Impressions based on the Japanese version, which like many other Inti Creates games already includes English. The western versions of DMFD are scheduled for end of February.
Dragon Marked For Death is a sidescroller, and thankfully not a Metroidvania. Stages do offer different paths and secret areas with treasures, but each is a self-contained entity ending with a boss encounter.
Before doing anything else you have to create a character, chosen from four different classes: warrior, tank, thief, and magic user. You can costumize colour (just part of the sprite, not everything), voice (just shouts, there's no "full" voice acting), and name. I went for the magic user, and after an introduction where your clan is decimated by the Celestials for unknown reasons, capturing the oracle, Amica (C, not G). You set on your journey to free the oracle and exact revenge, which first brings you to a tutorial level.
Controls are standard: jump, dash, attack, item menu, and in the magic user's case (or better, witch's case) a chant button. To cast spells you need to press the chant button and use the face buttons to create the spell; while chanting you're immobile. A quick look at the in-game help revealed rather long strings to cast spells and even spell modifiers (increase spell level, widen area of effect, give homing properties) and the spell immediately fizzles.
Once you chanted the spell is not casted immediately, but held in reserve for a short amount of time (usually enough to chant a modifier). Pressing the attack button (Y) will cast the spell. You can't hold more than one spell at a time, at least at the start.
After a short while I noticed that spells aren't as complicated as they first looked: all basic elemental attack spells require to press four times A, B, X, or Y; the healing spell is a clockwise circle starting at B; the empower modifier is B and X repeated four times.
It's actually rather easy to learn once you figure out the logic behind a spell (like the clockwise sequence for healing), and bosses seem designed around all the limitations you have. The buttons you press to chant the spell are visualized on the screen with different colours (red, yellow, green, blue…guess which colours are associated with face buttons) and the witch also enunciates them in a cute way (like B being "beh").
Controls feel very similar to Azure Striker Gunvolt, and perform flawlessly. Stage design is clever, forcing you to use your resources at their best: the witch doesn't have a particularly powerful jump, but she can create platforms to propel her to higher places. I still have to try the other characters and for now I'll stick with my first choice, but I'm pretty curious to see how everyone plays.
If this evokes memories of Dragon's Crown, you are not that far off. The structure is very similar: get quests at the tavern, check shops for items, clear quests to level up and progress. There's even local and online multiplayer, and hopefully Dragon Marked For Death doesn't fall in Dragon's Crown's trap of forcing online into the second half of the game.
So far enemy variety hasn't been great (a lot of giant bugs and their recoloured relatives), but the two bosses I've faced were great fun.
Visually Dragon Marked For Death is clearly the derivate of Gunvolt, but it also reminds me of Yggdra Union for some Celestials and the town hub is reminiscent of Princess Crown. Spritework is very well done although it looks a bit…uhm…pixelly on a large screen, I wouldn't have minded a slightly higher resolution to have less jaggies (but not to eliminate completely). The colour palette is subdued for every element on screen with the exception of attacks, which are slightly more saturated for better readability without breaking the overall style.
I was very curious how DMFD would play and from what I've seen so far my hopes haven't been betrayed. I'd say it's a notch above the opening hour of both Gunvolt games, and I really hope it will continue to stay strong throughout its duration.
Dragon Marked For Death is a sidescroller, and thankfully not a Metroidvania. Stages do offer different paths and secret areas with treasures, but each is a self-contained entity ending with a boss encounter.
Before doing anything else you have to create a character, chosen from four different classes: warrior, tank, thief, and magic user. You can costumize colour (just part of the sprite, not everything), voice (just shouts, there's no "full" voice acting), and name. I went for the magic user, and after an introduction where your clan is decimated by the Celestials for unknown reasons, capturing the oracle, Amica (C, not G). You set on your journey to free the oracle and exact revenge, which first brings you to a tutorial level.
Controls are standard: jump, dash, attack, item menu, and in the magic user's case (or better, witch's case) a chant button. To cast spells you need to press the chant button and use the face buttons to create the spell; while chanting you're immobile. A quick look at the in-game help revealed rather long strings to cast spells and even spell modifiers (increase spell level, widen area of effect, give homing properties) and the spell immediately fizzles.
Once you chanted the spell is not casted immediately, but held in reserve for a short amount of time (usually enough to chant a modifier). Pressing the attack button (Y) will cast the spell. You can't hold more than one spell at a time, at least at the start.
After a short while I noticed that spells aren't as complicated as they first looked: all basic elemental attack spells require to press four times A, B, X, or Y; the healing spell is a clockwise circle starting at B; the empower modifier is B and X repeated four times.
It's actually rather easy to learn once you figure out the logic behind a spell (like the clockwise sequence for healing), and bosses seem designed around all the limitations you have. The buttons you press to chant the spell are visualized on the screen with different colours (red, yellow, green, blue…guess which colours are associated with face buttons) and the witch also enunciates them in a cute way (like B being "beh").
Controls feel very similar to Azure Striker Gunvolt, and perform flawlessly. Stage design is clever, forcing you to use your resources at their best: the witch doesn't have a particularly powerful jump, but she can create platforms to propel her to higher places. I still have to try the other characters and for now I'll stick with my first choice, but I'm pretty curious to see how everyone plays.
If this evokes memories of Dragon's Crown, you are not that far off. The structure is very similar: get quests at the tavern, check shops for items, clear quests to level up and progress. There's even local and online multiplayer, and hopefully Dragon Marked For Death doesn't fall in Dragon's Crown's trap of forcing online into the second half of the game.
So far enemy variety hasn't been great (a lot of giant bugs and their recoloured relatives), but the two bosses I've faced were great fun.
Visually Dragon Marked For Death is clearly the derivate of Gunvolt, but it also reminds me of Yggdra Union for some Celestials and the town hub is reminiscent of Princess Crown. Spritework is very well done although it looks a bit…uhm…pixelly on a large screen, I wouldn't have minded a slightly higher resolution to have less jaggies (but not to eliminate completely). The colour palette is subdued for every element on screen with the exception of attacks, which are slightly more saturated for better readability without breaking the overall style.
I was very curious how DMFD would play and from what I've seen so far my hopes haven't been betrayed. I'd say it's a notch above the opening hour of both Gunvolt games, and I really hope it will continue to stay strong throughout its duration.
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