Dragons encompass what it is to be fantasy; from Dungeons & Dragons to Dragon Quest, the videogame world is rife with these mythical creatures, keeping us in the right mindset for a fantastical journey into the realms of a faraway land. Upcoming RPG masters Nippon Ichi are looking to attract fans of these fire-breathing beasts with their latest PSP release, Dragoneer's Aria. But does this game reach the dizzying heights of their recent Disgaea release on PSP, or is it just full of hot air?

There are certain elements of this ever-popular genre that are vital for the enjoyment of its many fans - a simple yet intuitive battle system, a good balance of difficulty throughout, decent-sized areas, an interesting story and characters that you actually care about. Dragoneer's Aria hits about two of those five vital areas, so you would think that as an RPG it's pretty weak. Compared to the blockbuster Square Enix RPGs like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, this is nothing - but it is competent at what it does and that is a feeling that's spread out over the entire experience. This is a standard, mediocre RPG - no more, no less - and if you go into the world of Iris expecting this then you'll come out satisfied, rather than disappointed.

You take the role of a training Dragoon, known as Valen, who, although still learning the ways of the race, is thrust into a journey to save one of his world's protectors - the Fire Dragon. A massive beast, the Nidhogg, storms his graduation to becoming a Dragoon and injures one of the six elemental dragons in the process. This task forces Valen, along with his Empath (mage) companion, Euphe, to discover just why the Nidhogg attacked during the ceremony, while protecting the other elemental dragons in the process. This story uses every trick in the book, yet still feels somewhat stale throughout. There are the classic genre stereotypes, such as the ditsy Euphe, and the 'one face fits all' hero, but they come across as being designed to appeal to RPG fans, rather than being an integral part of the overall plot. That's not to say that you won't be interested by what is happening in the world of Iris; you will find yourself compelled to discover the truth behind this place and the evil Dragon that has caused this mess. But even so, when you do find out the truth, it's as if the developers were trying to make a by-the-numbers RPG, rather than an original and wholly enjoyable one, and you'll likely predict what happens instantly. It's a shame that the story isn't better, but it's mediocre, a word that can be used to describe possibly every aspect of the game.

There is one type of gameplay in Dragoneer's Aria (two if you count the town as a separate style of play) and this is comprised of moving your character around the map, entering battles, looking at objects and talking to people as you go. You move using the analog nub, with X used as the main action button throughout. An interesting feature of the traversal gameplay is that each character can activate a different special ability while on the field. For example, if an enemy is pursuing your party, you can switch to a Dragoon and activate the sprint ability. The downside of this is that the action consumes mana at an alarming rate, meaning that you have to decide whether it is worth jeopardising the next battle for a swift escape. This is the first of a limited amount of original ideas that, even if they don't work as well as planned, become a vital part of keeping the game feeling partly fresh, rather than completely archaic.

When playing through Dragoneer's Aria, you begin to notice something about the world you are trying to save; it's tiny. The world map is accessible from the beginning and you'll soon realise that a long distance on the map may be only three screens away. This isn't to say that you will get through these areas quickly though - in fact the opposite is true, but more on that later. If you're looking for epic landscapes that take days to cross however, you won't find them here.

The battle system is another example of why Dragoneer's Aria can only be described as average. You select an action from the basic options, such as Attack, Guard and Magic, but the main one you will end up using is the Dragon Skill option, which uses a kind of magic that reflects the dragon that the orb you have equipped is connected to. This will sometimes be the only attack you use, as it is more powerful than any other skill in the early stage of the game. This is important because of the game's Final Fantasy II-style levelling up system, where each of your skills gains levels individually and in turn becomes more powerful the more you use it. This is all fine until you realise the game's biggest flaw - a shared mana value. For those uninitiated with the genre, this is the source of power for your magical attacks and special abilities. It also doesn't help that this value can only be as high as 10, with each magical action and Dragon Skill using up one of these points. But that isn't the end of the horror that entails with this joint mana count, because your mana can only be refilled by attacking the enemy with the attack command, or by finding special mana pools in the field. This means that to attack an enemy effectively, you must first use up a few turns with physical attacks, something that can cause more than a few deaths in harder battles. Why did the developers feel the need to add this 'innovative' feature to such a derivative title? Their attempts to rectify the mediocre nature of the game have backfired completely.

For a handheld RPG, Dragoneer's Aria is of a decent length; you won't complete it in a few hours. The problem with this though, as mentioned above, is that this is for all the wrong reasons. Even though the areas are claustrophobically small, you can't proceed through the next one with ease even after fighting all of the enemies in your current position. When you enter a new environment, running into one of the many floating eyes to activate a battle will possibly be the first thing you do, except for the much-needed save at the ever present save point. This first battle will more than likely wipe out your entire party within a few seconds, without you even having a chance to think about what actions to take. The difficulty ramps up with each successive room and so power-levelling is needed at all times. If you ever feel the need to avoid battles, which because of the fact these are visible is easy to achieve, you will possibly have to do this for the rest of the game, as you won't stand a chance against any foe, or more importantly, any of the game's many bosses. Training in each area for at least an hour is imperative to your survival, something that kills any sort of drive to continue that you would have had at this point. This makes the whole game feel like a constant quest for the next level, where you're not even being encouraged to do so, which is yet another disappointment.

Moving onto the presentation and, once again (you know what's coming by now, don't you?), the graphics are simply mediocre. If the last few months of PSP releases have taught us any lesson, it's that PS2-quality graphics can be achieved on the handheld, with games like Pursuit Force and SOCOM: Tactical Strike setting the standard. Dragoneer's Aria may run smoothly, with decent character models and enemy designs, but there is nothing that is pushing the system. It's as if the UMD isn't even spinning and that the PSP can't even be bothered to push the pixels any harder. The sound though, in comparison to the lacking graphics, is actually very good, with the music hitting the right note at important moments, just as any good score should do. Enemies have a decent range of sound effects, along with the different skills in your arsenal. It doesn't save the game from the mediocrity that ensues when playing it, but it's enough to make you appreciate just how lacklustre the graphics are compared to the sound design.

I pray that this is the last time I will have to use the word, but Dragoneer's Aria is the epitome of mediocre. It doesn't just copy other RPGs though; it attempts to be innovative with such clever design decisions as having a single mana gauge and making power-levelling mandatory. Though the sound design is well done and the battle system is decent, nothing can change how average this game is. With this said, diehard fans of the genre will find a small chink of hope behind all of the bleakness that the game entails and these people may enjoy Dragoneer's Aria for what it is; a mediocre (last time promise) old-school style RPG. It doesn't rewrite the genre, but that's probably a good thing, as I don't want to imagine an RPG where a party shares the same HP meter and the only way to regain this is to use up a section of the shared mana gauge...

Reviewed by Sam Atkins for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).