Sunken Dragon

As someone who grew up playing NES JRPG, I really like and enjoy this game. The interfaces, graphic and gaming experiences are very similar to the Dragon Warriors (Dragon Quest) series on the old NES platform. Those who enjoy those classic JRPGs on the old NES would very likely enjoy this game too. My biggest complaint so far is that this game doesn't allow you to rename the characters like the old Dragon Warriors games do.

The person I would recommend this to would be interested in exploring a very broad, but not very deep, fantasy world, and would not be looking for a complex combat engine or intricate RPG boss fights. This game makes a lot of references to the NES Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior games, but I wouldn't recommend it just to fuel old DQ nostalgia. Most of the DQ references are visual, such as character sprites, tile sets, and also some quests/story beats, the latter of which I feel are more subtly referenced. Combat is very simple, which does disappoint me; you just don't have as large a toolbox as in a typical Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy. My characters stopped learning skills around the midpoint of the game, and everyone has the same damage spells, plus one or maybe two stat buff/debuff skills. A couple characters can heal or clear status effects, but besides that every character feels exactly the same. There are a few status effects monsters can apply to you (sleep, poison, etc) but you are not able to inflict any status effects back onto the monsters. I think if the game were half as long, the combat would be fine. I also think if combat were more intricate or lasted longer, I…

A soft recommend. Basically a cover band's performance of someone else's greatest hits album, and as such goes it's competent in line with its ticket price (think cheap bar cover compared to concert tickets - I'm fully satisfied that I've gotten $5 of enjoyment out of it). The translation is charming coming from a place of remembering the translation challenges of the games of yore. The mechanics have a fair amount of jank, and character abilities are very, very cookie-cutter: just about every party member gets identical single target and all foes attacks, which theoretically differ by element but in practice all hit the same. Bosses are often frustratingly tanky considering there's not really enough breadth or difference between characters or skills for things to not devolve into a very basic and repetitive strategy. But, no bugs thus far other than a few missing / broken text pointers to names.

A good 8-bit style RPG, it still needs work but so far. it's giving me what i've been looking for in a retro RPG. The story is a bit hard to follow at times and the world feels hollow for now but some flavor NPC dialog would fix that up. 7/10 rating, 16 hours in and am still playing and want to finish it.

For the price its pretty good: pretty much a budget DQ 3/4 experience with lots of wandering and discovery. Has various settings to move fast / battle faster, a large variety of monsters (though most of them just are cannon fodder after awhile), and a simple story that moves relatively quickly by itself and, while cliche, isn't terrible. Think of it as more or less a travel rpg: explore new places, find new problems, solve a local issue, move on, etc. Also has a new game plus, but I think its more of a victory lap and does not include any new challenges though I cannot be sure due to a lack of information. Money is actually useful in this game, and you end up having to budget / hunt down bounties and delve dungeons to sell artifacts to get enough for endgame gear. Inventory management is decently simple and you can stack nearly everything to 99 on each character, with an inventory size that I'm not sure how big because it never ever actually filled for me 8+ pages in. Theres also a quick way to train up party members which are lagging behind, up to basically your highest levels, with enough cash. Though I might have preferred also getting experience for them as well.…

Still playing through easily the best five bucks you'll ever spend, Currently at about 49 hours. There are a lot of things to enjoy about this, it's very simple and straightforward for one. Everything can be found if you are thorough in searching, check out caves, towers and dungeons at the very least they give good relative exp for that part of your journey. I would recommend pulling out a notebook and some pencils, you would benefit from making notes as to who said what where. And while there is an in game map which goes from black to colored as you explore, and thankfully minimap for dungeons though it doesn't tell you where you have or haven't been yet. Main locations like towns can be teleported to but it doesn't tell you what everything else is called. Keep track of doors, they do tell you what they need to open them but of course it is up to you to come back to them later. Personally I enjoy the exploration and visual tricks used in this type of game. Check along the wall of darkness ifykyk. The soundtrack is pleasant and character designs are great too. It does manage to turn a few things on their head though like the ultimate shops for each character. If you like the era o…