Drakkhen

Its a great game. And i was hyped seeing this on GOG when i played SNES.. and my conclusion PC - Insanely confusing gameplay - Bad music choice - Just doesnt make me want to explore SNES however (which came out later which is insanely good) - Great music - Imaginative game - Gameplay allows you more control of the character than randomly walk around with mouse and confusing controls. SNES is definite version basically. If you have to get it, go with SNES. Its a great game, but PC one is just so rough and not good

I owned this on the Japanese FM-Towns version which had great CDDA music (search for a video), but otherwise found the game to be frustrating to play and sort of an RPG-lite meshed with an adventure game and even a touch of those old D&D strategy titles where you'd have Clerics and Halflings running randomly around a screen fighting enemies. It tried to be a lot of things and I remember the hype, but it was not particularly good from any angle. Everything about the pseudo-3D engine that is reminiscient of early Commodore 64 3D games like Castle Master and the frustrating combat made a traditional turn-based RPG fan like me cringe. But I guess if you go into it looking for an "enhanced adventure" you might just like it.

I played Drakkhen as a kid on my 80286 DOS computer and remember it being brutal in the beginning, but once I understood how the game wanted me to play, it got significantly easier. After purchasing on GOG and giving it another go, I can honestly say that this game probably won't hold the interest of modern OR classic RPG fans. First of all, the text is almost unreadable. Back when it was played on CRT screens, I think the fuzziness helped with the readability of the fonts. I've tried various filters but nothing seems to improve it. I had also forgotten that the combat is automated. You can instruct your party to cast spells, but it's really a pain in the butt. You basically live or die by your stats, so good luck rolling during character creation when you can't even read the numbers because of the crappy font. While I have gone back and enjoyed a lot of classic RPGS like the Ultima, Wizardry and Might & Magic series, a game like this no longer resonates with me. Back in the day, I most likely finished it because I spent 50 bucks on it and was determined to get my money's worth. Nowadays, there are so many options that I really can't recommend this expect to the most hardcore DOS RPG gamers. If you are determined to give this game a try, be sure to thoroughly read the manual PDF. Otherwise, you will be completely lost. One other thing: I was eventually able to get the game to work with Roland MT-32 emulation, which significantly improves the music, but it took a lot of fiddling around. The AdLib/Soundblaster music honestly just sounds terrible and I would rather play in silence than listen to it.

Drakkhen is a nearly incomprehensuble, French-made RPG from 1989. Good aspects of the game include: one of the earliest games to have a real-time day/night cycle. Surprisingly deep loot table. Impressive mob variety. Minimalist, but effectively moody musical score. Bad aspects of the game include: -nearly imprehensible plot -illogical story progression that sometimes doesn't tell, or even hint at what you're supposed to do next -no discernable structure to character leveling (seems to occur at random) -Party members situated in 2nd and 3rd position tend to gain vastly more xp than charcters in 1st and 4th positions -spells and potions have no in game descriptions, and use a series of symbols which must be cross-referenced with game manual -no in game map or compass = you have to guess your way around -combat is fully automated which reduces gameplay to traversing the map and equipping gear Despite these myriad problems, Drakkhen is a fascinating footnote in the annals of RPG history. While most early RPG developers zigged in the direction of Chunsoft's "Dragon Warrior" (1986), Infogrames dared to zag in their own direction, creating an early 3D map that is traversed in 1st person view, instead of the gridded 2D maps of other RPGs of the era. It is equal parts utterly baffling and genuinely intriguing game design that make Drakkhen worth checking out. The sheer number of different mobs in the game will absolutely blow your mind. As will most of the rest of the game.

I enjoyed the SNES version thoroughly for its environmental music track both inside and out. This is laid out quite similar but not the same and the soundtrack is lackluster in comparison to the Japanese artist tracks in the SNES version. Those tracks were done by the same man who did Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and such games. anyway, this game is about a half-breed race of dragon people who are quarrling with one another a tale of "War of Roses" for dragon people. you are a group of 4 selectable RPG style chraacters the die roll is bad, you can come up with 3 cream of the crop and one dog, much like a bad credit ratging with the one lame guy and the other tall strong ones. then you have to re role the WHOLE PARTY over again. I liked the SNES version I would probbaly even buy this version it isn't a bad game it just isnt' that good either. I saw it on Demo in a local Software Ect. in a mall in 1989 when I was in highsschool and was blow away then(as that was a time of EGA graphics) this has VGA. the free 3d roaming was a thing of a dream in 1989 but there are certainly better ones, like most everythign else in the 1990's including Ultima Underworld, Arena Elderscrolls and Daggerfall. if GOG coudl some how include a DOSbox fix for the SNES version I'd definitely be a happy Drakkheneer though!(hint hint DRAKKHEN!!!) :)