Nightmare of Druaga Review Part 1

The game we are reviewing today is The Nightmare of Druaga (Fushigino dungeon) by Namco for the Sony PlayStation 2. It is a single player game. It is rated E for Everyone by ESRB with fantasy violence and mild language. This game requires a PS2 memory card with at least 444KB free storage space. It supports digital control, analog control, and vibration function. It is billed as a dream collaboration between the popular Mysterious Dungeon series and the arcade classic, The Tower of Druaga.

(And pretty much every word in the preceeding paragraph needed a registered or trademarked or copyrighted symbol after it. Until I get a keyboard with those keys on it, you're just going to have to add them in yourself. It will serve as a reminder that all the products and intellectual properties mentioned in this review are owned by their respective owners and their use here is not intended to dilute or dispute said ownership. Now back to the review!)

I'm not an expert on PS2 games, or any of the current crop of modern gaming systems, so this is going to be a learning experience for all of us. When I received The Nightmare of Druaga, the first thing I noticed was the packaging. I'm used to PC games either being in arbitrarily large cardboard boxes or standard CD cases. Nightmare of Druaga was packaged in a standard DVD case, which my nephew assures me is the standard for PS2 and other DVD-based gaming systems these days. I don't so much mind standard DVD cases, but two minor things do irritate me. First is that, in most cases (no pun intended), a DVD requires no more space than what a standard CD does. Why someone decided that DVD cases should be half again as large as CD cases is beyond me. The official reason is that technically declined people can't tell the difference between a CD and a DVD and get upset when they by something that won't work on their system. My response is that these people should learn to read a label.

Nightmare of Druaga actually uses the extra space, so I can't really grudge them on that count. The 32 page manual is the full size of the DVD case, which is not always the case. I've squinted at manuals that were small enough to fit in a CD case even though the packaging was a DVD case. I'm not sure what the logic in that is. The text in the manual is a little small for my old eyes, but my nephew seems to have no trouble reading it. Also, the Nightmare of Druaga case includes storage space for a PS2 memory card. Since Nightmare of Druaga requires a memory card, this is probably a good thing.

My other pet peeve about DVD cases are the anti-theft devices. With a PC game in an arbitrarily large cardboard box, I can get to the game by simply pulling off one small piece of tape or cutting the shrinkwrap with a thumbnail along the box's end. With the standard DVD case, and with Nightmare of Druaga, I have to break out a knife or a screwdriver and pick at the shrinkwrap until if finally gives. Then there's the Chinese puzzle of overlapping adhesive stickers holding every joining edge together. I have split flimsy DVD cases trying to open them after missing a sticker in a darkened home theater.

This is not so much a complaint about Nightmare of Druaga or Namco, but rather a plea to the gaming industry in general: Please, work out a more efficient packaging system that not only minimizes unused space, but also deters theft without irritating the people who have actually paid for the use of the contents. And bigger print in the manuals. (But more on that in just a second.)

I had heard that the PS2 could play (some) DVD movies, but I guess it never occurred to me that PS2 games would actually say "DVD-ROM" on them. In fact, tossing the Nightmare of Druaga game disk into my trusty PC revealed that is was readable by my DVD+RW drive. Not that I have any idea what any of these files are, mind you. But I do notice that they take up pretty big chunk of what I assume is a single layer DVD. There is a little empty space, though. And do you know what I think should go there? PC extras like maybe a text, PDF, or HTML version of the manual. That way I can print out a version of the manual with big enough text to read by the glow of the television. (I told you I'd get back to that.)

Okay, so I need new glasses and really need more light in the gameroom. Sue me.

Having stalled long enough, I fired up the PS2 and inserted the Nightmare of Druaga game DVD. The opening animation was impressive. I found myself actually disappointed when it ended. I wanted to know more of the backstory and find out more about the characters. But I figured I'd learn all that soon enough in the actual game.

This game requires a PS2 memory card with at least 444KB free storage space. Not "recommends" or "you can't save your game without one" but actually "requires." I had thought that I'd not be able to save options or game state, or perhaps not get past the first checkpoint without a memory card. But it turns out that Nightmare of Druaga uses an automatic save system which is apparently vital to the game. It will not even let you start the game without a memory card. Or, more accurately, it will give you the option of starting the game without a memory card, will show the opening animation, and then tell you that you can't proceed without said memory card.

Which brings this review to a screeching halt for for tonight. I'll have to check with a nephew or two before I start saving games on memory cards. In the mean time, here are some larger images of the front and back covers. Sorry for the quality. My scanner doesn't work with any modern OS and there's a limit what you can do with a Sony Mavica camera.

Related links:

• The Nightmare of Druaga Official Website
• Cheek.Org's The Nightmare of Druaga Preview
• Cheek.Org's The Nightmare of Druaga Review Part 2