7TH DRAGON COLLECTION

7TH DRAGON feels familiar right away if you've ever played Etrian Odyssey, but it swaps the first person maze crawling for a proper old school world map with towns and everything. You start by making your own guild and picking from seven classes, each with their own adorable little character designs. The story kicks off with you as a rookie hunter taking on a simple job but things go sideways fast, leading to a bigger mission to save the world from these dragons that have covered the planet in these poisonous flowers called Dragonsbane. Your main goal becomes taking down all 7 dragons which is a massive task that really defines the whole journey.

7TH DRAGON COLLECTION

The gameplay loop is a mix of exploration, constant random battles and hunting dragon minibosses you see wandering the dungeons. Battles are snappy and in first person but your party stands on the screen which is a nice touch. The customisation is deep, letting you spend skill points on a huge web of abilities for each class, tho it can be punishing if you don't plan your build right. That freedom is cool, but you might end up relying on the same few moves for hours. Dragonsbane flowers are everywhere, draining your health as you walk, which adds this layer of constant pressure and resource management that gets pretty annoying in long dungeons.

Visually, it's charming with a chibi style that works well on the DS, and the music by Yuzo Koshiro is absolutely fantastic with memorable tracks for battles and towns, even if the battle theme is so good you rarely hear the whole thing. There's a ton of content between the main quest, side jobs and a colossal dragon hunt for postgame, easily stretching past 60 hours. The downside is that the quest system is clunky, making you jump thru hoops to accept and complete tasks and there's no good way to track what you're doing once you leave town. 

It's a game that demands patience. The encounter rate is seriously high, travel can feel slow, and the difficulty has some sharp spikes, but the USA localization patch implements some significant gameplay tweaks, it slashes the random encounter rate by 50% and reduces the damaging Bloom flowers' effect by 60%, directly addressing two of the original's most grueling aspects to make exploration and party building more flexible. It also fixes a potential progression halting crash with the portals and includes a hidden cheat: naming the second Mage appearance «♪TLOVE» completely nullifies encounters and Bloom damage, but back to the topic, there's a real charm and solid foundation here. It takes the heart of a dungeon crawler and plants it in a classic JRPG world, creating an experience that's both grueling and weirdly satisfying.

7TH DRAGON III: CODE VFD

7TH DRAGON III CODE VFD is the final release for the series and it got a real English release, but tbh I haven't even touched it. Maybe it's fun, maybe it's still hard as fuck, who knows, the series has a reputation. If you're curious after the original, I guess just play it if you want. Can't tell you more than that.

Download

Your guild charter awaits, hunter. Your operational brief is being finalized now. Summon your resolve and secure the classified data packet, these RAR files deployed below. Decrypt its sealed contents, then deliver the payload directly to the root of your SD card, like a sacred crystal purifying a corrupted leyline. Furthermore, the chronologically displaced operation 7TH DRAGON III CODE: VFD is ready for deployment. Transfer the data package directly to your system, install the .CIA to mobilize your unit, or scan the provided QR sigil and endure the protracted download ritual. The choice of insertion is yours.