Unlike SEGA's touch panel games, where you have to purchase a deck of cards to become more powerful, Druaga Online utilizes only one card, which contains all of the data for your character. When you first start the game, you'll be asked to choose an avatar from the four available in the game. You can choose from Gilgamesh, Valkyrie, Young Ki and Xeovalga. Each character uses slightly different tactics in a fight; Gilgamesh and Xeovalga are better suited for melee combat, while Valkyrie and Young Ki are long-range specialists.
For a one-button game, the game is surprisingly advanced. The single button handles all of your attacks, as well as the ability to jump. By holding down the attack button, you can use an AP attack, which is more powerful than your regular attacks, but uses up your AP meter. This secondary attack complements your character's primary attack, so for the Valkyrie, her secondary attack is a close-range sword thrust. This is really helpful if enemies get a little too close for comfort. Aside from item usage, each character has a separate Force and Arts ability, which can be accumulated by gaining levels. The difference between the two abilities isn't totally clear, but it seems that Arts can be used for healing or defensive purposes, while Force abilities are primarily for offensive powers.
Your Items, Force and Arts abilities are all managed by the handy touch-screen in front of you, not to mention your movement. Following a system similar to Blizzard's Diablo, your avatar will walk to whatever point you touch on the screen, while dragging your finger across the screen will make your character seamlessly move about. It's a system that works well enough, and attacking couldn't be simpler. Unless otherwise directed, your avatar will dish out heavenly pain on the closest enemy. True, the game is supposed to be a simple dungeon crawler, and lots of combat is a given in this type of game, but personally, the game seems to have been simplified too much.
The game is split up into several "epics", or chapters, as normal people would call them. Each epic consists of one or two floors with the nastiest demons and bad guys that you've ever seen. One thing that will really turn off potential players is that the game costs a near fortune to play. Usually games are 100 yen in Japan, and this is also true for Druaga. However, inserting 100 yen into the machine will net you one play credit, while the game requires two play credits to start a level.
In essence, you'll be paying 200 yen per game, which only lasts one or two levels at most. Luckily, most games will allow you to purchase six play credits for a mere 500 yen, which will give you at least three levels to play through before the game finishes. The potential problem with this is that the game doesn't have any sort of significant ending; its episodic nature allows it to go on for a far longer time than, say, a fighting game. Coupled with the potential to play with up to four players and you have the makings of a very addictive experience.
Aside from the actual game machine, there's also a standalone cabinet where you can insert your Druaga Online card and manage your inventory and character. Customization is also possible in the game. The more you progress, the more items you'll unlock, so it's in your best interests to get as far as possible. Compared to other games that feature customization, Druaga's options are fairly limited; only the major limbs are customizable, and there are only four available parts for each section. Using this customization cabinet also lets you do two other things. First, it lets you combine items together in order to create a wholly new item, and secondly, you can also break down items so that you can get their base ingredients, which you can then use to combine with other items to form new ones. Of course, using the stand requires you to pay. Everything has a price.
Druaga Online is played via top-down perspective, and you don't have any control over the camera. The visuals are clean, but a little on the simple side. The simplistic graphics actually work well for the game, since it retains the original graphical style of previous iterations, and the lower poly models allow for more enemies on screen. Some of the bosses in the game are absolutely huge as well, which more than makes up for the somewhat drab minor enemies. Honestly though, if you're playing this game for the graphics, you have some serious problems. The game has been designed solely as a treat for dungeon crawler fans, so you may want to look towards games such as Virtua Fighter 5 if you want some sort of graphical extravaganza.
Due to the technology used in the game and the fact that American arcades are virtually dead, don't expect to see Druaga Online in an arcade in your neighborhood very soon. However, if you're visiting Japan and fancy something that's totally unique and actually fun to play, make sure to check this out, despite its price tag.