Reviews

Dragonbane II

January 21, 2002

I was very impressed with the quality of the graphics and the engrossing storyline. After a conversation with the ruler of the realm, I learned that the evil Kra’an and his followers have returned to trouble the peaceful citizens of Treleon, and that it is up to me and a band of companions I recruit to end the threat. And the game just gets more interesting from there— after recruiting a dwarven fighter, a couple of wizards, and a thief for my party, I explored the town and its environs, ran into quite a few nasty creatures in the wilderness surrounding the town, and gained experience, gold, and equipment to help me in my quest. Movement is stylus-based, and thank goodness there’s an automapping function available so that you won’t get too lost in the rather large environment. You can also save your game whenever you would like, so that you can come back to your adventure later when you have to leave it. That’s very important, as this game is not the sort of thing that you can finish in one sitting— the quest itself is large, not to mention the time you’ll have to spend leveling up your characters to ensure that they can handle Kra’an and his followers. Unlike some games for the Palm OS that are meant to enjoyed in one to five minute increments, Dragonbane will keep you entertained for hours and you’ll certainly get your money’s worth.

If you’ve ever played an RPG game, all of these elements should be familiar to you. If you haven’t, then you might want to give Dragonbane II a try. It isn’t so intimidating and hard to learn as some of the PC and console-based games, and you just might find yourself caught up in the story and unable to put down your handheld! Especially since the combat system and magical spells are so easy to use. As you can see in the screenshot to the left, you choose what each of your companions will do during battle, and then the turn is played out with the results scrolling across your screen. If you defeat your opponents in that round, you receive your reward and continue your adventure. If you don’t, you have the choice of either repeating the same commands (saving a lot of time & screen taps) or trying something different. Be advised though that Dragonbane II does take up a lot of memory on your handheld— 1.4MB to be precise, though there are slightly smaller versions available if you aren’t willing to give up all of the space that the 256 color version requires. And while you can’t keep the game’s databases on an external memory card, it is possible to put the game itself there, saving 175K of RAM.

This new version is a remarkable improvment over the first— better graphics, a more interesting storyline, and the ability to plug in new adventures due to the open architecture. While there aren’t any expansion packs available now, once can assume that it’s only a matter of time. If you’re a fan of the RPG genre of games, then you need to try Dragonbane 2 for yourself. You can get a demo or purchase a license for $26.95 at the developer’s web site.

PocketGoddess rating for Dragonbane II:

All content copyright 2001 - 2007 PocketGoddess.com
XHTML | CSS | RSS | 508