Dungeons&Dragons:
Shadow Over Mystara
Dungeons&Dragons
was one of America's geekiest gifts to the world. Somehow, the hobby
of hunkering in basements and rolling dice with more side than Vegas
ever intended to see how many imaginary monsters they can kill secured
footholds in countries all over the world. The rise of medieval fantasy-themed
anime owed much to the pen and paper role playing system, and undoubtedly
was inspirational to such long-running RPG series as Final Fantasy and
Dragon Warrior. Ironically, the ur-game of the fantasy boom has produced
some of the suckiest games in history. And don't get me started
on the stupid, meandering, alliterative rip off titles spawned across
systems (Might and Magic, Swords and Serpents, so on.)
So,
I didn't fire up D&D: SoM expecting much. I mostly snagged it after
liking the production art I'd seen in Capcom Design Works. Imagine my
surprise when it turned out to be pretty good.
You
know why it's good? Because it's a Final Fight clone, of all things.
I was expecting it to be a Gauntlet clone or something. It's reminiscent
of the SNES game King of Dragons, or that one about King Arthur. Mystara
also happens to be the SECOND Capcom D&D arcade game; the first
was entitled Tower of Doom. Sure, they try to play it up as more of
a role-playing experience. You get to name your character (which determines
your starting equipment, incidentally) and gather gold/silver pieces
while clobbering goblins and crap. As someone who'd played a few sessions
of the tabletop version, I was pretty impressed/ashamed at how many
semi-obscure creatures that Capcom had stuck in here, notably the Displacer
Beast boss in the forest. According to some research, they even randomized
damage slightly to simulate the rolling of dice. Thankfully they didn't
take it to the extent of a certain popular online game by having you
waltz up to an enemy and swing your weapon at point blank range only
to have a "THOU HAST MISSED" message slapped in your face.
|
I
could have been more creative and not stolen a name from Record
of Lodoss War. Then again, I probably could have done something
other than spend an hour beating a game about Dungeons and Dragons.
SO SAD.
|
The
playable characters represent a variety of stereotypical races and classes
from fantasy proper: A (presumably courageous or some shit) human fighter;
a magic-using elf girl; a brooding magician in dark robes with really
cool hair; a dwarf; a cleric; and a thief. Each one has different properties;
like the fighter's ability to wield any weapon you find, or the mage's
ability to fold up like a lawn chair when something hits him. The controls
are a little aggravating at first, especially the menu system which
is so annoying in and of itself it merits a paragraph break.
I've
yet to encounter a game that can make wading through a menu while a
battle rages on in real time seem doable. Playing as a spellcaster without
a fighter backing you up is annoyingly hard as once you open the menu,
your jump button toggles between items/equipment/spells, and naturally
you can't attack. Spells are a nice variety of devastating and useless
spells. I mean that in the sense that they either blow everything up
or do something stupid. Magic Missile launches homing orbs of death
that are at least good for a knockdown; Invisibility does... nothing.
Final Strike can kill bosses in one shot; Polymorph Other does jack
shit unless you cast it on something wimpy at point blank range. And
so on.
Another,
more positive part of SoM lies in the story branches. There are dozens
of ways to play though the game, varying on choices you make or who
happens to be in the party at the time. The plot might not exactly be
of Final Fantasy proportions, but it works, and hell- it's an arcade
game. Who's going to stand in front of this game for more than
forty hours? Anyone who said 'me,' congratulations; the men in white
are en route to your basement right now, and neither your cardboard
DM shield or your fencing club ribbons are going to help much where
you're going.
It'd
be good to see the D&D fighters re-released to Game Boy Advance
or something since they have definite replay value and can eat up a
good chunk of commuting time. I have my doubts about the original arcade
incarnation; it seems risky enough socially to be playing a D&D
game in an arcade two machines down from Tekken 4 without taking into
account the game lasting at least an hour. Of course, the odds
of a Capcom D&D revival are about as good as them bringing back
Mega Man Legends or a new Guardian Legend title seeing release.
Many,
many kobolds were harmed in the making of this review.
|
Deedlit pauses
for a J-Pop lyric or two.
The elf
indulges her sapphic side with the help of Bigby's Groping Hand. (+2
against bawdyhouse wenches.)
Synn, before she
was elected a Cardinal and dropped an 'n'.
|