Random Gaming Thoughts

[Erik_Twice]

I love Namco. And I love old (proto-)RPGs. But holy crap are The Tower of Druaga and Dragon Buster an absolute chore to play.

How come? I love The Tower of Druaga and given it gets pretty fast a couple stages in, I really can't imagine it being a chore to play.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Tedious repetitive levels, easily missable items in cryptic locals, required memorization...... It's not horrible by any means but I'd much rather play Hydlide or Dragon Slayer - and those aren't exactly stellar either.

[Erik_Twice]

Tedious repetitive levels, easily missable items in cryptic locals, required memorization...... It's not horrible by any means but I'd much rather play Hydlide or Dragon Slayer - and those aren't exactly stellar either.

I think it's kind of unfair to criticize Druaga for having "easily missable items in cryptic locals" when they are the point of the game. It's where the brillance and influence of the game lies, and while I contend it's not for everyone and we are missing the collaborative angle of the arcade, I think it's not a matter of the game being worse for it.

I also don't find the levels repetitive at all, given the enemy layout changes radically on each level and each enemy is heavily differentiated, even amongst different tiers. Haven't found any memorization either.

But hey, I'm a big fan of the game and will defend it whenever possible, specially on a historical context

[Fragems]

Have you checked out the anime they made for it a few years back it's decent. Episode 8 even has a Tower of Druaga arcade cab that the cast gets stuck playing .

Funimation actually has all the episodes for both seasons on Youtube both subbed and dubbed.

episode 1 sub dub

[Erik_Twice]

Have you checked out the anime they made for it a few years back it's decent. Episode 8 even has a Tower of Druaga arcade cab that the cast gets stuck playing .

I did, actually. I like that it's very tense at parts (that fight against the dragon is great), but man, it goes deep into clichéland very fast and fuck the girl protagonist, never liked her anyways.

[ExedExes]

I love Namco. And I love old (proto-)RPGs. But holy crap are The Tower of Druaga and Dragon Buster an absolute chore to play.

Druaga's been defended enough. Dragon Buster's pretty awesome.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Again, I don't think either game is horrible. Just clunky and not nearly as compelling as other arcade games of the era. I am going to make an attempt to (re)beat Druaga and Buster soon for blogging purposes, so I'll give closer attention to both this time around to see if there's anything I missed.

For what it's worth I'd rather play Tower of Druaga than something like Metal Gear Solid V or Until Dawn.

I'm also attempting to play through the respective Tower of Druaga and Dragon Buster series, so perhaps I'll end up enjoying the sequels more.

[Erik_Twice]

You have beaten Druaga despite not liking it? Was it the TG-16 ver or the arcade one? Because beating the latter is quite an achivement!

[BoneSnapDeez]

Arcade via a Namco comp. I'll admit to caving to StrategyWiki a few times.

[Erik_Twice]

Arcade via a Namco comp. I'll admit to caving to StrategyWiki a few times.

Wow, amazing! It's a 1CC too, since it doesn't allow continues, right?

Man, now I'm jealous