Before I begin, I'll preface this by saying that I don't give arbitrary numbers to things - what you see is what you get. These two games did a good job at conveying Muteki's idea of paying tribute to the 80s and 90s RPGs their games are modeled after, but fell short too often for comfort. That said, they're worth the time and money, despite the occasional headaches. Both games are available on PS3 and Vita - crossbuy and crosssave - and have a future on the 3DS! My metareview, as it were, will be split between the two games, then with some overall critical and favorable reactions afterward.
Book 1
A game set in the ways of Dragon Quest and its ilk, this title focuses on main character Ogden - a formerly-retired knight tasked back into service because of the evil forces that threaten the kingdom of Westeria. Crafted after the father of the series' creator, Ogden meets a variety of other characters throughout the game's canon, including Prince Anders of Westeria, Woodsy (appropriately-named woodsman), thief Jarald of Sandheim, and his niece Ramona. This first game is split into 3 chapters, with a Minecraft intermission at the end, stepping out of canon and paying tribute to Notch and his fedora of legend.
Style-wise, the game appears and functions like Dragon Quest and Dragon Warrior, with 8-bit graphics and sound (changeable recently to 16-bit for both), with overworld maps, towns, NPCs, and front-facing battles. The game feels far more nostalgic and 'correct' being played in 8-bit, and while the 16-bit graphics invoke another kind of nostalgia, the 16-bit sounds grate on me harshly. I often found myself combining 16-bit visuals with 8-bit sound and reveling in the irony of it all, but did return to the older graphics permanently toward the end of the game.
Music composed for the game sounds significantly better in the NES synth style, given the original intent of Book 1, plus the fact that the SNES-esque sounds of the 16-bit option sound like little more than MIDI files with iffy rendering. Disappointingly, music in the game does not loop properly, and instead has a noticeable gap between loops. Even after excusing the subpar 16-bit sounds, not having proper looping broke nostalgic immersion for me.
Gameplay, however, was refreshingly better, as the battle system seemed more polished, and the variety of abilities made for more experimentation. It was frustrating to have single-character parties in the game for so much of the time, but games need to remain true to their stories, so I can't judge that too harshly. Writing in the game was especially enjoyed, with wit and rhetoric thrown in where appropriate. It seemed that characters and NPCs were cast individually, and the game maintained continuity across its actors. Reading books throughout the game was amusing, and having each reading event be entirely different was a treat. Bits and pieces of story were dropped in when needed, and other vittles, such as repeated 'PorkCo' advertisements were humorous without being annoying. Big kudos to the Muteki writing staff for making this aspect of the game as enjoyable as it was!
Despite Book 1 carrying out its intent well, being a game that pays tribute to 8-bit RPGs of yore, I don't feel it ventured out of its comfort zone enough. Yes, the story was somewhat unique in form, but gameplay mechanics closely copied those of many of the NES RPGs it riffed on, improving few, if any. The graphics were appropriate, but the sound is forgettable - in fact, I can't remember any tracks from the game offhand. The fact that songs couldn’t loop properly irked me probably more than it should have, but the game’s illusion was quickly broken by quality missteps.
Book 2
There’s no question: I adore 16-bit-era games far more than their predecessors, and from the moment I experienced Book 2’s title screen, relief washed over me. Immediately I was welcomed by a familiar graphical style, but more striking, even, was Dale North’s soundtrack, already leaps and bounds better than I felt Book 1 mustered. Also apparent was the lack of chapters to choose from on the title screen; the only appropriate option for me was ‘New Game’.
Jumping in right away, the game’s visual style immediately screamed CHRONO TRIGGER!, and that most certainly isn’t a bad thing. Despite me only playing that game for the first time some 5 years ago, it left a lasting impression that set a very early bar for Book 2 to compete with. For the most part, Muteki did a great job in preserving the Chrono feel, but glitches in the game engine soured the experience - I'll review those in the next section. Past the bizarre glitches that escaped QA even into version 1.02, the game’s visual style was spot on, doing everything it should have. Even attack animations and character expressions were crafted well - something that not all games seem arsed to do.
Music and sound effects in the game improved greatly over Book 1, with no small part being Dale North’s involvement. As previously mentioned, even the title theme became memorable, though, in particular, the battle tracks in Book 2 saw the most improvement. Amusingly, I couldn’t sleep well last night, but found the boss battle theme looping over and over; for me to have an earworm and not be pissed off by it is a fantastic thing. In terms of music looping, though, Book 2 still had the same issue with tracks not seamlessly repeating, though the effect was diminished some. Muteki, if you’re reading this, you need to get that working in a patch for both games, and especially for Book 3.
Battles in Book 2 were, for all intents and purposes, a copy of the Chrono Trigger engine, even down to previewing the area of effects for certain skills. Given that the game’s intent is to tell a new story with an existing style, I have no qualms with this - Muteki did a good job of implementing that into their engine for this game. Outside of the glitches I listed above, battles this time around were fluid and engaging; not every battle was as simple as mashing X to not die. I very much appreciated being able to carry around a full party for over half the game - even if the game didn’t intend for me to do so, such as when Anders and Woodsy were on their split in the storyline, with me being able to head north out of the forest and grab some captured fiends for help. The speed at which the game could be played increased due to this, and it made for more strategic decisions some battle time. New skills, such as Ramona’s ‘Ninja Party’, were awesomely humorous and greatly helpful once you figured out what they all did. Trust me - Book 2 did a FAR better job of naming abilities and spells than Lufia could ever dream of.
Like Book 1, writing throughout the game was excellently executed, both in informational text (books, quest information given by the game) and in dialogue. Characters, once again, retained individual personalities, and they remained likeable throughout the entire run. Unlike Book 1, however, I was left wanting more after the game was done, mostly because of how well the story and its writing played out this time. Rather than being exclusively linear, the game allows for player agency to some degree, creating branching dungeons, choices during the main quest, and even more subquests this time around. I’m told by Anna Marie Privitere, Muteki’s PR coordinator, that the game also includes three dungeons that are completely off the beaten path, entirely optional this time around. I may actually go back and play the game again simply to find and explore them! While I realize that these features were, indeed, new to 16-bit-era games, I’m still very glad that they were implemented, as well as they were.
Overall, I feel Book 2 is far more mature than Book 1 in terms of polish and presentation; the overall experience of the game far surpasses Book 1 in every way. Despite the glitches, the game is well worth the buy!
What happened to QA?
Both games, despite their best efforts, were marred by several user interface and user interaction bugs. As a gamer versed in quality assurance and user interface design, I’m honestly left wondering how so many user-facing bugs can survive even after two series of patching, at least in the case of Book 2. The Chrono Trigger style visuals presented technical issues in both normal character interaction (walking around, interacting, having your party members follow you around) and in battle scenarios. The clipping/flickering of sprites bothered me, but having random characters, including your player character, being moved across the screen due to NPC collisions baffled me how that escaped early play testing. More noticeable and reproducible were the character positions in battle, partly due to how enemies could saunter in in the middle of an existing battle. While that was an excellent addition to the battle system - don’t get me wrong - it added a lot of complexity in how to handle PC and enemy character positions on the field of battle, especially in closed quarters. I found myself fighting enemies way off screen or somehow positioned in the middle of an impassable area, with both enemies and PCs flying across the screen abnormally due to that bug. Even stranger was the issue of starting a battle on one side of the screen, with an impassable area separating me from the other side of the screen, and end up on the opposite side after a battle. Fortunately that didn’t end up in me ever getting stuck, but it’s something that needs to be addressed. Audio not looping properly is something that still affects both games and just should not have been something to patch out later on - it’s a very basic requirement for an RPG, having audio that loops uninterrupted in the background.
Good qualities, passion, and excellent effort make me want to support the series
Dragon Fantasy is an outstanding series despite its flaws, and I applaud Muteki for taking the risks they had to in order to attempt to stand next to the huge titles they’re modeled after. Book 1 and Book 2 are excellent entries, leaving me with the warm fuzzies of nostalgia. As Muteki presses forward with further patches and development on the final game in the trilogy, things will undoubtedly improve - the difference between 1 and 2 was astounding, even ignoring the console generation gap they emulated. MUTEKI - we look forward to seeing you at PAX Prime 2014! Best wishes to you in your future endeavors.
