Gaming Dragon Warrior VII

[Amphion]

I saw this the other day and I was just wondering if it was worth getting. I have always been a fan of the DW series but I wanted to know if this was any good before I bought it. Is it as good as a FF?

[Twinzam v]

i heard about the game and i hear it is supposed to be good i have also seen screenshots of the game

[Ninjaman]

I don't know if it is good as FF7 since I NOW just started playing that game(don't laugh I'm serious), but it is quite a good game. If you played FF5 with the job system it's almost the exact same thing. And the game WILL definately keep ya busy for a awhile, I haven't beaten the game and I have played it for about 60 hours.

[Charles]

I've heard that this game is about 100 hours in length, so it should keep you busy.

The graphics aren't very good at all, from what I've seen and read. In a world of high res, anti aliased, mip mapped, monsters the visuals will look downright ugly by today's standards. But, if you can't get past that, you don't belong playing rpgs in the first place, heh heh. After all, rpgs were never much to look at until Square created a monster in Final Fantasy VII. Now production values seem to take priority over game mechanics and length. Not so with this game, however. Oh no, on the contrary, this is classic rpg gaming at it's best.

If you're a true gamer, you'll most likely love this one. It was the best selling PSX game in Japan. That speaks volumes.

[Semjaza]

I bought this game the day it came out, and had been waiting for a REAL DW release in America for like 8 years. DW was always my favorite RPG series, ever since Nintendo Power sent me the first one on my NES free for subscribing.

I'd argue that FF7 was the first RPG with great production values... as Seiken Denetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2, if they brought it here), Chrono Trigger, FF3 (FF6 to PSX players) and Star Ocean (NO idea why this wasn't brought to the US) were amazing games in every way. Star Ocean even has songs with vocal tracks, and was one of the best looking 16-bit games I ever played.

However, DW7 can be downright ugly. The character sprites may be detailed, but it's so hard to tell considering how TINY they are. They also sport a whole 3 frames of animation, which is rather pathetic. The towns and dungeons are all pretty blocky, but the game does have some great texture work at times.

The horrible graphics in the outerworld are mostly made up for in the battles though. The monsters you fight are all beautiful 2D sprites, and each have a few different battle animations. The animations are incredibly smooth and detailed.

The story basically revloves around an island called Estard. Estard is the only island in the world at this time. You (a fisherman's son) and your friends (a rich girlfrom your town, and a prince) stumble upon some ruins. Within the ruins are pedestals where you can put map shards in. When a map is completed you are sent to that island in the past. You then do something to save that island and they appear in the present. Making the world larger and larger. There is a lot of going back and forth between time and islands.

Each of the islands stories are pretty good I thought. For some reason I have more of an attachment to the characters in this game than I did in the past few FFs. I wound up feeling for some of the characters in the stories, despite them being rather simplistic.


I also love the music, although I always loved the DW music. Koichi Sugiyama is my favorite Japanese composer by far... way more than Nobuo (FF games). It seems to be midi, but at times it sounds orchestrated...it's very hard to tell.

I'm about 25 hours into the game... And I just now got to the temple that allows you to change your class (there are tons of classes, and mastering each one gives you new abilities). That was about 1/3 through the game in DW3, and it sounds as though I have a LONG way to go. So the 100 hour mark seems reasonable.

This game is NOT for everyone. A lot of people will find it tedious. A lot of people will not get past the ancient graphics and horrible FMV. But there is a lot to do, and I'm liking every minute I've spent with the game. It's certainly worth the 30 dollars.

If you liked any of the Gameboy DW games (not really the Monsters series though) or any Atlus RPGs you'd probably like this.

[Amphion]

I love the job system. I dont expect anything to really be as good as FF7, but if its half as good then it will stil be great. I think I may go ahead and pic it up. Cause like you I am a huge GW fan. thats the only reason I still have an NES hooked up to my TV. Yes I do still play the orignals. Thatnks for the info guys, it helps.

And yes if you cant get by the graphics you dont need to be playing at all.

[Guest Kazuya Mishima]

I just purchased this game last week after hearing great things about it. The graphics are of fairly poor standards, but they shouldnt really put the gamer off it. I am 20 hours into the game and am already into the story, which means I wont be letting go of this one.

Dragon Warrior VII has made a very vast evolution as compared to its NES derivatives, but to be compared to the likes of Final Fantasy VII is not right. FFVII was fully equipped when it made its debut to the Playstation, in graphics and gameplay. Im not saying that there was poor gameplay in DW, but they sure werent better than FF in my opinion.

Dragon Warrior VII is more likely to be in the same category as Golden Sun. They both consist of very plain environments, and the variety of playable characters is very limited. Yet both games share a very advance battle system, consisting of great enemy character designs (which were done by Dragonball's Akira Toriyama :) ), which would easily walk over the FF series, since it seems that Square have lost their touch of originality.

It is a great shame about the music though, it is very nice, and catchy, but it seems to very blocky for its day, rather than a nice smooth on going sound.