Stumbling through Drakkhen

[davidn]

Today, I want to present an experimental short film in which nothing at all happens for 40 minutes. Not really, it's...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al7-W9gd1h8&hd=1

A boring video about a boring RPG, and if you enjoy it then you are a boring person! Actually I could sort of see that this game had some decent ideas, with the dungeons versus the free-roaming overworld and the potential of having to swap between characters to solve puzzles, but the whole thing feels so clunky as to undermine it.

Comments

[pookatimes.livejournal.com]

I actually have that game, as in I genuinely bought the cartridge and played it on an actual SNES. In fact, the cartridge is in my room as I type this.

You got much further than I did, mostly because you did things like equipping and using magic and armour - none of which I knew how to do because I didn't know how.

I barely got past the first ANAK most times; I did eventually get to the snowy land, but didn't end up much further than that. I'd've had many a problem with the clue-less puzzles had I gotten that far; my biggest problem, however, was with the star monsters. Your characters seemed to defeat them easily. Every time I encountered one, my team all died very quickly - I did wonder if the game developers added them in to make the game actually unwinnable.

So, yeah, poor game, badly executed with an awful combat system. Funny, but for all the wrong reasons. I do like the music, though.

[davidn]

I was hugely confused when I was asked to cover this game, because everyone seemed to have owned it growing up and I just couldn't see why it had been so popular! It turns out that people wanted to share the sense of bafflement that the game gives you for the first time. When I uploaded the video I was worried that I wouldn't have covered enough of the game and made a special effort to get somewhere, but it turns out that I actually got further than many people ever did!

I ran away from the star monsters a couple of times, but I really was surprised when my party members were able to defeat one. It must have been the opposite end of the luck scale that led to them being eaten by a giant spider before the tutorial had started.

[crassadon.livejournal.com]

This was a SNES game??!!?

. . .no, no of course it is. The NES can't do 3D graphics of that, caliber. Somehow these graphics look so bad now, that when I watched the video I thought "Huh. . I remembered playing this on a SNES. ."

I also found most of my games ended before getting to the first ANAK. It's quite likely that one or more party members will die against the first enemy. If that happens, it's much more likely that at least one will die against the second encounter. If that happens, then you're not likely to be able to heal your team back up. Once you've gained even just two levels, it's much easier to survive. . . not that anyone truely survives Drakken. . Drakkhen. Drake hen?! @_@

I was also terrified of the star monsters, and found it unbelievable that David could ever get any of them.

[kjorteo]

You know, SNES Shadowrun had a very similarly unfriendly beginning, with an element of "If you can actually survive a new game long enough to make it to your apartment and rest and save, you'll be all right from there ... but good luck with that." The only difference is that Shadowrun is actually a really great game, one of my favorites from growing up even, while Drakkhen ... isn't.