characters sounds (Grunts and such forth) actually fit the character, they all just sound bad.

Gameplay: 9.0

And now finally, we get into the nitty gritty of this game, I’d like to state, that while this game may be titled as an RPG, it isn’t even close. Sure, it has RPG elements in it, but heck, it’s an action game through and through, makes me reminisce about the days when I played Golden Axe and Streets of Rage on my good old Genesis, the only console in my opinion, better than the Master System…But, anyway, back to the actual game. As said, it’s an action game, with a few RPG elements, and a few puzzles thrown into the game, none really that hard as to give you worries. You control things by of course, using your control pad, having buttons for various things, menu, attack, jump, that sort of thing, however, using certain combinations you can use quite a wide variety of moves, and in addition to that, as you progress through the game, you learn various magic spells, eight of them, all of which can be upgraded to a certain level depending on what path you take. Some magic spells are better than others, such as Heal, but they all have their uses at times, and make the game a lot more enjoyable.

There are also the shops in this game, some only allowing you to buy items, some only allowing you to sell, and some only allowing you to trade. Sometimes doing this will net you a bit more cash to use at other stores, to either buy other items, or healing potions, or whatever, sometimes it’ll just net you good items to either trade or sell later on, or items to improve your stats. And on the note of improving stats, the way to improve your character is simple, instead of forcing you to fight enemies to improve yourself, you collect various items, from simple chalices, scrolls, gems and various other things to improve strength, HP and MP, from Pendants, bracelets and the like, most of which can be challenging to get, which improve stats like defence, fatigue time, and the like. Finally, we get to the levels themselves, most of them are well made, and are fun, the stages getting harder as you progress, and there designs looking, for the most part, excellent. Unfortunately, some of them really suck, and suck hard. But eh, that’s to be expected.

Fun Factor: 9.0

This game is quite a fun little game in my opinion, but that of course, depends on what you’re looking for. A deep and meaningful game taking at least 40 hours to complete the first time this is not. It’s fun for most of the game, only a few times the game becoming a slight chore (One dungeon sticks in mind), but other than that, its great. And not only is it fun, but your able to put it down most times, save your game, and come back to it at a later date, whenever you’ve got ten to half an hour free.

Replayability: 7.5

As I said earlier, there are three separate routes you can take in this game, giving you as many as three play throughs, if your only going to play through each route once. I myself have finished each of the routes a couple of times, picking up this game in my spare time and having a play. Each play through takes about 12 hours, maybe a little more or less, depending on how good you are. It does get a tad bit boring if you play it constantly over and over again, but eh, that’s the same with anything.

Challenge: 5.0

This is a bit of a disappointment in my opinion, anybody with quick reflexes and a quick mind will be able to storm through this game with very few problems, Heck, I can beat most, if not all, bosses without getting hit. But that’s just me. To the average gamer, this would pose a small problem, a few of the parts being very annoying, but most of it being fairly easy. If you want an extreme challenge, go get something else.

Overall: 8.5

I give this game a solid 8.5, this game being one of my favourites. While some parts of it are lacking, the parts that aren’t more than make up for it, and provide an entertaining game, one which a casual gamer can pick up and put down at ease. My advise would be to rent it, try it out for yourself, as a lot of people don’t like it, form your own opinion, then either buy it, continue to rent it, or return it. I bought it myself, and I find it a much more satisfying purchase than Final Fantasy 7, or a lot of these hyped up games. Heck, the only PSX games I prefer over Dragon Valor are Tactics Ogre, Bomberman and the Megaman games. I hope this review helped you.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/20/03