Eragon (PC)

Here’s continuation that you don’t expect yet I’m so excited about this game. It’s PC version of Eragon (2006) made by Stormfront Studio!  Here you can see the other game here: GBA version and PSP version.

There’s the logo we know…or not if this is the first time you know Eragon. When writing about PSP version, I wished it was Slash em Up game with backbreaker move that I witnessed in TV and it’s not. Turns out, this version is the one! I’m excited to play this. So excited that I keep skipping this title screen.   

 

Main menu kind of bland, though. And the font looks too small. At least the scenery view is good and peaceful which kind of contradict with the violent gameplay. The game tries to suggest me to use Xbox controller. Well, too bad. I don’t have it! But don’t worry. I’m expert at using keyboard. So let’s get into New Game immediately.    

 

The story is: long time ago there’s dragon riders but they are extinct because there’s evil king that exterminate them with the aid of this sinister looking git: Durza and Urgal barbarians. 

 

But the evil king’s influence doesn’t reach this peaceful place. Yet. So, I’m controlling Eragon the hunter. He wants to hunt down a deer…through tutorial section. Pressing “I” button (not default) to jump these elevated grounds.

 

Then I have to break these brambles. It’s not as simple as pressing random light or heavy attack button. Each of these brambles requires certain combination to break. I set the light and heavy attack button to “J” and “K” button respectively.

 

The tutorial section is interrupted with this cutscene where Arya and Co. getting ambushed. Unlike in GBA version where the arrows kill their horse only, this time the arrows also kill Arya’s allies: Faolin and Glenwing. Heavy_negativevocalization03.wav

However, Arya can slays incoming Urgals, all by herself!

 

Now, we’re back to Eragon undergoes his tutorial course. I’m quite impressed with his ability to move while hanging on ledges. Not many video game protagonists can do that. Funny, that I can see the egg over there even though it’s not teleported yet by Arya. Oops. Minor spoiler. :p

 

The deer runs into deeper part of woods. Suddenly, Eragon decides to have archery practice on those scarecrows. To ready the bow, I press and hold Left Shift. I can draw the bow to the fullest by pressing and holding down “J” button. The reticule will get smaller during charging the bow. But I have no idea what’s the precise shot does except the arrow shot more accurately.

 

As per usual, Durza makes forest fire and threatens Arya to give him the magic stone. But Arya moves it with her teleporting magic.     

 

At long last, I can save my game. This is unusual for nowadays game where you can save the game immediately after hitting “new game” menu. This game wants to test your seriousness playing the game. It only allows you to choose save slot after you finish the tutorial.

 

There’s this loading screen after the saving game screen and before level select. It tells you summary that Eragon found the magic shinning stone that Arya teleported. Also you can see the combo list. One thing that amazes me that Eragon’s health refilled gradually in this screen which also act as loading time bar. Sniper_sf13_magic_reac06.wav     

 

Surprise! Surprise! [Dragon-size sarcasm]. The blue glowing stone turns is a dragon egg. The baby dragon gives dragon rider’s mark on Eragon’s hand, acknowledging him as her master. The dragon is female btw.

 

Here’s the level select/world map. I can go to next level: Carvahall. Or I can go back to tutorial level to get secret egg that I missed. Remember that egg while Eragon moving along the edge? That’s the secret egg. The reward for getting the egg is not so worth it though. It just unlocks developer’s commentary on unlockable section. I like that there’s announcer voice when selecting a level. “Carvahal”. Not as epic as “Resident Evil” voice over, but there’s there.

 

Oh! We meet Brom the sage, already? He tells story of dragon rider to townsfolks by the bonfire. But evil king’s men don’t like that and attack the sage along with townsfolks too! They really don’t want dragon rider’s story being told and the witnesses, huh? Anyway, Eragon fight the king’s men along with Brom.  

 

Here’s grapple combo in action. Once I get hold of an opponent, I can hit him with grabbed attack (by pressing light attack) or throw him away (by pressing heavy attack). The grabbing system is fairly similar to my beloved Crisis Beat. It’s a good sign.

By pressing either attack button, I can perform finishing stab on downed enemy. End his life right away. It looks brutal. In fact, I’m astonished with how brutal the moves in this game that supposed to be PG-13 rate. You see that grapple move that Eragon just did? He bends the enemy in the opposite of spine’s degree of freedom, quite resembles Dragon Sleeper. If the grab is simple headlock which makes the enemy bend forward following the spine’s bending direction, it becomes less brutal yet more practical. Also, the sword slash and stab just inflict trivial pain like in Golden Axe or Soul Blade.

 

There are 2 kinds of orb: green and red. It’s not like in Devil May Cry that red for currency and green for health refill. In this game, red for health refill and green to fill -so called- team power meter that you can (slightly) see besides Brom and Eragon’s HUD. Once those green and yellow bar meet, the team power meter is full which you can use to activate fury mode. But I haven’t demonstrated yet here because I want to use it for harder fight.

We manage to sneak into this building safely. Brom tells me to break these chests for green and red orbs. This is the exact opposite of what he told me in GBA version, where he look at me with dirty look when I was about to open chest in his house. To be fair, these chests probably not his so he doesn’t mind to break these ones. 

Wow! I get to fight Urgal so early. I like the grapple animation is different than when I grab king’s men. This time, the grabbed attack become choking and the throw become swift drop kick to the back. “Good move” Brom said. Scout_thanks01.wav

I see. The accurate shot is useful for stealth kill but sadly this is the only stealth section in this game as far as I know.

After I stealth kill that soldier, his comrades seek revenges. Brom is currently fighting all of the soldiers meanwhile I climb up to grab the secret egg. Sorry, old man.

Not the butcher! But he refused trade with Eragon to the point making him cried. So, the butcher deserves being killed like that. Screw him.

So, we manage to escape from the town but we’re too late to safe Eragon’s uncle and his farmhouse. Sniper_jeers02.wav    

“We interrupt the sad moment with the lively scene of Carvahal before burned down”. I beat Brom’s score for enemy killed and orbs collected! If that doesn’t cheer you up, Eragon. Look at that duck pecking on the ground. Adorable, isn’t?

Brom notice dragon rider’s mark on Eragon’s hand. Thus, he decides to take Eragon as his pupil. On one occasion they visit Daret Town to buy supply for their journey.

Of course, soldiers attack us in Daret Town. Because this is dock area, I can kick or throw enemies to the water. Demoman_positivevocalization01.wav

There’s some archers harassing us at the distance so I fire my own arrow and Brom helps too. At first, I thought the yellow reticule signifies the target’s health is 50% or less. But no. The yellow reticule is where Brom’s aim at. Here’s my problem with this game: I can’t see my opponent’s health so I can barely tell whether I deliver some damage to them or not. Besides enemies shows bit of feedback upon getting hit. It’s different case when I manage to grab them though.  

Speaking of grab, turns out I have one more variation of grabbing animation which is done from behind enemy. I like this move where Eragon hold his enemy’s arm and give them rude kicking to the back.

 

Suddenly, I have telekinesis magic! If there’s barrel of fishing spears, I can throw them at a time at enemy by holding “space bar” button and  light attack button. The aim is automatic and pretty accurate. Also deal quite hefty damage to enemies.  

I can use my newly acquired telekinesis magic to move mast or crane for some platforming puzzle. In this occasion, I rotate the crane and then drop the huge fish net at those Urgals with my arrow shot. Those Urgals just stand there while waving their weapon. Idiots.   

Then there’s the time when I have to destroy some dock’s floor to reconstruct it as elevated platform with my telekinesis magic. Medic_sf12_badmagic06.wav

 

Oh Uh. It’s dead end but with secret egg lies around. It’s my natural talent to find way to secret item than way to mandatory progress.

 

I can also use my Telekinesis magic to pull enemy to nearby water. I’m like a Jedi instead of Dragon Rider. Oh, I just realize the similarity of Eragon and Star Wars! Both Jedi and Dragon Rider are in verge of extinction, and they’re exterminated by the order of evil ruler: emperor and king. If Brom is Obi-Wan Kenobi, then Eragon is Luke Skywalker! Also, to some extent Arya is Princess Leia. Both Eragon and Luke Skywalker are farmer boy. Perhaps the reason why Eragon has general low score on movie rating, because it’s considered uninspiring “homage” of Star Wars. But according to the director, Stefen Fangmeier: Fox was "modestly happy with the worldwide box office”. 

I can see the move list in the pause screen. On the list, there’s magic to push enemies but I can’t do that yet. The game holds my hand. No fun.

On to the center part of Daret town, my task is to protect the villagers that dousing the fire that block our way to progress. Fortunately, it’s not harsh escort mission because the villagers can respawn after one killed. Besides they can fight back, a little. I mean look at that git tries to fight back buff-looking Urgal with just a wooden small bucket. There’s so much what you can do with bucket in a swordfight.

I envy with Brom who has cooler looking grab where he swings enemy by his leg.

Our main objective in this level is to unlock the main gate at the end of this way by turning the lever on each side of battlement. Of course, I can’t just grab the lever. That will be too easy or boring. Besides, there’s those thin bars impending our way. So, I have to use the telekinesis magic. Any object that can be interacted with magic, has large hand mark on them. You can’t miss it.

It's funny to see this Urgal running in panic because he’s on fire. He jumps to near water but he’s drowned and die. XD

 

“Shoot through the gap” Brom said and as naïve as I am, I do that. It’s tiring process. Turns out I can get to them through some platforming section from right side. I don’t think tutorial under Brom, is smart thing to do but eventually he will teach me how to ride dragon professionally.

 

Suddenly, Brom catches fire from that burning exit. So far Brom’s AI is impressive where he can follow me through platforming section flawlessly. But I deduct some credit for getting burning by himself. Luckily, he can put out the fire by rolling. In this room, exit over there is burning. There’s no other way out in this ground level except on the left but that’s where I come in. The obvious answer is that platform above the burning exit. I try to get in there by jumping on the barrel but to no avail. What should I do? Turns out there’s platform on the right side. After climbing it, I can get across via wooden beam. Then breaking 2 barrels of water to douse the flame. I love this game when there’s only plain ground outdoor. But in some indoor section, the way to progress often hindered by camera even just a bit like in this room.

Then we encounter our first enemy with shield. Brom said “You have to hit him in gap. Or use magic”. So I use the telekinesis magic to pull his shield so he’s vulnerable like other King’s men.

 

Somehow, I trigger new grab where Eragon grab Urgal to the ground. Not sure how I do this. Maybe involve rolling at him. Speaking of rolling. Do you know how to roll in this game? In Devil May Cry or Chaos Legion, you have to sidestep and press jump, which is pretty convoluted. In Dark Soul or Monster Hunter, you have to press backstep/run/dodge button when moving. In this game, you have to press block button while moving. Little bit strange but intuitive.

This narrow beam section is special because Eragon is in realistic pose where he moves slowly and trying balancing his body. Also, there’s special egg in the end.

 

The gate is unlocked. All we need to do to get away is open the gate. But we’re ambushed with shielded soldiers. It’s nice that there’s fishing spear barrel in this section for additional mean to deal with enemies. But the thing is the procedure for using spear and removing the shield is same: holding space bar and light attack button. There’s no way to switch target. Eragon prefer using the magic to throw spear and -I think- it bypasses shield thankfully. But I prefer stripping out their shield so I can attack them with my sword. You see that bar under Eragon’s health bar? That’s magic bar. He can only use Telekinesis magic when it’s fully filled and it takes quite long time to fill. If the enemies are 1 to 4 persons. There’s little issue of it. But when there’s 8 of them, this magic filling time is too long to be intuitive.   

But I get to demonstrate the fury mode here. Our sword glowing and deal more damage, I think? I can barely tell because the absence of enemy’s health bar. Sadly, we can’t bypass enemy’s block in fury mode. Probably my biggest complaint on gameplay is the lack of mean to deal with blocking enemy. The only reliable way that I can come up with: is using telekinesis magic. You probably think “Why not use the grapple combo?”. I tried that dozens time. It doesn’t work like in Capcom’s beat em up game. The grab only occurs if the final hit of the combo land successfully and it’s blockable attack.   

 

We move on to Daret bridges. We are ambushed by archers. Brom suggests that I call Saphirra the dragon to destroy the archer tower. I’m freaking impressed with number of arrows that puncture our cover there and also their level of penetration. 

The mark for dragon call is wing and to call the dragon I have to use the same procedure as the magic casting. But thankfully, there’s no conflict context in this section.

 

After destroying the 2 archer towers, the gate is open and we can proceed. From here on out, Sapphira helps us in combat. You can see she grab one of Urgal and proceed to drop it to his demise. Spy_thanks03.wav

Until she gets an arrow to the chest and Eragon orders her to fall back. When I was the dragon in PSP version, I will just eat enemies to replenish health and keep fighting.

 

Brom is surrounded by bunch of Urgals. Suddenly, Eragon can fire explosive arrow “Brisingr”. Wait. Isn’t Brisingr supposed to be fire element in other game? Why this Brisingr just shining blue explosive arrow?  

After bit tutorial section of casting Brisingr which is performed by holding left shift button then space bar and pressing light attack button few times. Eragon collapses due to exhaustion. The bridge also collapses along with some Urgals that about to after him. Luckily, Sapphira can grab Eragon just in time. I know this scene from the PSP game.

 

Now we’re into dragon riding section! Like in the PSP game, Brom releases some doves for Sapphira to eat. This section is auto scrolling but you still need to steer Sapphira near the dove to eat them. Also, there’s some branching path.

Now we’re in archery tutorial but Eragon only use magic arrow Brisingr. He ditches regular normal arrow, for some reason. Maybe because Brisingr create explosion upon impact thus more accurate in barbaric way, not in finesse way. Because the firing arrow using magic in process, I have to wait for the magic bar to refill fully before I can shoot another arrow.

There’s speed boost to like in PSP game. Q button that once used to activate fury mode, is used to activate speed boost. I think that transparent bar on center is to determine whether my speed boot is ready or not. But it doesn’t fill at all, perhaps due to visual bug. Although I reckon that glowing eye on top of the bar may indicate the speed boost readiness.  

 

Suddenly a pair of Ra’zac attacking us. Probably, they’re the one who responsible to slay the butcher back then. They’re attacking either leaping at me with knife stab or throwing their knives. Their attack pattern reminds me of Namco’s Ninja Assault, strangely enough. I know that they’re monstrous assassin but they barely stand a chance against me on flying dragon. Group of archers or ballista possess more threat than this gits. But the main enemy in this section is the trees or stalagmite on cavern section, not the Ra’zac themselves. You can hold the block button to reduce the impact of collision. The game doesn’t tell me if I can block enemy’s attack. Should you need health refill, Brom gladly release some dove once in a while.  

 

Once their health bar empty, one of their friend sneak behinds Eragon. Both Eragon and Sapphira fall. Eragon is relatively save but Sapphira take some crash landing and trees fall on her. Poor dragon.

 

So, it’s up to Eragon to rescue the dragon. Clearing away the timber and the entangling roots (that are conjured by Ra’zac) by using magic, naturally. Brom is here too, to distract Ra’zac when Eragon channeling his magic to rescue Sapphira. I need to do some sequence of magic casting while there’s magic hand mark on object. Once there’s no more object with the mark, I have to kill the Ra’zac to progress.

But suddenly, 2 Ra’zac appear! This is very bad. When there’s only one of them, Brom can distract him with no problem. But when there’s 2 of them, I’m forced to be more active in combat. I just notice that, I can’t perform the grounded stab on them. Probably because that move will instantly kill them and that make Ra’zac less threatening.   

Eventually…

 

The level is completed although I believe I was in the middle of close-up view when Ra’zac manage to kill me but I win anyway. There are barely healing orbs at all here. Then this cutscene plays where Eragon conjure entangling roots on Ra’zac. Taste your own medicine, ugly schmuck!

After hearing story of Brom losing his dragon, Eragon have vision about Arya asking to rescue her.

 

Now, I’m allowed to cast magic that push enemies, huh! I think I stop the writing here. But I will continue the game off the record, from this point.

Stormfront Studio’s Eragon (2006) is felt like Golden Axe if Sega is brave enough to make one closer to origin instead of Beast Rider that no one like. Although sure, the gameplay has flaw. Mainly the lack of mean to deal with enemy’s block. But again, Golden Axe also has same problem. Maybe the animal’s attack can bypass block, I’m not sure. Urgals pose a bigger problem than king’s men not because they have bigger health, but because they have more sense to block often. Using telekinesis magic on them, will make them defenseless for a while. But when there’s like 6 of enemies, I can’t use the magic reliably due to relatively slow charging time. I wish the grab is more intuitive or there’s some kind of combo with guard break finisher. Maybe it’s knockback swipe (heavy, light, light) because enemies seems can’t block that one. But it’s not fully proven yet. Maybe the other way to deal with enemies that block often, is to stop attacking and prepare to parry their attack. But the parry timing is arbitrary. The game doesn’t have combo hit count that could be useful to keep track of my combo. Take aside of combo finisher, all of combo hit sequence look generic so I often lose track of what combo I’m currently making. Then there’s little feedback on enemy getting that I mentioned before. But I have to give the developer some credit for distinct use/feature on each combo. Knockback swipe’s finisher will make enemies knockback and hit multiple enemies in the front. Knockdown smash’s finisher will make enemies knockdown so you can follow it with the ground stab, instantly killing them. Stun attack’s finisher can make enemy stun for a while and you can follow it up with grabbing them or you can change your target while their stunned. Grapple combo’s finisher will automatically follow up with grab, easily my favorite. The magic system is quick to use but it will be better if I can change my magic target. The checkpoint is pretty generous. The dragon riding section is quite fun with pretty precise shooting although not as good as in the PSP game. The music is orchestra good but sadly barely catching. The visual effect on in-game feels light but adequate enough. However the visual effect on narration is gorgeous. I especially like demonic feature on Durze like bright red eyes or he moves fast and creepily like shadow.
 

Eragon (2006) is pretty interesting slash em up game a la Golden Axe but still lacks of finesse. The GBA game has the slowest story pace because you play as Arya and Co. first. The PSP game has the fastest story pace because you play as Sapphira in adult phase, so the developer need to make some time skip in plot. As for this game, it has pretty much middle ground in story pace. I might make some controversial opinion but I dare say this. Even though Eragon the movie is kind of fail, but it spawns 3 interesting games. My most favorite is the dragon flight in PSP. It’s pretty breakthrough on the genre and it plays very well. This game is my 2nd most favorite although the combat is pretty monotonous even with bit unlockable skill here and there. The GBA game is the least favorite, naturally. But don’t let that opinion hinders you to try the game. It’s RPG with combo system, like Legend of Legaia but in faster pace. Even though the magic casting costs some health instead of mana or MP because there’s none. I can suggest you to play at least one of them. Give it a shot, you probably like it.

Note: the game crashes 3 times while i use FRAPS. Change the game's compatibility to Windows XP 3, can solve that problem.