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Could have been great.

It seems that Harmonic has recently released a new game into the RPG Maker world following the popularity of his famous Legacies of Dondoran. Given this, it is time for a new look at one of the most downloaded games on this website to see just what all the hype is about. This review will contain minor spoilers, so beware.

The gameplay begins with many obvious... I'll be polite and call them "homages" to many of the great RPGs of our time; Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, Ultima, and probably others I couldn't identify. We quickly learn that our protagonist, prodigy military strategist Tyranos, is caught in a war with an oppressive and militaristic empire. A bit cliched, perhaps, but it establishes the setting well enough; we can assume that the Empire are the bad guys and we need to fight them without worrying about the details. We join Tyranos and his group of heroes to try to stop the Empire from conquering the Dondoran Alliance while searching for the enigmatic truth about what's really going on in their world.


Balance: 3/5

The enemies in Dondoran are varied and tend to have wide varieties of enemy formations. most formations include enemies with multiple elemental resistances to keep players from merely clearing the entire field of foes with a single multi-target spell. In general enemies tend to be fairly balanced and there are mixes of easy and painfully challenging bosses to test the nerves of many players.

Special note must be given to Dondoran's Skill System, which is by far its greatest feature. Characters have a wide variety of paths open to them to explore in terms of skill growth, and most skills remain useful for a very long time. This not only gives the player a great deal of customization options but also gives the game replay value. However, the open-ended nature of this system can lead to problems. Due to the customizable nature of the skill system it is possible that a player might invest skill points poorly and be badly prepared for the incredible surge of difficulty waiting for the player in the game's final events. The final boss, for instance, is nearly impossible without a near perfect build or an absurd amount of grinding.


Level Design: 2/5

While a few dungeons offer some interesting puzzles, Harmonic really makes use of the same one or two puzzles throughout the game, namely teleport puzzles which require little more than repetitive trial and error to complete. Most other dungeons are simple straight walks from beginning to end with little to interest the player aside from the random combat. Most bosses early in the game appear to serve little purpose other than to bar the party's way. While this was typical of old RPGS there is little reason now not provide at least some explanation as to why this unusually strong monster is standing on the choke point we need to pass. Most mini-games, such as the mine cart ride, were far more irritating than fun. That is not to say there were absolutely no interesting or fun levels. The siege of Favorian near the beginning of the game, with its mix of strategy, timing and party management, is probably the highlight of the adventure.

Characters 1/5:

Sadly, dialogue does not appear to be one of Harmonic's strong points. The characters of Dondoran are horribly flat and rarely do or say anything to engage the player or make us care about them. The character of Krysta, for example, is little more than a one-dimensional love interest to fall in love with our stoic hero. Or at least we're told that they've allegedly fallen in love,the narrative expects us to believe that these two are in love just because they tell us they are. The chemistry between these two characters wasn't given enough attention to make it effective. Ishutal, the ostensible "main villain" of the game, is portrayed so inconsistently and forced into the plot in such a ham-fisted manner that it is nearly impossible to determine her actual personality or motives, which is a shame as in doing so she forced the considerably more engaging Emperor out of focus. In fact, the only character in the entire game who shows any real promise is Gain, the snarky black mage. I liked him, I wish he had more interesting people to talk to.

Characters are the heart and soul of a game like this and the portrayal of these heroes are a disservice to what was otherwise a fairly enjoyable RPG. Even a death scene that occurs about halfway through the game comes across as more humorous than moving.

Storyline 2/5:

This storyline had a lot to work with in the beginning that it simply didn't take advantage of. The inherently interesting premise of leading an army against the powerful empire was quickly abandoned in favor of a much more standard save the world plot, which was a shame as there were certainly no shortage of opportunities to use the leadership angle. While Tyranos is supposedly a great military leader (because we are told so, repeatedly) we rarely see anything good come of his talents and his plans instead tend to backfire spectacularly, ultimately leading up to a scene where the plot is "hijacked" by a new villain and we are treated to an infodump of truly Herculean proportions. Once we regain our heroes the story becomes much more non-linear and we can choose from a number of "sidequests" to complete before attempting the final dungeons. Except what are touted as "sidequests" are actually quite mandatory and you'll need to do just about all of them before the final dungeon will open up.

Harmonic claims that this RPG will last for about 40-50 hours, however for the gameplay to approach that length would simply require the player to spend hours upon hours grinding for the supposedly impossible optional dungeon found at the end of the storyline. Otherwise, most players will probably complete this "epic length" adventure in a much more reasonable 10-12 hours.

Music and Sound 4/5

Most of the music used in this game are unique compositions or remixes made by Harmonic himself. While most are adequate, a few songs used in the games' final battles are truly spectacular and deserve special mention. The only thing holding this category down from a perfect 5 was an unforgivable use of Ganon's leitmotif in the game's final scenes, a song far too recognizable to get away with using.

Overall 3/5

I've probably come across as pretty hard on this game so far, but its not because I think the game is bad. Not at all. Harmonic actually completed a full-length RPG from beginning to end, complete with original music compositions, and he deserves enormous credit for that. Rather, I am judging it somewhat harshly for a see it for what it could have been, a truly great RPG, which was unfortunately mired by weak writing and a few too many "homages" to other games. I suspect that should Harmonic recognize these flaws and correct them, he would indeed be capable of creating that epic RPG we've all wanted to play forever. Did he correct these mistakes in his latest project? We can hope. Until then, we'll always have Legacies of Dondoran, a game that I shall always find somewhat disappointing simply because of how close it came to greatness.

Posts

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I can't even remember what death scene anymore. It's been ages since I've played this. Just about the only thing I remember was that I never finished it--Venom Depths killed me! XD

Nice review. A bit harsh, though.
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
If it seemed harsh it was only because I saw so much promise being squandered.
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