Exercise 1.2: D.O.A.

Exercise 1.2: D.O.A. - Take one game that you've played that was D.O.A. By D.O.A., we mean “dead on arrival” (i.e., a game that’s no fun to play). Write down what you don’t like about it. What did the designers miss out on? How could the game be improved?

       One game that I have played that was D.O.A. is Chrono Cross (PlayStation). I didn't like the battle style, and the soundtrack was good, but not very memorable. What I disliked the most about it, though, was that while it was supposedly a sequel to Chrono Trigger (SNES), it was almost like a stand-alone game. It didn't feel like a sequel. The tie-ins with its predecessor were few and far between until the very end of the game; it had 45 playable characters, none of whom received any significant character development (compared to 7 playable characters in Chrono Trigger, all of whom were well developed and unique); The battle sequences were awkward, confusing, and boring. The soundtrack was good, but didn't leave a lasting impression. The story-line was almost impossible to follow unless the player carefully read all text, played Chrono Trigger and Radical Dreamers (which never saw the light of day outside of Japan) before playing Chrono Cross, and even then many players still can't understand the plot.

       The designers missed out on tie-ins with Chrono Trigger, and also should have made the battle system more navigable and sensible. They should have had fewer characters and more character development, a clearer story-line and plot, and it needed to have shorter loading screens (although that was mostly because of the system itself, not the game).