Monday, February 11, 2013

My Month with Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, Part 1

I thought I'd take a more straightforward approach to this month's "Bye-Bye, Backlog" follow-up posts. For instance, here are a few stats related to my playthrough of Square Enix's Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, which was released for the DS in late 2006:

* So far, I've played the game for just about three and a half hours.
* In that time, I've saved 24 of my kidnapped (slimenapped?) buddies.
* I've only opened up two locations: Forewood Forest and Tootinschleiman's Tomb.
* Unfortunately, I can't remember how many of the game's tank-on-tank battles I've experienced up to this point, although I want to say I've completed four or five.

Other than that, what do I like and what do I hate about Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime right now? Actually, I can't say I hate any part of it. On the contrary, I like pretty much every aspect of this adorable overhead action-puzzler.

My favorite aspect has to be the core gameplay, which mainly involves slamming into enemies (with the titular Rocket's "Elasto Blast" move), popping them into the air and then catching them on your back (or should I say head?). That captured baddies can be stacked--three high--and tossed at their cohorts is the icing on this pixelated cake.

That only makes up a portion of Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime's gameplay, though; with the other part consisting of the above-mentioned tank-on-tank battles. Surprisingly (to me, at least), I'm not enjoying these sequences as much as I'm enjoying the overworld (for lack of a better word) ones. Too often they feel like a chaotic mess, with me flinging bullets and rocks and whatnot at the enemy tank without much rhyme or reason. Maybe I'm just missing some heretofore strategic element of these encounters?

Other than that one stumbling block, though, I'm having a lot of fun with this game and I'm very much looking forward to unlocking additional locations and rescuing more of my slime buddies. As such, expect me to put another few hours into the game this week and look for me to publish a second "My Month with Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime" next Monday (if not before).

See also: Previous posts related to the 'Bye-Bye, Backlog' project

8 comments:

Anthony Jauneaud said...

I think you summed it up: the game is not perfect but every aspect of it is fun and nice. I love it <3

thegaygamer.com said...

Hey there, Anthony! Yes, fun and nice are good words to describe this game, I think. Anyway, I'm enjoying it enough that I plan on tracking down the GBA original at some point. Also, I hope the 3DS sequel is localized at some point, although I guess that's kind of unlikely at this point (given it was released some time ago in Japan) :(

michaelstearns said...

I think you really hit it with the feeling like the tank battles should have more strategy to them but you're not able to figure out what that is. I struggled past the final couple of battles (maybe I just had the wrong ammo?) without ever feeling like it had clicked. I'll tell you how I beat them after you've done it yourself, I wouldn't want to accidentally steer you towards my "wrong" technique. :)

thegaygamer.com said...

Yeah, most of the time I'm just flailing about during the tank battles, Michael. I do feel I'm getting a *bit* smarter about them--shooting off less desirable ammo in advance of more desirable ammo, so the latter is more likely to hit the mark, for instance--but even then they feel kind of like a crap shoot. As for you sharing your 'wrong' technique: I'm all ears!

michaelstearns said...

Hah! Well I don't remember exactly the details, but what would happen is my tank's defenses would be beaten, but my own personal defense (ie, running around with my sidekicks) was nearly unstoppable--the bad guys would charge the tank to get to the core, and we'd beat them and then shoot them back at their tank. Somehow I was able to keep this up long enough to defeat the enemy tank, and then run in to destroy their core. It felt really cheap (and could take quite a while), but for lack of any other strategy that worked better, it got me through!

thegaygamer.com said...

You kno what, Michael? I've employed a similar tactic at least once so far. I don't yet have any sidekicks (on my tank), though, so I had to do everything myself. I'd fend off the enemy attack on the ground, run back into my ship, fire off some ammo, and then scramble back down to the ground to beat up the baddies again. I agree that it feels cheap, but what else are you supposed to do in such situations?

Justin Difazzio said...

Oh, the tank battles are certainly a crap shoot. It's very "try this and see what happens". But...the chaos is part of the fun, I think. By the time you need it, you'll be getting crazy great ammo.

thegaygamer.com said...

Well, I'm glad to hear I'm not alone in thinking they're a bit of a crap shoot, Justin. Also glad to hear that crazy great ammo is in my future. I have a feeling they'll always be my least favorite part of the game, but that doesn't mean I hate them. They're just not as much fun as running around, ramming into baddies and then tossing them every which way!