"It's fun, but the Combo Beat system isn't utilized well at all"

Draglade is another overlooked Atlus game, and its a good game but I'm torn if this one is great or not. There are 4 characters to play with, each having there own story but pretty much the same game aside from some dialogue and about three fights. I played through with the water hero and enjoyed the game but there's a lot lacking here.

First off the focus on the combo beats are well pretty much a mute point. The bonus of hitting the beat well only leads to a title (just badges to inspire you to keep playing) and a few extra bucks after winning. This might be a little inspiring except you can easily coast through the game without ever visiting a shop.

The shop is used to buy Bullets which are simply special moves, or status afflictions to others and yourself. I'm sure there are plenty of useful bullets but unless your collecting (you can use bullets from one character's journey in another's if not equipped) you really only need 4 tops. The 4 being a heal bullet to cheat death, an attack up bullet to boost attack, an armor up bullet to last longer in fights, and the Wind tackle bullet which can sometimes break defences as well as easily dispose of the turtle enemies.

So that leaves us where? The musical combos are useless, badges are just extra stuff to do and unless you're collecting everything currency is worthless. Not to mention each town is simply goto the "G Hall" (See Pokemon Center) and win the qualifier matches (3 of them, never offer challenge until the final one). The rest of the game is broken up into Beat em up stages and useless NPC dialogue ("I'm from Blingsville")

Thats the shortcoming of it, the positive is that its a unique RPG that plays like a fighting game. Battles are fun except for one fight thats considered the final boss although appearing at the 90% mark in the story and not at the end. It can easily be considered a very fun game, and each of the four characters play very differently (The thunder character reminded me of Ryu from Street Fighter personally)

Draglade is a game that will keep you interested briefly for a good 4-5 hours, and thats it. Yes it has a lot of replay value but gamers not looking for that will not be impressed and overly disappointed. Its worth playing but not worth breaking your neck trying to find it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/22/08

Game Release: Draglade (US, 12/04/07)