Eragon is the first book in a series, written by Christopher Paolini, which has recently been turned into a major motion picture. The Game Boy Advance (GBA) edition is just one version in addition to the game being released on almost every platform known to mankind. What we get with the GBA version is a rather deep and involved role-playing game that might surprise some GBA owners. The game sure surprised me by offering a dose of old-school style RPG gameplay.

The game centers on you playing the role of Eragon and his adventures in Alagaesia. Eragon discovers a mysterious object that turns out to be a dragon egg. The dragon soon hatches and Eragon is swept up into a dangerous journey to protect himself and the dragon. Along the way Eragon discovers the secrets of the Dragon Riders and the powers of his dragon, Saphira.

Eragon for the GBA includes a nice selection of features for a movie-based (yeah I know, book-based) RPG. The battle system offers a combo system for both melee and ranged combat. The combo system is based upon you learning special moves that you can unleash during combat. The combos allow you to mix a variety of light or heavy attacks during combat that increase your chance of hitting an enemy for more hit points. All of the combat is turned based with each character waiting turns before they attack again. The game even includes the ability to block or dodge enemy attacks but I never had much luck with this feature.

The battle system is called a Time Unit, which is really a meter that you fill up with either light or heavy attacks. Once you have filled up the Time Unit your character will then attack. Along with heavy and light attacks each character can have melee or ranged weapons that can be mixed into the Time Unit battle system. The Time Unit starts off very limited with only a couple of units available but it will increase as you progress through the game. Soon you can have four or five Time Units at your disposable to create some hard hitting combos. Besides melee or ranged combat the game does include magic combat which can be limited to certain characters. The game doesn’t use the Time Unit system when casting magic spells. You simply select the character you want to target and then select the spell from a list that is linked to your directional button.

The game includes an abilities system for the characters in the game called Focus. The focus system is composed of Magic, Herbal, Endurance, Weapon and Hunting elements. Simply put the focus system allows you to increase the abilities of your party members to higher levels for each focus element. If you want a party member to be powerful in magic then you have their focus set to magic. All of the focus elements can reach level 100 which could probably take forever, especially for most of your characters. The game does limit some of the characters to only specific focus abilities but Eragon is able to select all of the focus abilities. The game has items scattered throughout the world that can only be interacted with if you have the correct Focus level. It was quite common at the beginning of the game to find items everywhere that I couldn’t use because my focus levels weren’t high enough.

The gameplay is something I would call an old-school RPG that doesn’t hold back. You better get your walking shoes ready because you have to spend some quality time in battles for experience points. Honestly this was a huge surprise for me since I really didn’t expect this amount of detail in this game. But I soon found all of my characters dying repeatedly because I didn’t take the time to level up. The game doesn’t level up your characters or slowly move you into tougher battles. Nope this game hangs you out to dry right away by letting you fight enemies several times more powerful than your party.

The game is a combination of random battles and enemies you can see before they attack you. When in the world map view all of the battles are random while battles inside locations allow you to see the enemies. But I guess Eragon was hated by everyone because the enemies were always chasing after me at top speed. It was sometimes pointless to even try and run away because the enemy would match my speed. I probably shouldn’t even mention how it was hard to determine how powerful an enemy was, since they all looked the same, until after being attacked. Nothing is as satisfying as making it through a tough battle to only run into another fight with even tougher enemies and have no idea until you’re dead.

I must admit that Eragon does offer an entertaining experience for the GBA but the audience for this entertainment will probably be split. Some gamers will enjoy the rough-and-tough RPG gameplay because you will be awarded with patience and persistence. Other gamers will probably give up after a few hours due to the relentlessness of the enemy and steep curve in raising your characters experience. Ask yourself if you enjoy fighting one battle, going back to town to rest, fighting another battle and then going back to town to rest again. Repeat this cycle consistently and then ask yourself if this sounds like fun. Fans of the book and movie, that must try this game, better be prepared for a potentially rough experience.

Gameplay: 7.0
It’s a classic-style RPG game with random battles and raising experience points being the main course for gamers looking for a challenge.

Graphics: 6.0
The graphics are presented in a top-down view when you’re exploring areas that are washed out and lacking any detail. You can hardly tell the difference between most of the characters you see in the game because the characters look like blobs instead of people at times. The graphics are better during the combat, which is presented in a classic side view (think early Final Fantasy). During the conversations you do get to see an avatar of the character in the game.

Sound: 7.7
The music in the game was a pleasant surprise with some nice arrangements that should please any gamer. None of the music hits that “oh please stop that theme from playing again!” note and does a great job of setting the atmosphere of the game.

Difficulty: Hard
I probably cursed at this game more than any recent game that I’ve played. I wanted to keep moving to get to the next area, which cost me hours because I didn’t level up my characters properly. Even when I thought I went up enough levels the game was quick to humble me again.

Concept: 6.5
If you’re a fan of the book then you will probably enjoy the story and concept of the game more than other gamers. Honestly, I have never read the books so I have no idea how accurate the game is to the book. The story was interesting but seemed broken at times by skipping, what I thought, were huge chunks of time in the plot. The game itself just reminded me of an RPG for the SNES that I passed on years ago.

Overall: 6.8
Eragon for the GBA is a surprise for me because it kept reminding me of RPGs from the 16-Bit era. This isn’t another cookie-cutter licensed game; instead the game offers a deep, albeit flawed, gameplay experience. Just don’t expect to blow through this game right away. Instead you will have to take your time and level up your characters in the hope of making it through the game.