This draft has been sitting here for awhile, because honestly I don’t know how to go about this post. I like to think I know about old video games, and this one I had no clue about until a friend was talking about it and I found it interesting so I checked it what. I was honestly surprised when I played this, because it is one awesome RPG, and that is not something I say about RPGs often.
The Title Screen
Now I suppose before we go into this I feel I need to touch on what I think about RPGs. Don’t get me wrong I like RPGs, it is just I don’t get though to many, those games have to be very good to get me to play for quite sometime, and this RPG happened to be one of them.
I think the thing that made this one click for me is the battle system. The battle system is simple, yet addicting. This is a hard thing to do and this game just pulls it off. As the title suggests it is like the Ys battle system, turned based. The curve ball here is that the Ys battle system was running into enemies, yes running into enemies, thats it. How Emerald Dragon gives it a spin is the turned based part, and it made it more interesting. How it works at a basic level is that you are given a bar each turn that drains when you walk and attack and whatever. That is about it in a shell, and I think that is enough; it gives enough to that it doesn’t get boring quite fast and doesn’t seem to simple. The only other thing is that your main character is a dragon turned human due to a plot point and as you collect these items throughout the game you can use your dragon powers for a piece of your health. You also don’t control any of your other party members, which can suck, I don’t mind it though. The other party members are smart enough and do a good job of keeping up healing or attacking or whatever they do. I don’t find anything wrong with it I don’t mind just controlling the one character. It really helps the battles go quicker only having to worry about your one character because the game is over only if he dies and you don’t have to think about what to do with the other party members.
Not to say that there are not problems with the battle system. There are some areas you just can’t wait to get out of because of the monsters in there. Monsters can have annoying as hell effects like freezing people, and stuff of that sort. It isn’t bad most of the time, because if your smart you will be fine, though there can be times where you just get pwned. It could be a balance issue, I didn’t find it to be much of a problem but its there. Also equipment and level matter a bit more than they should. What I mean by this is what with a new weapon or a higher level makes more of a difference than it should. Not really a big deal for me, but it can be annoying at times and some people might not like it.
What a normal battle looks like
The story for the game is also really good. Myself not being a fan of fantasy fell in love with the story. It doesn’t fall into the generic story thing like most other RPGs do, they ideas seem fresh even today. Or even when it is generic which does happen now again it does not feel stale or over used, which is a hard thing to do. I don’t really want to go into the story because you should just play the game. There is something really interesting with it is that when major plot things happen your other party members level up because of them. Only your two main characters level up the normal way of getting exp every battle, for all your other party members (who leave and come back, and die quite a bit) get levels though story events, which is a really cool idea and works really well. There are also a lot of twists and turns that happen though out the game, which games now a day just don’t see to do anymore. Some of it can be seen coming, but others just come out of the blue. Again this brings up another flaw the game has, it can be annoying that your other party members won’t level up until something in the plot happens. Though it can be overlooked, because it is an interesting concept.
The game has quite a bit of length too it as well. Though it goes by fast because of the battle system and the story doesn’t drag on like in other RPGs. There is a huge world to wonder about, quite a few dungeons, a good amount of side things to do. The big set of side quests is taking in all of the gambling girls (who are dressed in bunny girl outfits) to various casino like games. If you win you get some really nice item for one of your female characters. If you loose you loose a good sum of money, which sucks because money is hard to come by and things cost a lot…kinda like Phantasy Star II. Though if you play your cards right, you don’t really have to grind all that much if at all.
Overall Emerald Dragon is a hidden gem, very few people seem to know about the game since it isn’t main stream at all and not a loud cult hit like Shin Megami Tensei. Still it has a fan translation so it is playable without much effort. With its unique battle system and story it is something worth a play though, why play the same type of RPG; break out, try a different one like Emerald Dragon.
A part from the opening, before your human and all of that