Dragonsphere – Final Rating

Written by Vetinari

Our friend Douglas Kaufman put forth some very strong words in the design notes for Dragonsphere, saying that “we've got the best product” and “we like to think we have the competition beat in every category”.

“And I stand by what I said!” – Doug Kaufman, probably.

I cannot deny that this game is much better than the two previous MPS Labs adventures, but will it be enough for a high PISSED rating? Let's see with the breakdown categories below.

Puzzles and Solvability

Puzzles are not Dragonsphere's forte. Most of them are solved pretty easily and in fact, I rarely had doubts on what the course of action that the game wanted me to take was. However, this can actually be seen as a positive point, since not having any stumbling block meant the plot could move on at a pretty brisk pace.

Even if I was not thoroughly impressed, I have to give this game credit where it's due: it offers a fairly good range of different types of puzzles: classic inventory, logic puzzles, minigames, and also many of what I termed "dialogue navigation" puzzles, where you have to choose how to approach the conversation with NPCs in order to get the desired results. Sort of like a maze, but instead of physical, it's made of phrases and words.

I think I'm smashing it.

This type of enigmas was not really that prevalent in the 1990s, so I have to give props to Dragonsphere for leaning into this as it was probably one of the forerunners for this kind of puzzle.

Still on the negative side, however, there is the fact that some of the puzzles do not involve any progress on the plot, for example getting the so-called lost treasures of the realm. They seem to be there just because it is expected in a fantasy world for the protagonist to seek out lost treasures, but actually – no, it is not! Not since Zork II, anyway! I choose to interpret it as an attempt at genre deconstruction rather than just laziness, but it rubbed me the wrong way.

Protip: almost all treasures have only the additional command prompt of “Admire”.

I am conflicted on this category, so I have to give it a somewhat middle-of-the-road rating. My score: 5.

Interface and Inventory

Both the interface and inventory system are based on the same MADS engine as the two adventures which came before, Rex Nebular and Return of the Phantom. It is a perfectly serviceable engine, and not quite that different from the classic LucasArts interface with the main window at the top of the screen and the command list and inventory at the bottom.

Feels like home.

I would have to check what the previous reviewers thought about this type of interface to have a good baseline. They both gave 5 to their respective game in this category, but many of the things which they found lamentable I haven't actually experienced in Dragonsphere.

TBD said about “Rex” that the inventory was just drab, with light shades of grey over a darker grey background, while Morpheus said about “Phantom” that he was annoyed by how slowly Raoul walked, and also that many commands were never used. None of this is actually true for me in Dragonsphere. I never even used the fast travel option of invoking the signet ring.

Throw the very colourful inventory item.

Maybe it is to the credit of the Microprose team that they have improved on this a little bit, so I think it's fair to give this game a slightly higher rating than its predecessors. My score: 6.

Story and Setting

The plot suffers from a distinct lack of dragons.

One of the very few dragons in the game.

Jokes aside, I was impressed by how good the story for this game is. It starts as a run-of-the-mill bog-standard King's Quest inspired fantasy game, but pretty soon you realize that not all is what it seems, and there's something not quite right in this world.

This game also foreshadows like hell; it seems like something written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. On a replay you just see some subtle references that make it very clear what they are hinting at, after you know what the big plot twist is all about.

Talking of which, I think this is one of the first games to pull off a very clever Tomato in the Mirror surprise in the middle of the plot.

Yeah, that's what we are all thinking.

There is also the neat trick of the protagonist revisiting locales where he has already been after he has proceeded with the plot and has changed (literally in this case), which was also to be seen in such masterpieces as (a-hem) Grim Fandango... I could go on.

I really have to give a pretty high score for this category. My score: 8.

Sound and Graphics

Reviewers at the time were impressed by the graphics quality, and I have to agree.

Dragonsphere's world in all its glory.

Graphics are colourful, they bring out the differences in the various ambiances very well, and while the full-figures are not overly detailed, the small mugshots used in the dialogue boxes give each character a distinct appearance and vibe.

Character animations are smooth, and the animated cutscenes are excellent.

Pid-as-seal swimming through the underground river.

The sound compartment does a good job. The music is fine, but not that memorable, voice acting is adequate. It doesn't detract from the graphics quality, so I think this game deserves overall a pretty good score also in this category. My score: 8.

Environment and Atmosphere

The world is pretty obviously inspired (as Kaufman said in his design notes) by Sierra's King's Quest and Westwood's Kyrandia franchises.

Callash turns to check on the vines, while they feign disinterest.

Even then, the world building strikes me as somewhat better than those other two series. It is whimsical, but it doesn't get to the ridiculousness of some of the King's Quests, which was always their weak point: even the best ones, like King's Quest VI, had to throw in some really unwarranted extremely farcical character or locale.

The most whimsical locale of all.

Here all the strangeness of the various places have an explanation in their background history and culture, and even the most droll ones (like the Faeries) are expanded upon and not simply used as paper-thin background cardboard cutouts. Maybe they do not reach the level of having an incredibly detailed backstory, but it always seems that there is something else behind that you don't quite see but which makes the world feel alive. My score: 7.

Dialog and Acting

The dialogue is undoubtly one of the strong suits of this game.

Oh, Lak-Hella, you lovable scamp! (She really is a b***h).

There is just a lot to read, the narrator provides interesting or amusing descriptions for just about everything, and the various characters are really well written and characterized. Each one has their own personal voice, and when they talk to you (or to each other, in the case of some cutscenes) they feel believable and realistic, even the most outlandish ones.

A particular favourite of mine is the Soptus Ecliptus caliph, whose exchange with you devolves very quickly in a competition on who is the most fake-humble, with some really laugh-out-loud gems.

This guy is the best! I mean, the worst.

It falls short of absolute masterpieces like Monkey Island, so I cannot in good conscience give it an higher rating than this. But it is still very, very good. My score: 8.

Totaling the scores, we get (5+6+8+8+7+8)/0.6 = 70 points!

Wow! That's a really high rating! Is this game really better than the likes of Kyrandia and Hero's Quest? I don't know... I liked it better than Quest for Glory III, but worse than Quest for Glory II... which poses a conundrum since, as you can see, this is not how the scores for those two games line up at all. So I am just content to let the rating stand as it is.

The commenters gallery had lower expectations for this game (seeing also the two previous MPS Labs adventure ratings), and so the average guess was around 54. This means that the highest guess, a 61 from Michael is the winner!

CAP Distribution

100 CAPs to Vetinari

• King for a Day Award - 100 CAPs - for blogging about Dragonsphere for our enjoyment

10 CAPs to Michael

• Mystic Warrior Award - 10 CAPs - for having the closest guess for the rating for Dragonsphere 

10 CAPs to Torbjörn Andersson

• I Need this Like I Need a Hole in my Punchcard Award - 10 CAPs - for continuing the backtracking of the "key left in a door on the other side" puzzle trope in older games and other media

10 CAPs to MenhirMike

• Six Degrees of Bacon Award - 10 CAPs - for linking a memory... to a book... to a video game... and back to the blog 

10 CAPs to Laukku

• Bearer of Bad News Award - 10 CAPs - for keeping us up to date on the downfall of a once-great adventure game site, and the growth of another 

5 CAPs to Showsni

• Fairy Points Award - 5 CAPs - for the best "dad joke" in the comments of this game