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  • Drakkhen - by Lord Nazerous

    Introduction:

    When the Dragons were destroyed, a New World was born. But the Humans may be destroyed... The Humans failed to heed the gods' advise and wiped out the Dragons. So the gods made a New World, one for the Drakhen; half Human, half Dragon. The new Drakkhen Island World was divided into four parts. They were Earth, Fire, Air, and Water. Each area is ruled by two Drakkhens. The human world is in danger of being destroyed by the Drakkhen. But the gods have granted the Humans a final chance for survival!! They will be spared if they can collect the "Eight Tears" on Drakkhen Island. Drakkhen is a 1-player RPG hybrid. It's an RPG, but it has a very different type Game Play. The entire game is in the First-Person perspective, and you play as the same Four characters through-out the game.

    Graphics [6/10]:

    The graphics look pretty old and dated. But there are some ideas in the graphics of this game, that have grown into the graphics today. Drakkhen's Game Play is played through the First Person Perspective. As you play the game you'll notice the Sun rising and setting, the amount of light is always changing, weather in night or day. It simulates an actual day, and also uses the properties of Perspective. (A tree will look smaller from ten feet away, then it does from two feet) While these features were not needed, they add a little mood to the game, and have paved the way to the new graphics used today. When battles begin, your four characters appear on the screen... While the characters don't look bad and retain a realistic look, they lack detail. The same goes for the enemies, they look ok..but not really great. As for the land around your characters, well it has the same look as the characters..it goes for realistic, but doesn't have enough detail. But on a high note, there is no slow down that I could detect.

    Music and Sound [7/10]:

    The music was composed very well. The only problem I have with it is that the 'instruments' used to make the music sounds a little old and choppy. But don't let that turn you off (It was from 1991 after all :) The music is really great, I've come to really enjoy it..almost as much as Final Fantasy III!!!!! The sound consisted of the usual grunts of enemies, clanks and clicks as well as a couple of magic spell sounds. There really isn't much to look for in the Sound FX.

    Game Play [9/10]:

    Drakkhen is an addictive and fun game to play..although I'm not too sure why. First off you can start a game by either random character creation or opting to create your own characters. When making your characters you can Select their class, Fighter, Magician, Priest, and Scout. Then you can assign attributes to them. i.e. strength, intelligent, ect. And lastly you get to pick what Gender (Male, Female) and their name! You then start off on your journey. The game is played in the First Person perspective, with character portraits at the bottom of the screen. When your attacked (Randomly outside of castles) your four characters appear from the bottom of the screen and begin to fight automatically. You can control one character, and can choose what weapons or magic you will use against an enemy, or on your allies. In castles you must explore, fight, and gain information, to collect all of the Eight Tears. Although there is no character development there is a pretty good story line. This game isn't about the characters, it's about the world of Drakkhen.

    Challenge and Replay [7/10]:

    The game can be difficult..if you want it to be. There's almost impossible enemies out side of castles to fight. Huge Dragons, Evil Spirits can all be ran away from, or fought. You don't need to be high in level to beat the game..but some "Warriors" out there will want to be able to buy and beat everything possible in the game. Or if you would like, only fight the enemies you can easily beat..you'll still be able to beat the game. The replay is pretty good if you want to explore the entire Island World of Drakkhen. There's those hard enemies to fight, and secrets to be found. But other than that there isn't much to bring a person back to Drakkhen.

    Conclusion/Overall [7.3/10]:

    Drakkhen is a pretty good RPG Hybrid. There aren't many RPG's out there like this. The Graphics aren't all that great, and the sound, is a little old but Game Play is great! This games reminds me of a PC game that came out in 1993 called "Betrayal at Krondor". While Drakkhen is not nearly as good, it is very reminiscent of it. Any one who really loved Betrayal at Krondor owes it to themselves to check this game out. (Which was released in 1991.) And one last note is..well to take NOTES. Drakkhen uses lots of terms and names and there isn't a lot of ways to get the same information twice. (Well ok there is but it's annoying.) Take notes on where your going to, the name of any important people, and just about anything.


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