Chicchetta old school per dinosauri. Molto gradita. 9/10

Dragon Marked For Death is an action RPG that was originally released on the Switch at the start of 2019 and now it’s on Steam with DLC characters included. Even though it has a lot of emphasis on playing co-op, the community seems to be lacking which makes finding a party to join difficult. This title shines the most when you’re playing co-op, but solo still provides a satisfying and addictive experience though clearly inferior to co-op.

• The core mechanics work extremely well with one another
• Post game caters to hardcore fans that love to grind for loot
• Levels are crafted with all characters in mind
• Six different characters to choose from, different weapons to wield and unique abilities
• Addictive and satisfying combat
• Higher level quests gives bosses more complicated attacks to dodge
• Each character takes about 15 - 18 hours to complete the story with

• Everything is hindered by the lack of community forcing you to play solo
• Game was designed with co-op in mind instead of playing solo
• Completing the game solo is can be challenging at times
• Casual players won’t get as much time out of this game compared to players who love to grind for loot

The writing in this game is detailed enough to keep you hooked, though I would’ve hoped for more lore and backstory of each character considering it’s an RPG. Each quest that you take on has a small story that gives you a reason to help out and justifies why you’re here instead of just giving you a quest with no explanation. There wasn’t anything mind-blowing about the main story, but it was decent enough to keep you progressing to see what would happen.

Upon starting the game you’ll be given a choice between 4 different characters to choose from (six in total but two of them are locked), each with their own unique fighting style, abilities and stats. All of the standard classes are here tank (Warrior), mage (Witch), warrior (Empress) and the rogue (Shinboi), each have their own passive abilities to help them navigate areas that others can’t access. For example, the rogue can double jump and wall jump, the warrior has like a grappling hook to swing from places, the tank can push blocks and smash rocks and the mage can create a temporary platform for herself. Each character feels significantly different from one another, you can really feel the weight of the tank compared to the rogue who has a lot more maneuverability and freedom. This further encourages multiple playthroughs if you wanted to complete the game with all the characters, though don’t hold your hopes for finding multiplayer matches to join very often…

One of the main features that Dragon Marked For Death highlights is online co-op, admittedly there isn’t anything wrong with how it’s presented, it’s more the fact that barely anyone is playing online at the moment. You’ll be lucky to find a game in your region, and even if you set it to global, sometimes you won’t find a single party to join. The main issue is that the game was designed to play co-op so when you’re forced to play singleplayer, it slows down your progression and forces you to grind if your struggling. It hinders the game a lot more than you might think since some characters are designed to play co-op and suffer more than others when playing singleplayer.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2073626151

This doesn’t imply in any way that the levels were badly designed, each one was crafted to ensure that each of the characters maneuver abilities could be used in every level. This could give you access to a different area or give you more freedom when fighting a boss to swing around the place or whatnot. There was a surprising amount of variety in the biomes that you explore and made the game feel a lot more varied with breaking up the quests in different locations.

It’s no surprise that Dragon Marked For Death is a pure grind-fest, it has all the mechanics in place to try and encourage you to grind. The quests that you complete can be replayed on higher difficulties to yield better loot rewards and higher amounts of gold and XP. Higher difficulties don’t just increase the health and attack of bosses and enemies, but actually give them different attacks that are harder to avoid. This might’ve been more appealing to me if I was able to join a group of people who wanted to grind, again this mechanic for me was hindered due to the fact that the community just isn’t big enough to find parties to join reliably. It wouldn’t surprise me if some people are put off by the game entirely because of the multiplayer aspect being inactive.

However, what kept me coming back to this game was the combat mechanics. Every character has their own basic attacks depending on what weapons they can wield, along with special dragon attacks that each character has. These special moves cost Dragon Points that you obtain by attack enemies so you’ll always be using them, you don’t have to conserve these moves for bosses only. It’s extremely addictive to combo moves together for high damage output against the tougher bosses that you’ll come across.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2073688406

Post-game however, caters to the more hardcore fans of the genre. After completing the game with any character you’ll unlock a tower quest where each floor you clear the enemies get tougher and the rewards get better the higher you go. If the sound of senselessly grinding doesn’t fill you with excitement then you can always play through the game again with a different character on the same profile. All your gold and equipment that you have collected will transfer to each character as long as you stay on the same profile.

The soundtrack throughout this game is fantastic, perfectly capturing the atmosphere of your quest and the environments that you find yourself exploring. Bosses have more intense and faster music that contrasts well with the smooth and calm nature of the music as you explore the surrounding area. The sound feedback when you hit an enemy with your dragon attack is extremely satisfying to listen to as it sounds a lot more impactful and harsher than your standard weapon. Though the one thing that slightly annoys me is the sounds that your character makes every time they jump, attack, take damage etc. It gets annoying after a while and there’s no way to turn it off or adjust it, which is a basic feature that seems to have been overlooked.

The art style never dipped in quality and manages to stay consistent throughout the course of the game. Specific quests will take you to different biomes in the world where you’ll see a surprising amount of variation and detail to keep the game fresh for as long as possible. The sprite work and animations for the characters specifically are very smooth especially when you’re using two or three attacks in a combo and transitioning between them.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2073688469

The lack of online might be enough to turn people away from this title, however, despite playing singleplayer for the most of the game I still enjoyed it. Players who love to grind will get a lot more time out of this title compared to the more casual players. The combat is satisfying and addictive, the soundtrack is a joy to listen to and the visuals are fantastic. I’d still recommend this title to either audience, though I’d suggest waiting for a sale especially if you’re a casual player.

This product was reviewed using a free key provided by the Developers

For more critically honest reviews of mine, check out Metro’s Review Corner

SAS

Megaman Zero Online

I have a little less than an hour on the PC version of DMFD, however, I have over 100 hours on the Nintendo Switch version. I have played and beaten the game with 4 out of 6 characters, not including the 2 new ones (the Oracle and the Bandit, and have beaten all Quests with my preferred character (the Witch). I have nearly beaten the game with the Oracle, and have played much multiplayer in the 3.0.0 update with the Witch. With that in mind...

Dragon: Marked for Death is an Action Platformer with RPG elements such as Levels, Experience, Stats, and Loot such as Equipment and Accessories. You play as your chosen Class and choose your mission, attempting to accomplish whatever goal the mission has laid out. Sometimes that is an escort mission, sometimes it is to kill a Boss or Bosses, sometimes it is to get a certain item or to a certain location. Each class also can change its chosen Contract/Element, acting like a sub-class, which grants new abilities and stat changes. All classes have certain consistent powers such as their Dragon Boost ability, which is the equivalent of a temporary Super Form for each class. The classes each play very differently to one another:

The Empress plays like a DPS class with few movement options. She has really good damage potential, and players must learn to skillfully dodge attacks in order to use her effectively. She also has a hook claw that she may use to climb on certain ceilings to help in platforming. Overall she is fast and fun, but requires a good deal of skill to avoid dying a lot.

The Warrior plays like a Tank class. He is slow, but a heavy hitter. His damage is great, and has good defensive skills, such as his stunning charge (which staggers enemies, preventing attack), and his Shield which blocks all incoming attacks while providing a very minor health restoration effect. He moves slow, and can't jump high, but his charge allows him to knock over certain walls in Quests, creating a shortcut for the entire party. Additionally, if you prefer speedier attacks, using a Longsword instead of an Axe/Hammer makes the warrior attack a little faster, at the cost of damage.

The Shinobi has incredible mobility and range, the most of any class. His damage ranges from low to average, depending on how his build and Contract, but his multiple jumps and flying kick make him the easiest to platform and avoid damage with. His weapons are Ranged Shuriken and a "Melee" Kunai Knife. I say "Melee" in airquotes, because his dragon skill allows him to hit a target with melee attacks at a far range. The most fun character for platforming, and good damage.

The Witch seems to be outwardly the most complex character, being a Magic user with variable range and damage. She may suit many purposes, and her attacks are performed through Incantations, that is, inputting a series of button commands to create a spell. (Ex: AAAA makes a level 1 wind spell, and BYXAB makes a level 1 healing spell). She has attacks of up to 5 element types, that being Neutral, Wind, Fire, Ice, and Thunder. She also has a healing spell. Each of these spells can be augmented with many other commands, such as Condense (which makes the spell a Multi-Hit attack, hitting multiple times, OR makes Healing magic an AoE effect), Homing (which makes the magic seek out targets, including healing), and Power Up (which increases the damage of Neutral, Wind, Fire, Ice, and Thunder Magic. It also makes healing magic restore more HP. Additionally, the Witch has access to utilities, such as her Owl Familiar, which may stun weak enemies for a time. Shine makes her temporarily glow in the dark, making it so you do not have to zoom in to see in dark areas. Levitate is a very useful spell that gives her a platform to more easily avoid damage. This spell WILL save your life. She was also recently given 2 new spells, a Cure Ailment spell which removes Status Effects, and a Status Boost. Status Boost temporarily increases one of your stats, but can only be accessed with the Focus weapon type. The Witch has 2 types of weapon, a Tome and a Focus. This augments a few things, but most importantly is how her Healing magic functions. This is all a LOT to take in, but in all of my hours playing DMFD, she is one of the most rewarding characters to learn. Her damage is usually fantastic, if you use the proper element, and her spells' utility and range cannot be beaten. Her platform makes dodging enemy attacks just a bit easier, which makes all the difference. She can be any role in a party, and should not be overlooked.

The Oracle has good Mobility and does acceptable damage. She acts as a mixed attacker, using a combination of spells and melee damage. I went for a Melee build, but her magic damage should not be underestimated. She has an incredible array of spells for Utility, but only 1 spell for damage. The damage spell Element is dependent on which Element/Contract your Oracle has chosen. It does good damage, but if the enemy is strong against your element, you must instead rely on Melee Attacks. Her utility magic is rather impressive, including the Witch's very own Power Up, Homing, and Cure Ailment spells. Additionally, she boasts Mirage, which creates another blade to significantly boost damage output in Melee as long as the spell is maintained, Feather, which grants a second jump, Protection, which prevents instant death, Quick, which greatly increases movement speed, and Armor, which prevents knockback on her. Overall, she requires a good deal of micromanagement, but is nonetheless a fun, if tedious, experience. I liked her, but I will be sticking with Witch for the time being.

The Bandit I have the least experience with, so take what I say here with a very large grain of salt. He has a very diverse toolset, based in the usage of items called Relics. He can steal Relics from enemies using certain attacks, which are consumable items that allow him usage of one of many different attacks. These range from a very damaging explosion, to an extra jump that bellows damaging wind below him, or a water attack akin to FLUDD from Super Mario Sunshine, that damages and allows hovering over medium sized gaps. There are other attacks, but I will not go into them. They all seemed quite useful for their respective purposes. The micromanagement from needing to recollect Relics was a tad tedious, but it can be made less so depending on how you choose to build your Bandit. Overall, I felt his damage was okay, and his mobility was great. He's also a twink so he's got that going for him.

Each of these characters will gain levels throughout the game, allowing them to boost one of several stats
Every 5 levels, all of your Class's stats will boost by 1, and every level, you will be able to boost 1 stat by 1. No matter which Class, every level has felt like an important choice. The decision to allocate between Piety's utility, Vitality's survivability, and the respective Class's preferred damage stat was never one I took lightly, as the difference between your health and the steadily increasing damage inflicted on your enemies was always one I took acute note of. One would do well to strike a balance between their own survival, their damage output, and the usefulness of Piety and Luck. One drawback that I do agree with is that no class truly evolves as they level up.

I've seen complaints that the enemies' tells are too easy to read, but at higher levels they gain new attacks, and their attacks become more difficult to dodge, making going for higher level quests a very rewarding experience. The music is Inti Creates' first full orchestra soundtrack, and it was used to great effect. The music makes for an excellent backing track. I may not keep every song on my phone to listen to, but the game would not be the same without them. The locations are relatively standard fare for fantasy, but between Toru Nakayama and Makoto Yabe's breathtaking artwork, who cares? Every location looks drop dead gorgeous.

I like dragon marked for death,very good game so possible play single player and mutiplayer the game is similar monster hunter mixed platrom and rpg,if you like callenge and difficult buy instant this game is not for casual gamer

People told me this game is like Megaman Zero/ZX/Gunvolt had a child with Monster Hunter. They weren't lying.

I don't hear much from this game but it's an easy to miss gem.

For those wanting to get into this, this game is made really well for any player's skill level. There's a lot of balancing put into place so if you're not into mega/gun volt precision type game this is one to try out. For one this game give you a lot to work with if you're not fancy to the speed life. You got healing items, gear, leveling, and various elemental teaks you can do.

When it come to veterans of the game this is a master pieces. I managed to run through this game as Empress with out ever once feeling like I hit a wall or anything railroading me to level up as much as I feared. I was always able to do damage even if I was under the levels beyond 20+. I managed to run through the whole game around mid level 20 with all my points put into damage so I played as a glass-cannon that could die in one hit to anything at levels 30-40+.

I should go over the positiveness and negatives.

Pros:

◈ In game story is really good. I can't tell you the amount of times I ask why am I fighting and who am I doing what for. The first go round really makes you question a lot on what is right and wrong
(I can't tell you the amount of times I felt some type of way from just reading through it. It's rare that I get a strong feeling like that in games now)

◈ Really easy to jump into at any skill level

◈ Each character has their own unique ability's that give advantage or disadvantage in fights and exploration

◈ The game leaves all the guide and tips in the start menu. Not once does it suddenly stop you just to tell you how to do something with your character

◈ Many ways to approach this game. You are given gear, weapons, and tons of shop options along side special items to drastically change your character at will

◈ When you find a good foot hold it is very addictive even without Co-op

◈ You are given a nice training area for any boss you wish to fight

◈ All your gold and loot is shared across other characters

◈ One you made other characters on the save file of your choice you can go into the Inn and change characters on the fly without the need to go to the pause menu

◈ This feels perfect for speed running.

◈ You can really go whiled with how you want your character's build to be as long as you have the will power to make it

◈ DLC characters comes naturally with the game so no need to worry about that

◈ No matter the class just about all characters are able to run at the same speed. The only character that has a special speed skill is the Shinobi

◈ Gear and armor power keeps growing even past end game

◈ Is a small detail but every time you change weapons it shows on your character. Even some weapons have special max level looks that's nice to check out

◈ The higher the difficulty level is the more all enemy's will change. Rather they are faster, shoot more projectiles, or get a completely new move sets it really transforms the game. This includes bosses

◈ All levels are crafted well with all characters in mind so you will never be truly stuck (Unless you're me)

◈ Your weapons and gear really start to shine around I be leave level 20+. This is where the points start to go high and you get extra strong passive abilities to follow (I was supper late in getting this sense by end game was the time I got my hands on one of these. This may be a con for some megaman/gun volt master who want that sweat gear and weapons. I looked like a mid-tier rookie running into satin and winning without taking damage)

◈ After end game you will get a tower quest which is just going until you can't no more. Really good grind and challenge

-I'm sure there's so much more I could go over but lets touch on the cons.

Cons:

◈ At the start of the game you are given 4 characters to pick from. The last 2 are ones you can unlock by just about finishing the game. I personally don't know where to put this sense in a way if you are keeping up with the story and everything that goes on it makes sense in a lore stand point but I don't know. I know some people after finished end game will not feel interested in running a game back over gain unless it's really worth or just that fun to do. I personally didn't mind as I had a blast with the game

◈ The grind in this game for levels and power feels a bit slow and repetitive.
(I personally never needed to grind but just running through the main story I noticed some repetitive areas just with different stuff layered around)

◈ You will need to redo the story & quest with every new character you got. This is not a problem if you are really good and fast at the game. At best it may take a few hours 2-3 at best if you're just rushing it (You will have to be skilled or you will be spending a lot of that time grinding levels to wear gear & weapons)

◈ The endgame feels empty. At best the only thing that's left in game is redoing old stages on harder difficulty beyond that I personally could cut through all of it with my damage being so high. Might feel a lot different with another build then glass cannon it is something you will have to try out

◈ Even though this game has Co-op there is no one on to play with you (I head there was a server or some community out there so maybe there is people playing at set times)

◈ Personally I has a speed running itch and tried my hand at blind 100% the game. Seeing how long that took me might take others double if playing casual. I managed to beat the game in about a day and a half (I'm sure I can shave off that time drastically now that I know what to expect. I'm not sure if you should call this a con but I'm putting it here for now)

◈ As cool as the elemental ability are not once are they really something you will ever need to pay attention to. Never does the game give you a puzzle or does it feel amazing to use in combat. At best it's just a projectile you can optionally choose to change. (I keep forgetting about it but there is a weak/strong system with elements but never has the game really hit me with the need to think about it. It feels more like a forgettable side cosmetic that looks cool to change at first. Beyond that it is just something you use to deal with out of reach monsters)

◈ From what I can see, I don't be leave there is a way to reassign and change your level points after you set them so ones they are there there is no going back to change you build

◈ Putting in time to level up felt like a drag. I never really need to grind in the game I just went on but I hear a lot about how it is a huge grind at times and I felt like I understood that after endgame. It's not really required sense I'm sure you can beat ever level if you're skilled enough but a lot of gear and armor is locked behind a level wall which I know, "If your so good at the game then why do you need to wear gear any ways" but still. I wanna see all the good swords I got without needing to wait

◈ (Personal Take) For me who has been playing mega games for a living my experience is more the opposite from casual community so my view may be drastically different. Some things in the game felt very easy to ignore when you can flow through the game even when I came up to the parts of the level where I can die from one hit from common enemies and boss attacks I only felt underwhelmed. It's more like, "This feels great that fight was kinda hard, wait that's it?" I'm sure a lot is do to me play as a glass cannon but it's very rare that you will be put in the situation where you can't dodge are avoid a whole cycle/attack without getting touched. You just about can avoid and dodge everything as long as you remember how it works. There where only two boss fights I felt pressured by end game boss was shockingly easy even though one hit could kill me

◈ I found it hard to keep going after post game. Maybe live Co-op would fix that. I'm down to play this with anyone if they are interested

-That's all I got, thanks for checking my review!

Harmony of Despair but Mega Man Zero. We all have stockholme syndrome here.

I'm mixed about this one. Overall, recommended, but with criticism strong enough to avert people from buying this. If you're going to play this once and put it down, go for it and buy it. If you think there's depth here, look somewhere else. The trailer really hypes it up too much. I liked it, but for my own reasons. There are strong negatives.

Positive:
1. Style is on-point for any fan of Inti's MMZ and MMZX titles. It's visually appealing throughout the entire experience.

2. Gameplay is solid. It's a side-scrolling hack-and-slash game, so fans of the genre will seamlessly transition into this title. It's also accessible for newer players and ramps up well in terms of actual leveling.

3. Music's varied enough and SFX aren't too intrusive.

4. Progression is decent. It's a bit grindy, and there were a couple of parts where being underleveled was a problem, but then after running the same, safe missions for a bit massively overleveled me. Kind of weird.

5. The pace is fast and consistent. There are few places that lag or suffer from being too slow or drawn-out. The game expects you to go super fast and lets you, with a few gotchyas. The missions are timed, but the timer stops when you pause in single-player.

6. Character variety is alright. Each of the four, and then extra fifth and sixth classes are different from each other, but... more on that below.

Needs work:

1. Character classes themselves are split between useful and useless. This game's fast, and at least the witch and oracle classes are in direct conflict with this design choice. To use any meaningful ability on either character, you must memorize cryptic button combinations that instantly fail if you get one of the sequence wrong. To use the more powerful spells, like in the trailer, you've gotta do that multiple times in a row, where you can't really afford to, since there's stuff attacking you and the timer's ticking.

There's almost no incentive to choosing the oracle, witch or warrior.

2. Story is weak. Even the extra expose in the full side-objectives is lacking and there's no real character arch for anyone.

3. Replayability is non-existent. Your mission progress is tied to each character individually, but items carry over between them. I don't want to, and I assume others won't, either, run the same low-level missions a second, or heck third time on a different character. Why would anyone do this? Instead, have mission statuses carry over between all of the classes, I already know the story.

4. Some of the missions (not levels) are incredibly poorly-designed, especially in the DLC for the bandit class. Sometimes, you're left wandering around a huge maze with arbitrary targets, sometimes you must go to point A, then find some random target in point B, but wait, point A's thing is on an invisible timeout, so better hurry! If you don't get to point B fast enough, you've gotta go back to point A, then back to B, then back to A, then forward to some random spot C, then back to A... you get it. Whoever designed stuff like this needs to rethink their approach going forward.

5. Stats don't make sense. I dumped points into STR and AGI as Empress, and plowed through mostly everything, until I couldn't, then I ground. It makes no sense to get VIT until way later in the game as Empress. I'm sure it's the same for other classes with their respective stat points.

6. Itemization is weak. There's a sword that's basically mandatory, but you gotta grind for it. From what I've read on the forums, it's the same for other classes. You only get two weapons and two passive item slots for rings and anklets and bracers and stuff, it just feels incredibly incomplete when compared to games in this same genre. Everything's tiered, until it's not, and there's no logic behind what can and can't be upgraded. It's a lazy Sword +1, +2, +3, etc system.

7. No customization. No hats, no color-changes, no voice-changing, etc. You can do this once when you make a char, but that's it. No cosmetics exist in any way, shape or form.

8. Multiplayer is so, so underutilized. There's almost no one ever on, and there's no incentive to party since drops are crap on most missions, anyway. Some missions require a fast character, and I've helped a few players already, since they chose the witch and couldn't do the mission in the specified time-limit alone. Anyway, when there are people on, the levels vary wildly, and even when you pick the biggest range and choose world-wide matchmaking, there's still going to be hardly anyone around. There's just no point to the online matchmaking, better solo it or play it with a friend. It's faster to play with others in some situations, though, and that's fine.

10. Level design is... well, whatever. It's varied, with some levels being mazes, some being A to B, some being utterly crappy time-wasting garbage.

It's just lazy overall. They put so much effort into the style, the forgot the story and items, character development and customization. There's no point in using suboptimal anything, anywhere, from class to item.

Conclusion:

Get it, as stated, if you're gonna play it once and leave it. It's a straight-forward experience you can easily do alone and it'll be enjoyable enough. If you start looking more deeply into the flaws, then just don't bother with this. It's trying to be more than it is, and until characters are fixed and matchmaking is worthwhile, items make sense and the missions are seriously reconsidered, just play this alone until you're satisfied.

A great platforming hack-and-slash that's stylistic and fast, but anemic in the RPG aspects.