On the surface of it, Dragon is Dead looks like a more traditional fantasy version of something like Blasphemous. It has the same red-infused, almost muddy pixel art, the same heavy animation style where everything looks like it carries just a little too much weight. But not only is it a lot less bleak, it’s also a little more accessible, too.
Which is not to be translated as “it’s a walk in the park”. It’s still a pretty gritty roguelite side-scroller with a handful of tough bosses and plenty of secrets to uncover. You play as the Successor, a powerful warrior able to wield all manner of weapons, who will be resurrected at death albeit with some of your progress reset. Death will drop you back at the start of the game but you’ll retain some of the loot you’ve gathered as well as a few permanent stat and gear increases.
Like Dead Cells, the appeal comes in learning how to deal with every enemy type, memorising the attack patterns of each boss (the first of which gave me a headache for a while), and hoping for the luck of the drop when it comes to gear. You do retain the weapons and armour you’ve accrued, so even though progress on the compact skill trees is reduced, you will get incrementally stronger between runs. Defeating all enemies in a screen will reward you with ruby keys to open special gear chests, or give you the choice of two buffs, or a trio of weapons or artefacts that increase your stats and survivability.
The skill trees are quite interesting too, adding elemental buffs to your weapons that can be further enhanced and customised by subsequent passives. There are also a handful of skills and spells to subsidise your loadout. As is pretty customary now, your dodge move has i-frames, meaning you’ll be pirouetting through enemies and projectiles, hitting them from both sides and trying your best to keep an eye on everything.
On a 2D plane fighting multiple enemies at once is always a little annoying, and in Dragon is Dead this remains the case. Enemies stack up behind one another making it very hard to read incoming attacks. You can get by most of it by staying mobile and trying to keep your distance where possible, but this layered messiness is what made the first boss and some areas particularly frustrating. That said, the developer seems to have over-compensated a little by adding an immense amount of stun-lock to your standard attack. It’s a bit of overkill at times, even if it does help to even the playing field when you need it.
As far as story goes, Dragon is Dead has a fairly forgettable overall narrative that does little more than contextualise the world. It’s there if you want to seek it out, and it’s certainly nice that they’ve written so much of it, but I often found myself thumbing through conversations because some of the NPCs just talk far too much and I don’t want to read that much text when I’m trying to get my monster-slayer on.
It’s balanced by a regular supply of loot, quick and rewarding levelling, and really enjoyable combat. Because it is really enjoyable, even with the slight imbalances. Your Successor moves fluidly, attacks are responsive, and there’s great weight and feedback to your weapon strikes. The move into 1.0 will add a number of new features such as several new areas and bosses and another playable character with a different move-set, to add further replayability to the experience.
Detailed environments and well-designed enemies and bosses add to the one-more-go appeal, too. Not only are you constantly hoovering up loot and improving your character, but the world is a joy to explore and take in. Although it may not be quite as relentlessly grim as a Blasphemous, the atmosphere Dragon is Dead creates is equally as effective at building a sense of place.
While there are dozens of games similar to Dragon is Dead readily available on multiple platforms, there is something highly addictive and satisfying about what TeamSuneat have produced. It’s a largely uncluttered 2D action game that unveils its more intricate systems steadily, so you’re not overwhelmed and are able to focus more on pushing through each new challenge.
Dragon is Dead is out now, having left early access on Steam.
