Reviewed: December 13, 2006
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud

Publisher
Sierra

Developer
Amaze Entertainment

Released: November 14, 2006
Genre: Turn-based RPG
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone

9
8
6
9
8.0

Supported Features

You will follow the story of Eragon and his new found friend Saphira the dragon. Meet his new comrades in arms against the dark shade Durza and evil King Galbatorix; Brom the old wizened story teller, Ayra the elf guard of the dragon egg, Murtagh the orphan with a troubled past and Angela an herbalist witch. You get to play each of these characters at one time or another throughout your quest to avenge your uncle’s death and your hometowns razing by the Ra’zac.

You will follow the exploits of first Eragon, Saphira and Brom from their hometown to other towns and lands where other fiercer opponents await. Without giving more of the story away it does take you through the first book of the series and follows the story line pretty closely. Eragon for the GBA has used pretty much all the same elements of the story but in a very concise and understandable way to make the adventure fun and rewarding.

There was no part of the story that I did not understand and only a few areas that I was at a loss to follow because I missed the story on the screen. They have used the role-playing levels, abilities and combat to create a very good game and one that is very worth getting. Even when I missed something it became pretty obvious with a little searching around what I needed to do. The story is not hard to follow and where you go is blocked if you haven’t gotten that far or if you’re further along and try to go back.

There are two main screens you play on during your visit to the lands of Alagaesia, the map view and the combat scene. The map shows the land you are traveling through or the cities you visit and has one character representing your party of players. You can see things like towns, rivers and buildings depending on the area you are in. On the map view the groups of other people running around that you can join in combat will try to run at you while you can sometimes outrun them or avoid them with some fancy footwork.

When you can’t avoid enemies you will go to the combat screen and each character of your party will be shown on the right side of the screen while your enemies are on the left. You will have up to six enemies on the screen at once that you will be fighting against. The combat occurs by the fastest character on the screen going first or by the weapon type such as archers usually starting off any combat. From there it is a turn based combat with each side trying to be the first to bring the others hit points down to a level where they pass out and finish the combat sequence.

You fight using the weapons you have altered in towns or using your pocket blacksmith shop or potions and magic until either you’re defeated or you vanquish your enemies. You receive experience in combat toward higher levels so you can use your abilities like endurance and weapons skill for better combat. Your tracking skills of the hunter ability will be helpful in tracking thieves or following others that have left tracks for you to follow. Your magic abilities will help you in combat as well as in finding out things during your adventure.

You can change your equipment, which you gain from combat or find in chests during your adventures on your pause menu. You will also be able to save your game, make herbal potions, fix weapons and refocus your abilities from this menu. Each player has attributes and special attacks that they will get better at by raising levels and training. The higher level and further into the adventure you get the more special attacks you will learn.

You will also use a version of the map view to visit towns and a few other places where you will have goals and objectives for your adventures. The main story line of a boy and his dragon still holds true but in the Gameboy version they have brought most of the story into the game in a clear-cut way that you can understand as long as you read the little statements when people are talking on the screen.

The combat includes little animations for magic, sword hits and your characters stumbling back from the hits. You have some adjustments on the screen for Gamma and brightness but I found I could see everything quite clearly on both Gameboy versions. The small word screens and characters of who is talking looked good for the GBA and there are a few special areas that they did very well with like the battle at Varden near the end of the game.

One that I found added a unique puzzle to the game was to help Eragon learn to read with a puzzle involving some waifs of one town and sentence building. It was silly and very easy but added a little extra to the game that I found charming and often missing in many games. This version of Eragon seems to have been completely made and finished with so many of the parts thought through and made very well that the other versions seem to be missing.

There was plenty to do with the main objectives of your characters and you can even go back through the game to try your hand at all the various parts that you could not try the first time around due to your characters not having enough levels and experience. They have added plenty of extra content in every part of the game for you to try your hand at a lot of level gaining before continuing on for many more hours of gameplay.