The retro movement is alive and well in videogames and Dragon Fantasy Book II is the latest in what is planned to be a long line of RPGs for Playstation 3 and Vita.
Muteki’s E3 demo centered around showing off the multiple storyline aspect of Book II, which evolves the graphical presentation and gameplay up to the 16 bit generation of RPGs, taking cues from the more dynamically designed battle systems of Chrono Trigger and the Mana series.
Dragon Fantasy 2‘s combat occurs in real time, as you explore. This means that unlike static turn based, closed off fights that still tend to make up gameplay in the majority of RPGs of that particular generation, fights in Book II can involve numerous enemies, as more and more jump into the fray.
Still, even though the way battles unfold is rather inventive and unique, taking into account the style of games Dragon Fantasy Book II attempts to emulate, the core RPG system is as deep as you could expect from a J-RPG of that era. Exploiting enemy weaknesses is paramount, and much like games like Pokémon, the same can happen to you if you happen to be ganged upon by monsters.
One particular chapter showed off in the demo involved a shipwrecked sailor who washed up on a deceptively deserted island. Jokes ensue, not only in the dialog writing, but also in the form of enemy designs. The humor didn’t come off as obvious or tiring, much unlike a vast array of retro -themed games these days.
Dragon Fantasy Book II is set for a 2014 release as a crossbuy game for Vita and Playstation 3 and will also include online multiplayer, which unfortunately was not part of the E3 demo, but sounds epic, regardless. Epic!
