A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to try out the CBT.
I decided to start off with a warrior-class character, since I was familiar with its workings during the Valentine preview, and the alpha test before that…or was it the other way around?
Anyway, I played it. I got Fariz to play it. We “married” and played together. Yes, if you haven’t realised by now, it’s the sort of thing we do when we play together. I play a guy (preferably a tanker) and Fariz plays a girl (preferably a killer ranged dudette) and we team up to take on whatever happens to be plaguing our characters’ world etc etc etc.
Anyway. Time for a newbie rundown.
Dragonica prides itself in being an arcade-like platformer MMORPG. You play like you would with other side-scrolling platformers like Altered Beast and Golden Axe (not the current iterations, mind you), running up to monsters and spamming X (the default key for whacking/shooting) till they burst into smoke, turn into meat, or simply keel over and disappear(the default way to die).
Fortunately, the game doesn’t limit you to simply whacking; it lets you launch enemies into the air, whack enemies currently airborne, knock enemies into the ground, damage knocked-down enemies on said ground, and re-launch knocked-down enemies into the air. That’s a lot of attack vectors, some of which are activated by pressing X while holding down a direction. And there’s also a dedicated key for a special attack, too (Z), which may or may not be available depending on your class.
4 different classes (mage, warrior, thief and archer), each with a different style of play. Also, note that (most of) the above moves are treated as skills, even though they don’t need to be dedicated to a hotkey slot to activate. Include the fact that each class have different skill trees, and you know you’re going to need a guide for that perfect build.
The game areas are split into maps connected by portals, but a game area may have multiple areas to explore, accessible by long jump point.
The game encourages teamwork, since the story quests (and class advancement) involve fighting in instances, which get increasingly difficult especially when playing alone. You’ll be surrounded by monsters which can whittle your health down to nothing when you’re not looking, and you’ll also face bosses which you’ll definitely need help distracting, especially when you’re not a tanker.
I haven’t tried out PvP yet, but there haven’t been many negative comments on how it plays out (except something about the hunter being too imbalanced…?). There are also points you can earn in PvP to exchange for special armour sets from certain NPCs in towns.
I also didn’t manage to attain a class promotion, since I only got to level 18 before I had to stop for personal and academic responsibilities. I heard class promotion (at 20) has you collecting keys from mini-bosses in an instance before you fight the final boss.
Overall though, I think it’s quite a fun game. Casual enough to not feel like certain grindy games out there, yet hardcore enough to give “real” gamers the fun they need. There’s even some armor crafting for those who want to go “in-depth”.
There is a very annoying bug though. If you’re near a portal, and you witness someone using it, your character will stop responding to input for a moment. I’m not sure why this happens, but it did during the CBT (and the previews and tests before it).
Fire Hammer Jutsu
In case you’re wondering, yes, I was wearing a Kakashi “paid” costume for the entire duration of the CBT (since they gave me 10k free points to spend). They also had Naruto and Rock Lee costumes, and for the females, they have some Street Fighter in there. And Mai Shiranui, I think. At the very least, I can guarantee there was a Chun Li costume in there.
I apologise for the lack of screenshots, as it seems that my Windows XP copy of Dragonica didn’t save the screenshots somehow, but my Windows 7 copy did. Strange, I know, but w/e.
And oh yes, open beta’s opening in 2 1/4 hours (5PM GMT+8)! Can’t wait! The site’s down now, though, but it’ll be back up in 15 minutes (from the time of this post)!
6 Responses to “Dragonica CBT Review”
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ohnoes brocest!
tragic comedy’s last blog post..Welcome to Black Label
So because you’re a beta tester you get free 10k ‘cash’ points or whatever they’re called. WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU
hey! that game look great..
you can say where we can dowload ?
thanks
I still have difficulty believing I let you rope me into this -.-
Dragonica keep crashing to desktop with my Windows 7 Build 7100 PC. Don’t you?
It didn’t crash for me when I was playing it on my Windows 7, but then again that was a long time ago.
Did you try forcing compatibility settings (right-click and properties)?