Dragoneer's Aria
The game starts out simply enough with a fantasy setting and plot involving a world filled with dragons. There is a twist afoot and you'll quickly notice that humans and dragons coexist in a manner that seems symbiotic. You see, years ago the evil dragon killed the good dragon. Thusly the good dragon split apart into several other ones who worked with humanity to destroy evil. Fast forward some time later and the evil dragon has returned, leaving the fate of the world resting on the shoulders of a recently graduated dragoon known as Valen Kesslar.
In many ways Valen is your typical role-playing game hero and in his shoes you'll be off looking for more stereotypical party members and slogging through one bit of plot exposition after another. Throughout the game there are few moments where the story really shines and even fewer where you'll feel surprised by something. What's more is the game can be kind of droll with very little personality. This doesn't help matters especially when you take problems in other areas of the game into consideration. As any RPG fan will tell you; this spells trouble.
Gameplay
Aside from the story, I have always felt that a role-playing game lives and dies by its combat system. If the title features an amazing and innovative design that promotes an addictive playing experience then it's going to be a success. In Dragoneer's Aria's case it unfortunately suffers immensely in this department.
Right from the start when you're first thrust into the environment to explore you'll notice something kind of funny. The enemies all appear as floating eyeballs with nondescript details and little to give way as to what you're going to fight. At first this may seem simply annoying but as you get further into the game you'll find yourself frustrated as you fight against opponents that you didn't want to. I know that sounds kind of silly, especially because random encounters are a huge part of RPGs, but the thing is, in this case they aren't completely random. You can initiate the battle and without knowing what's staring you down you never know what you're getting yourself into.
To make matters worse once you get into battle the system in place is not intuitive, original, or fun. The battles in Dragoneer's Aria are turn-based which means you and the nasty monster in front of you will be swapping spots beating the crap out of each other. The problem is twofold really. For starters the combat system simply just moves very slowly. It really chugs along and fights that should be over in a matter of seconds get drawn out to last for minutes. The next biggest flaw with the battle mechanic is the Mana system.
Now, you all should know from your RPG Bible that Mana is essentially something associated with magic. In the case of Dragoneer's Aria it takes on a similar role though technically speaking it is most notable as part of a skill system. On paper your character's special abilities burn up some Mana points in order to be cast. Seems easy, right? Well, once you take into consideration that you can only earn Mana by performing actions in battle you'll notice before too long that it takes a painful amount of time to stock up on Mana.
This cultivating of Mana points feels very, um, pointless, when you get right down to it. You can only ever have as much as ten Mana in your pool and it makes your better techniques virtually useless because you'll hardly ever get the chance to use them. This means you're going to spend most of your time in the battle system waiting for the game to speed up and utilizing your regular attacks. Now, just imagine what happens when you need Mana to heal your party after you get attacked. That's fine, right? Now imagine that you can't target the whole party with a healing spell. Yeah, it gets a tad frustrating to say the least.
As much as I am bitching about the Mana system I do have to say that it is unique. The mechanic adds a lot of strategy to an otherwise generic game and as you become accustomed to the system you'll be able to exploit it more thoroughly. Getting to that point, however, will take a while. With the slow pace of the game and the daunting amount of grinding that you have to do you'll at least have plenty of practice in battle.
Aside from the weak and frustrating battle system Dragoneer's Aria is a very standard role-playing game. Exploring environments, going through the equipment menu, and creating items are just a few examples of the staples we have come to expect. There was very little that stood out as decent here amongst the sea of other titles on the market. However, the PSP is a fine platform for RPGs and if you find yourself looking for one to rent there are worse selections. You just have to be ready to deal with a lot of annoying things while you slog your way through this story.
Graphics
Ok, first of all I want to say that Dragoneer's Aria's character designs are phenomenal. With artwork from Korean sensation Juno Jeong the personalities in this game certainly come to life from a creative standpoint. Unfortunately the game falters when actual presentation comes into play.
The wonderful looking characters animate stiffly and you get no sense of life from them. There is a high pixel count so there is plenty of detail at play here, especially for a PSP title, but the game rarely utilizes them. Environments are another sore spot thanks to their blandness and lackluster sheen, so don't be surprised if you begin to yawn while you explore them. Probably the biggest flaw with the game's presentation is the fact that the load times are very lengthy. This is the reason combat chugs along and it also pauses the game quite a bit while it gets the next moment ready for you. Overall the game features some rich artwork but falls flat in almost every other category.
Sound
A step up from the graphics here is the sound. The original Japanese dub is included though I actually found the English language track to be even more suitable. The voice actors handle the material well enough and breathed some life into otherwise dull characters. The sound effects are RPG standard with very little out of the ordinary and the soundtrack is wholly forgettable.
Conclusion
Dragoneer's Aria is a flawed Japanese style role-playing title that simply can't compete with the rest of the genre. The loading times hurt the flow of the game, the Mana system is entirely not user friendly, and the presentation leaves one wanting. In the end I was utterly under whelmed by the game. There are many things that it does right but these nuggets of goodness are average at best when compared to its competition. Someone starving for an RPG may want to give this one a rental but everyone else can just skip it.