gametime: ~7hrs.
complete 14%
level 18

after getting home from school and settling back into my room, i became quite bored. so on the way home from work yesterday i said why the hell not go rent a game. this would be my second attempt to try and rent silent hill 3. my first attempt was back in february after my car died. i went down to the semi-local movie gallery to rent it.... but they didn't even have the game to begin with.

for this attempt, it was merely rented out before i got there. sigh, i sounded to myself as i stared at the box sitting on the shelf. so what should i rent instead and as i browsed through the g's and h's it struck me. 'oh yeah.. drag-on dragoon.. that one squaresoft ps2 game i haven't played, yet i've heard that it sucks, why the hell not.. i mean, it's squaresoft, therefore must have some redeemable qualities'. and what luck, it's in stock. yuh huh... luck.

after i got home and made some food, i was ready for gaming. my dirty ps2 took a couple of minutes to recognize the cd. i ate some of the eggs i made and watched the opening movie. why its the exact same thing i remember from the internet. and now for gameplay.

gamplay, to put it loosely. i've got to say, this is some of the most narcasistic gameplay i've ever encountered in a square game.. all you do is hit the square button. square square square. square square square. square square square. square square square. square square square. square square square. square square square. square square square. square square square. square square square. square square square. square square square. square square square. square square square. with the occasional triangle. oh, and when you're using the menu you hit X. then square square square. square square square. square square square. square square square. square square square. square square square.

my little brother came in my room a couple and asked if i was still playing the same stage as i was when he came in my room last. 'no' i say, 'this is all the game is'.. 'ah.. can i watch?'

this game plays exactly like the berserk game on the sega dreamcast. instead of arrows you have magic and there's less blood in this game. ugh... boring as hell. i need to find an 8 foot long sword.

the game did keep me enthralled when you start getting more weapons and power them up. the percentage complete is the percentage of different weapons you've found in the game. theres the long sword, short sword, hammer, spear, lance, mace, axe, and another type i don't remember at the moment. you can equip any 8 weapons at once and then switch between them in battle. each specific weapon has it's own levels and experience.

though the fact that each weapon has a level cap at 4 killed my enjoyment once again when my tiny sword with high magic powers capped it's level early on in the game. it's still my most powerful weapon too, and since it's a short sword, it's also the fastest. great. my 'best' weapon has capped at about 10% through the game..... sounds like the level capping of ffx2.

yet another similarity to berserk, this game's main character is pretty dark. he's always pissed off and takes his anger out on his enemies in the battlefield. plus you eventually find a fairy who becomes your 'friend'.

ugh.. i really don't get the point of this game.. it's stupid as hell.. what were they going for?.. all you do is go around killing hundreds and hundreds of enemy soldiers per stage. on average around 400 per stage. there are 2 main aspects of the gameplay. there are caim controlled staged and dragon controlled stages.

when you control the dragon you fly around in the sky lock on other flying enemies, and then blast fire to destroy them. i think independence day on the ps1 had better aviator gameplay than this game.

when you control caim you walk around slaughtering enemies. though, you can also control the dragon on some of these stages as well. you can hit the select button to call your dragon and then hope aboard and have it breathe fire on your enemies. when you do this you almost never get hit. you're an easy target for archers, and if you shoot enemies with magic protection the fire bounces off and hits you, but there are rarely any of these enemies around unless it's in the stage design. breathing fire on your enemies usually takes more than one hit. so you usually have to fire, turn around, fire again, turn around and fire again. so even though they are defenseless in the first place, the game designers thought it would be some kind of annoying justice that you have to tediously go back and forth in order to get everyone on the ground.

anywho, when you control caim on the ground all you do is hit square square square, square square square, square square square, square square square, square square square, square square square, square square square and then you win.

all the enemies in this game are basically the same model. there's the soldier, fat soldier, elite soldier, skinny soldier, and archer. plus a couple different mini bosses, including horseriders and soldiers with capes. and thats about it. the soldiers have either gray regular armor, black strong armor, or red magic armor. there's been one stage in the forest where i've fought imps. and then end of the desert chapter i fought wraiths.

and JUST recently as i was going through a side quest, the point of the battle was to slaughter all the children in the stage. great game. as you kill the kids, they scream too all while your ally in your party pleads with you to stop.

yep, i think i've learned just about all i'm going to from this game. i don't think there's anything in this game worth experiencing, or worth seeing, or worth anything ... in other words.. this game is worthless. almost as bad as the bouncer, ALMOST.. except the bouncer had a two player mode. plus, the bouncer is silly when it's trying to be serious.. drag-on dragoon is just boring.. boring and sad.

oh well, i'm glad i rented it. now i know. i know that it is terrible. i know how terrible it is. and i know how terrible a game can be.

anywho, i've got the game 'til next thursday morning. i have no idea how much furher i'll get. maybe if i could find another tv and set it up next to this tv so i'll have something to do while i play the game.