Dragoneer's Aria

Platform(s): PSP
Genre: RPG/Action
Publisher: Nippon Ichi America
Developer: Hit Maker
Release Date: Aug. 21, 2007 (US), Feb. 15, 2008 (EU)

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'Dragoneer’s Aria' (PSP) Coming to Europe - Screens

by Rainier on Nov. 14, 2007 @ 2:07 p.m. PST

A mysterious black dragon suddenly appears and begins destroying the kingdom that Valen resides in. The dragoneers fight back, but are powerless against the black dragon’s fearsome strengths. Valen, who survives the attack, is ordered to protect the elemental dragons and find out what the monster is after.

The world was at peace thanks to the six elemental dragons of fire, water, thunder, earth, wind, and ice. In this world, dragons control both nature and the climate; therefore, they are worshiped by both humans and humanoids as the guardians of the world. Because of their significance, elite knight corps known as dragoneers protect the dragons from harm.

The story begins in the year that Valen graduates from the dragoneer school. A mysterious black dragon suddenly appears and begins destroying the kingdom that Valen resides in. The dragoneers fight back, but are powerless against the black dragon’s fearsome strengths. Valen, who survives the attack, is ordered to protect the elemental dragons and find out what the monster is after. Now Valen must trust and fight together with brave warriors he meets during his journey.

The key to your battle success relies on the dragon orbs. By combining dragon orbs with weapons, your weapon will take on new abilities and status. Unlike many other RPGs, players gain new skills by combining the dragon orbs with their weapons. Dragon Orbs used to power up weapons can be leveled like your player characters. The more you use the dragon orb skills, the stronger it gets. You can power up to a maximum of 10 levels.

“When you can combine the talents of some of the world’s most experienced RPG developers, with the man responsible for the awesome character design in Lineage II and the genius of Johann Sebastian Bach then you clearly have something worth getting excited about. Dragoneer’s Aria is shaping up to be the first essential PSP release of 2008. ” said Will Curley, Sales Manager for KOEI Ltd.

Mana are the magic points of Dragoneer’s Aria. Players can collect Mana points by fighting enemies and use the stored Mana for either magic or dragon orb skills. Some magic and dragon orb skills can be used on the field map which slowly drains mana until you are completly empty or stop their use. Therefore, players must make a diffcult decision whether to use magic for battle or use it to assist their travel adventures.

No more boring field travel and tedious random encounters. Dragoneer’s Aria makes any path worth pursuing, introducing visual enemies and field skills for a slight action flavor in a role playing game. And because you never know what’ll come while you’re playing, Dragoneer’s Aria offers easy access to saves. Character ability plays an important role in DA. Depending on who is leading your team on the field, your team ability changes. For instance one character may have the ability to heal as they walk and if that character is set as the leader, then your entire team takes on that ability.

The concept of a turn based RPG is not new, but DA takes RPG to a new level. With a new turn system that allows players to select the order of each character’s attack, you have better control and a stragetic grasp on battle. In fact, if you wish, you can have all 4 of your characters attack in a row, before the enemy attacks you. This new approach to battle allows players to “chain” attacks that would trigger powerful “Chain Skills”. These special attacks exponentially get stronger if “chained” longer. The maximum number of chains that can be pulled off in a single turn is 4, the same as the number of units on your team.

For Dragoneer’s Aria, there is a whole new way to guard enemy attacks. The ordinary guard is replaced by a rythm based clicking game almost like a music rythm title. Your success rate in this mini game will determine the amount of damage you recieve. Every character in the game has the guard ability, but Valen has a special skill that is a more powerful version of the normal guard.

Normally you will buy new items at a shop or find them in a dungeon. However in DA, you create new items by combining old items together. Combing items can often times add new features, like a poison effect to a sword or unlock new special skills for you to use. On top of all the combinations, you can add the dragon orbs to place extra powers to your newly customized items.

With the ADHOC mode, players can battle the 6 legendary dragons to gain key items that enables you to fight the ultimate evil. The ADHOC mode does not allow you to carry over experience points, but it does allow you to carry over items and money, so you could play over and over to save money and rare items not found in the main story.

Dragoneer’s Aria is set for release on Sony’s PSP across Europe in February 2008.

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