Getting a new video game is often comparable to gambling: whether it’s for free to review it or spending some hard-earned money, getting a game without a good amount of research can be anything from finding a gem in the rough to slogging through hours of torture. As a reviewer, nothing makes me happier than playing a game I never would have otherwise and becoming a big fan, letting my excitement spill into my review so hopefully others will discover the same surprise I did. Luckily that’s exactly what happened with Dragon Sinker from
Exe Create Inc. and KEMCO. What could have been an uninspired, dull grind-a-thon was instead an addictive 20+ hour classic RPG adventure!
Dragon Sinker tells the story of Prince Abram, a human hero who is a descendant of one of the three heroes who previously defeated Wyrmvarg (a ferocious dragon) long ago. Unfortunately, like all good RPG villains Wyrmvarg was too powerful to kill and was merely sealed away, and now it’s up to you to put an end to a terrible secret deal between humanity and Wyrmvarg by defeating him once and for all. There are plenty of twists and turns, some of them are even unexpected, but that’s the gist of it!
Even a classic RPG is only as good as its gameplay, and Dragon Sinker does it well. This is a turn-based RPG, but instead of having a few main heroes on your team you’ll have up to twelve assigned to three teams. These teams can easily be swapped between in battle, so if one gets knocked out or you want to theme them (magic users, physical attackers, etc.) then you can easily use whoever’s the best fit. These characters have abilities based on their job, and while the team leaders can’t change jobs, having followers master their jobs will give one of your three team leaders (of your choice) their special “auto-skill” permanently. There are over a dozen jobs to choose from, and you’ll unlock them by collecting the characters who have them. They can be changed at any town so you can easily customize your team, and some team configurations even give you unique bonuses! It’s also worth mentioning that regardless of which team is used in battle, ALL members of your three teams will gain experience after a battle as long as they’re still alive!
Abilities come in two flavors – they use either MP (magic points, of course) or HP. That’s right, many of the special abilities you’ll use actually expend your own hit points, doing damage to yourself. To go along with this idea, the developers added perhaps the greatest addition to any RPG ever – the ability to press a single button to heal yourself back to max HP on the overworld (assuming you have the MP to do it). On the Switch this was the Right Button, and it was spectacular to hit a single button to do what is often annoying and time consuming in other games.
In addition to this sweet touch, there’s also a great options menu. Options allow you to adjust music and SFX, sure, and even difficulty (higher difficulties award more gold and XP), but they also allow you to auto-win battles against weak enemies and/or adjust how frequently you’ll run into random battles in dungeons and the overworld. These can all be changed on the fly, so if you want to grind and level up you can double the random enemy encounters, or if you want to explore without battling as many enemies you can cut them in half. If you buy the game or earn some DRP (Dragon Sinker‘s premium in-game currency) you can even buy and equip a ring that reduces random encounters to 0 while you wear it.
DRP – the premium in-game currency – may scare some away, but it’s done well. Because there’s a free version of this game for mobile, buying a copy grants you 1000 DRP (including the Switch copy that I reviewed). That ring I mentioned that nullifies random encounters is only 200 DRP, and there’s lots more interesting stuff you can do with it. You’ll also get 5 DRP after every third battle won, and even after making a few item purchases I ended up with almost 1800 when I finished the game. The one potentially negative thing is also one of the other cool additions to the game – a lottery in which you get free tickets automatically just by spending your regular in-game currency at item or equipment shops. This lottery can award you anything from minor healing/status-negating items to ridiculously powerful armor. It worked well in my playthrough – I didn’t end up with the ridiculously powerful armor til toward the end of the game, but a player could potentially receive this armor very early in the game. Only the team leaders wear equipment, so even if one or more of your team leaders are ridiculously overpowered the other three followers on each team won’t be.
Above all, this game was a huge blast of nostalgia for me. I grew up with Atari and then fell in love with NES and SNES RPGs, and everything about this game – from the turn-based battling to grinding levels to the music and sound effects – was done exceptionally well. The one thing I’ll recommend to RPG lovers is to play on one of the harder difficulties, I never really felt challenged on normal difficulty because not only are you given 3 teams to fight with, even if you die you can use 100 DRP to revive and rejuvenate ALL of your characters. For those looking for a challenge, just agree to never use that option and, paired with a harder difficulty, you should be in for one heck of a ride!
As one final note, while I played this game on Switch I spent every minute of my 20-30 hours in handheld mode. I’m not sure if it’s because the game is 2D or what exactly but I was getting 7-10 hours out of it on one full charge! The game is also absolutely perfect for portable play, and being able to hit the Plus button on the Switch to bring up the save menu anywhere, anytime was a great touch too. And finally, like any grindable game, your mileage may vary – I’m a completionist and I’ve got somewhere between 20-30 hours in the game, but I’m sure it’d be closer to half of that if you just power through it.
The game is available on the following devices:
- Switch: US/UK
- 3DS: US/UK
- PS4
- Vita
- App Store (iOS): Freemium/Premium
- Google Play (Android): Freemium/Premium
I received a free review copy of this game in exchange for my honest opinion.