Dragon Destiny (6.9Mb)
Dragon Destiny is an almost lost but certainly not forgotten 2D RPG with a strong puzzle element, from way back in 2002. The game’s author Rast is often noted for his ‘Bob’s Big Adventure’ RPG, though in fact Dragon Destiny is by far the better game. It had the distinction before the Laxius Power trilogy HERE, of having the longest map of any RPG of the time. It gives a good 30 - 40 hours of excellent gameplay. Rast was mooted to have started a sequel Dragon Destiny II but unfortunately military matters (Navy?) have kept Rast otherwise occupied. The game website was deleted by Rast (for whatever reason) and it is very fortunate indeed that there is a lone download link to preserve the game. I had hoped to post this last week but other pressures have delayed my writing the review practically from scratch, having not so far played right through the game.
The game starts off with you having little gold and few means initially to obtain more. Your aim is to become Dragon King of the Empire - and thence to save - the whole World. It is notably difficult to gain experience points (most battles don’t add to your experience points) throughout the game, sometimes making battles and subsequent battles difficult. There are 17 bosses to overcome on your quest, two of whom you encounter more than once, making 22 boss encounters in total. There are numerous side quests and hidden secrets alongside the main quest, with some good mini-games to play as well. The logic puzzles are excellent and when you (often!) are going to get stuck trying to solve these, you can consult very comprehensive html manual in the game’s txt folder, at the extraction location. The manual contains a guide, a much needed list of main quest way points, hints for tackling the various bosses and a partial solution to the logic puzzles, together with a general strategy outline for some aspects of gameplay.
On the trickier side, you can find yourself in battles with some very difficult monsters, with no easy way round without a lot of back-tracking. More advantageously, there is a lot of replay value as there are many branching points in the game, where you can try different routes with a ‘What if I tried something else?’ and see how the game then pans out.
The game is unusual and interesting, with many great ideas for the plot and logic puzzles, but extremely difficult at times, which is probably intended from the outset! You can get yourself into all sorts of trouble within five minutes of starting to play. It is very easy to get where there are unbeatable monsters and die! Most shops have the same or similar items, and money is (mostly!) acquired by trading with merchants. You do need to spend a fair (perhaps unfair?) amount of time in towns and cities trading. There is a Casino though, where with luck eg playing poker, you can increase your money considerably, or suffer the not inconsiderable set-back of losing a fair amount of hard earned lolly!
Experience is acquired only a few times during the game at Dragon Shrines which somewhat improve your experience statistics and also ‘improve’ the appearance of characters (from human to dragon). You would probably have to very much over-push yourself to attempt the whole game without consulting the manual for hints or cheats at least a few times (- probably many times!). The endless maze, with a vast area of one-directional paths is one of the harder puzzles, as is a ‘Rubik’s Cube’ type puzzle, late on in the game. There are a lot of puzzles with varying degrees of difficulty; some are really very difficult, though of course you’ve the option to check the manual for help with any particular puzzle! And, thankfully, if you mess up a puzzle there is a reset button to start you up back at your last checkpoint.
To become the next ruler of the Empire you must complete the quests ordered by the mayor and the previous king. You cannot sail a ship or boat across water, but some places can be reached after some time when you have the right spell, for example: light, climbing, and long jump. Paths leading to forests and mountains are full of mazes, and this thankfully terribly hinders monsters -when there are not a lot of drinks around, it is really hard to heal yourself. There’s a day/night system operating during the game.
One very original feature is, well - in the game are two ‘books’ that you read, the effect of which causes your hero to becomes entangled in the story in the book, with puzzles you must solve in order to get out of the book fantasy. One is a crime (murder is .... aaah, better not tell, I’ll let you guess!) Each of the book’s stories can go several ways depending on what you choose - your reward depends upon a correct or incorrect solution to the puzzles therein.
To play mini-games you don’t have to go through the whole game. Rather than follow the main path of the story, you can also fire up the game and have fun at the Casino or at the World Martial Arts Championship (and this likens to Pokémon.) You can gather 20 eggs when hiking (at locations given in the manual!), which hatch creatures bred for fighting. Teams up to four creatures can be trained and then fight for 10 rounds to get some of the best equipment in the game. Similarly, in the Casino - blackjack, poker and slot machines allow you to win tokens, which you can later use to buy better/ the best equipment, as you can afford.
Most surprising is the fact that after finishing the game proper, you can play on and discover the other secrets, and there are a few - Monster Island and the Programmer's Room for instance. The island has the last picture it takes to complete a special quest (you need to find 10 images of drawings by famous cartoonists of dragon fantasy fame). You can tour all the cottages on the island and check every picture on the walls. In the second place you can buy at a special store all items from the game, and additional items that you didn’t even know nor suspect existed! You can also fight one more time, your choice, with every boss fight.
The game’s quest is a good excuse to explore the whole (very large) Kingdom. There are many very cool tunes to accompany your travels and sound effects where relevant. The games graphics are fine overall - and sometimes great; - a remake is in progress with much upgraded graphics by a different author. (Given the huge size of the game map, this remake is taking a long time in the making.)
The game‘s story and puzzles could be more easily accessible and better enjoyed perhaps (?) with more gold at the start of the game, which would reduce necessary trading time considerably, but this is just (IMHO) a personal opinion. Many of you will probably enjoy the trading aspect anyway! And there's some great humor in the game!
It’s a game that’s very worthy of being posted (and kept!) for the wider gaming community to enjoy.
I very much recommend this game, - especially if you like RPG games of this type!
Download HERE - Scroll down to 'Dragon Destiny' in bold type - this is the download link.
RPG Maker RTPe Run Time Files - If needed HERE
