Dragon Is Dead Review
But Are Its Cells?
There’s a lot of oversaturation of side-scrolling action roguelite RPGs, especially in indie spaces. TeamSuneat’s Dragon Is Dead has a steep hill to climb, and unfortunately, there is too much holding it back from true greatness. However, an excellent combat loop and an interesting loot system elevate an otherwise barebones experience.
Dragon Is Dead is set in a world where, as the title suggests, the legendary Black Dragon Guernian is dead. As a result, a strange corruption has taken hold of the world and caused all manners of monsters to appear. The player character is a Successor, a warrior chosen by the gods to fight back the corruption. The Successor must use their powers to uncover the mystery of Guernian’s death and stop those who would take advantage of the corruption for their own ends.
The narrative of Dragon Is Dead is a bit disappointing. The protagonist is silent, meaning their motivations are entirely up to interpretation by players and the protagonist’s allies. Most narrative events happen between stages or right before fighting a boss, but the dialogue is poorly executed, and characters rarely ever do anything beyond show up and deliver exposition. Most dialogue consists of characters explaining their actions and giving players a history lesson, and a lack of presentational flair or clever execution leaves these scenes feeling like a chore rather than a reward for a challenge. While some of the ideas and lore are interesting especially the early reveal that previous successors are alive, the presentation and execution leaves a lot to be desired.
Though characters have interesting designs, they can’t help but feel flat in their personalities.
The game has three different Successors, the Spellblade, the Berserker, and the Hunter. The game’s intro sees the player as the Spellblade, but each different character can be chosen freely at the starting area, the town of Cliffshire. Each character has drastically different playstyles, and players are encouraged to experiment with each, as most progression obtained outside of combat can be transferred between characters, with the exception of class-specific weapons and accessories. Berserker is a slow, primarily physical attacker that uses abilities that drain their own health to deal massive damage. Hunter is a nimble ranged character that focuses on damage over time. Spellblade focuses on elemental damage and has a mix of close and long-range attacks.
Dragon Is Dead, being a roguelite, starts the player from Cliffshire after every death. Most areas consist of four levels. The first is a rest area, where players can spend resources for different upgrades, refill their health, and more. The next two levels task players with eliminating every enemy available. The final level is a boss which, once beaten, will drop an item that grants hefty rewards upon claiming. This process rinses and repeats until either the player dies, or they beat the final boss of the game.
Combat in each run starts the same, with players only having access to their dodge, a basic attack, and a limited number of health potions, the number of which can be enhanced back in Cliffshire. Every defeated enemy grants experience and levels equate to both more health and a point that can be spent in the skill tree. Each character has a predetermined skill tree, making it easy to experiment and find the best options for each character. Skills come in five flavors: Basic, Core, Assistant, Mastery, and Ultimate. Basic and Core skills are the most prevalent and likely what most builds will be built around, with Assistant, Mastery, and Ultimate skills providing more situational options. Basic skills alter a character’s basic attack, such as granting the Spellcaster an elemental basic attack or the Hunter a poison-laced dart. Core skills are the only skill type that requires combat resources to use. Resources are easy to replenish through basic attacks, however, so core skills can be used without worry. Assistant, Mastery, and Ultimate skills operate more as special moves that are on a timer before they can be used again, making them a good supplement to a build rather than something to base an entire build around.
Combat is easily the game’s most fleshed out element.
Moment-to-moment gameplay is incredibly satisfying. The dodge has just enough invincibility frames to feel powerful without being a crutch, attacks and skills flow together nicely, and most enemy attacks are clear and easy to understand. Platforming is emphasized in the tutorial but is primarily a method of movement rather than something levels are built around. It pays to have eyes on every corner of the screen, however, because attacks will definitely blindside those who are only focused exclusively on what their character is doing and not on the attacks of faraway enemies.
Equipment is one of the few things carried over between runs, and higher rarity gear can be augmented in the starting area to improve its stats and effects, such as cooldowns, currency gain, damage dealt, and more. While at first glance equipment is merely a way to raise attack and defense, higher rarity equipment offers passive effects that can dramatically alter a build. One example is a sword for the Spellcaster that alters their fire basic attack into an extremely quick combo. The first hit of this combo comes out so fast that if one holds down the attack button while also holding down the button for a core skill that fires a fireball, the basic attack and core skill will alternate rapidly, effectively making for an infinite combo under the right circumstances.
Visually, Dragon Is Dead accomplishes what it needs to. Areas are visually distinct while remaining cohesive, such as the church areas managing to differentiate themselves from one another. Backgrounds are also gorgeous and often steal the show from the foreground, though the character sprites to a good job in their own right. The soundtrack is incredibly limited, which only makes the offerings feel a bit worse by their repetition. This is especially felt during boss fights, as they all share the same theme, which makes them feel like mundane encounters rather than something interesting.
Characters look good in front of every background.
Bosses are the definite highlight of the game, with each one having a striking visual design that blends in well with their biomes that they control. Presentation is at an all-time high in these encounters, and there are no instances where the fights feel unfair or unbalanced. While a few bosses might catch the player off guard with their mechanics, the readability of every attack means eventually every boss becomes less a test of skill and more a gauge of how powerful one’s build is.
While the core gameplay, loot systems, and build-crafting of Dragon Is Dead are all solid, unfortunately the game’s roguelite elements feel underbaked at best. Non-boss levels merely feel like glorified combat rooms. There are no secrets to discover, nor is there any variance in area progression. Players can expect to find the same areas, enemies, and bosses, all in the same order, on every single run. The game’s attempt to add some variance manifests in artifacts, items that provide passive benefits such as more maximum health or elemental damage, among other benefits, and are lost upon ending a run. Furthermore, collecting multiple artifacts that share a category can activate a set bonus depending on how many are obtained. While not a terrible system in theory, what holds artifacts back is the limit of nine artifact slots, low variety in artifacts themselves, and painfully high set bonus requirements. None of these elements are bad in a vacuum, but Dragon Is Dead’s implementation leads to more disappointment in a lackluster build than excitement in a build coming together.
Easily the coolest boss of the entire game.
On a technical level, Dragon Is Dead is solid. Nothing is outright broken, although sometimes icons can remain on characters indicating unique dialogue that has already finished, which can be confusing. Another potential pain point is that the game was not optimally designed with controllers in mind. Indicators can be confusing and sometimes menu options simply won’t work with a controller, necessitating a switch to mouse and keyboard in certain situations. Thankfully, nothing here will impede progress, but it still feels clunky and underdone.
Dragon Is Dead has a solid foundation with incredibly fun combat and an addictive loot grind. Unfortunately, the game fails to implement systems that successfully utilize the repetitiveness inherent to its genre, and without a satisfying narrative, it becomes simply another action roguelite in a long list. RPGamers that enjoy loot systems and roguelites in general will certainly find something to appreciate here, but the game is unlikely to sway those who don’t already enjoy the genre.
Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.
Fluid and fun combat
Interesting equipment combos
Incredible bosses
Limited soundtrack
Poor narrative execution
Underwhelming roguelite elements
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