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So how do you feel about 16-bit JRPGs? Think Super Nintendo era: wandering about world maps as a colorful sprite, taking turn-based swipes at fantastical monsters, and tapping through dialogue trees on a quest to save the world. They compensated for the technological limitations of the mid-'90s with rich, sweeping narratives, and occasionally devolved into nigh endless grind-fests, trudging through repetitive battle sequences to grow strong enough to overcome increasingly tougher challenges.
The genre has always been a bit polarizing, and its popularity has waned in the face of modern action-RPGs and MMOs. But those of us who love them rest assured knowing that the Chrono Triggers and EarthBounds never die—they just get re-released, or re-imagined by plucky indie developers with a penchant for spritework and MIDI tunes. Available on the PlayStation 3 and Vita, Dragon Fantasy Book II is one such tribute: a $15 love letter to the good old days that's unapologetically old-school, yet manages to iron out many of the genre's more annoying wrinkles. But it's a game at odds with itself, skirting many of the JRPG genre's flaws but plagued by a desire to revamp time-honored (and timeworn) mechanics and inject personality and humor, often at the expense of narrative and compelling gameplay.
Learning the tropes
If you don't like JRPGs, you're gonna have a bad time. Dragon Fantasy Book II (hereafter DFB2) makes no effort to deny the source of its inspiration, from the sweeping introduction replete with narrative "cutscenes" involving maiden-munching dragons, to an epic musical score, menu-driven turn-based battles, and the requisite hunt for better loot. You'll tap through dialogue boxes to learn that the hero, Ogden, has allied with pirates on a quest to save the world—a magic crystal, betrayals, and plot twists are involved.
Dragon Fantasy Book II doesn't take itself too seriously.
Much of the story is presumably laid out in the first game in the series (which I haven't played), but the game does an amicable job of getting you up to speed, tossing you into combat relatively quickly to give you a feel for the mechanics, while doling out bits of narrative along the way. DFB2 goes out of its way to avoid being taken seriously, which is at once a blessing and an annoying curse. Chock full of knowing winks to pop culture and in-jokes, you'll tackle an Earthbound-esque cast of nonsensical foes—including Land Sharks and Rock Men equipped with blue helmets—and encounter a whimsical cast of characters, including a seemingly omnipresent pirate ally who admits his only raison d'être is to push the action along.
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