I very much want to like this game but in it's current state it feels very half baked even for early access. It is absolutely no way worth $20 when there are many games going into EA for much much less than that and are absolutely well fleshed out with a clear vision from the get go. I guess we'll see how this one turns out but I'm not too sure atm.

I really like the look of this game but losing all levels and basicly resetting to zero every time you die is a joke. ruined would could be a good game.

Feels more like mobile game, cannot move the camera. Really clumsy, maybe i will come back, but for now it's a refund

Sadly cannot recommend this game, as much as I was excited to play it from early access footage and the supposed concept of the game. (1) Firstly, this is not a metroidvania meets roguelite. There are no metroidvania elements at all; the player does have a dodge, double jump, and air dash given right at the start but these are used mostly for combat rather than exploration and traversal (2) The game world is incredibly dull. I understand that the developers were going for a dark fantasy feel but the design is overall very lacklustre; music is uninspiring and boring and the same track was used for so many stages/ biomes (3) Gameplay in the end boils down to having hordes thrown at you and bullet hell. There is not an ounce of combat strategy or tactice. Characters do not stand out from each other in terms of mechanics and skills; skills are similarly boring and there is not enough for build customisation (4) I don't expect much of a plot here but the writing is abyssal. NPC speech is too wordy; everyone sounds the same (character design and art is pretty good though) Game was sent for a refund.

Interesting idea and nice artwork but the game feels unfinished.

No controller rebinds. Yep that's the only reason.

Pros: -It has a great look and feel to the game e.g. like Castlevania. Cons: -Die and respawn with nothing and start over. So your progression through the game is just trial and error. Refunded.

First impressions video cut from a few hours of streaming the game: https://youtu.be/wxFiunEJ24E FULL SHORT (6min) REVIEW here: https://youtu.be/wqiapI--kVw First of all the trailer make it seem it's something like blasphemous or last faith, it's not. It's diablo with it's camera flipped and jump and dodge buttons added. Diablo itemization, the skilltrees are copied from d4 even aesthetically. The game looks dynamic but encourages standing in place and spamming attacks like you would in an arpg. The controls feel a bit clunky because it's lacking animation cancels after most actions making attacks delayed, being stuck in a dodge and very sluggish air time.

-The Game World is the same every time. -The Engrish Story makes no sense and they left out all the apostrophe's. -The Ost is like 5 tracks. -There is a weird stutter sometimes when playing in fullscreen. But who cares when you have: -Responsive combat. -Insane Build Crafting. -Awesome Bosses. -Amazing Pixel Art. I can't stop playing, my girlfriend dumped me and my mom won't stop calling. Buy it!

Could be fun, but there is motion blur or framerate locking going on that makes it a smeared mess while moving. If you get headaches with blurry content, or find it annoying to have to choose between moving or reading the screen, then pass until they fix it.

Weird 60fps lock or something. Hurts my eyes and gives me a headache to move around. Game's mid. Keep the Jesters coming, boys. Sorry your eyes are used to smear filters and low fps slop. Game needs 2025 settings for it's 1.0 release.

zero controller support? can remap keys? lul this game boss's are ASS THEY STUN LOCK YOU ON EVER FUCKING HIT HOLY FUCN no achievments whoimp whomp MASTER VOLUME SLIDER IS BROKEN AND CANT BE CHANGED / OTHER VOLUMES

Full Walkthrough: https://youtu.be/pms1xCYfM9g?si=IBaqpE4Us1BrLlQC Gameplay: Very Good Story: Decent Graphics: Good PC Requirements: Potato Game Time: 5 - 9 hours Here I will leave the cat, friends who pass by can pet it and give it a thumbs up 　　　 　　／＞　　フ 　　　 　　| 　　 l 　 　　 　／` ミ＿xノ 　　 　 /　　　 　 | 　　　 /　 ヽ　　 ﾉ 　 　 │　　|　|　| 　／￣|　　 |　|　| 　| (￣ヽ＿ヽ)__)

Dragon Is Dead: A Surprisingly Solid Platformer

Dragon Is Dead truly shines where it counts: the gameplay. The mechanics are excellent and highly responsive, making every jump, dodge, and attack feel precise. As someone who's not usually a fan of platformers, I was genuinely impressed; this game is far above average in its execution and kept me hooked. The story is strongly average – serviceable, but forgettable. It's more of a backdrop for the fantastic platforming action. Honestly, I spent more time enjoying the smooth movement than trying to follow the plot. Despite the lackluster narrative, the game's strengths more than compensate. The excellent mechanics and addictive gameplay loop make it incredibly enjoyable.

Key Points:

Gameplay: Excellent, responsive, and satisfying. Mechanics: Work superbly. Story: Strongly average. Platforming: Highly enjoyable, far above average!

This would have been really good if the concept just like Blasphemous. Rogue-lite makes this boring. But, well...

Nice

As much as I had hopes for this game, I can't recommend it after having the 1.0 release 1 year after I first played it. -There is an enormous amount of bugs -Almost no content got added except a final boss and NG+ with terribly overstatted enemies -The devs have 0 responses towards the community over the last year -A lot of content is copy pasted with a spin on the art from Skul and Blasphemous -The roguelite gameplay look isn't really fun, upgrades are mostly stats from items. The RPG item/looter aspect gets really boring really fast -The gameplay loop is long and unsatisfying to restart over and over since you are overstatted for the early game anyway because of how items work -Abilities are kinda same-ish and most status effect have 0 effect on bosses -Clearly the devs put almost no work into the game in the past 1 year, which makes me believe there won't be any fixes for all issues stated above in the near future I really hope I can recommend this game in the near future if the devs actually start working on the game instead of seemingly working on it for 10 minutes a day or fully abandoning it after 1.0. But as it is right now, I just can't recommend it and you should honestly just go buy the games it's clearly based off of.

Very good game but super buggy, no discord to be seen and devs dont respond to post on the forum.

Excellent little fusion of Diablo-style loot acquisition and roguelike metroidvania, which is a fairly unique combo. It's a fun ride that you can jam through pretty quickly and it has a lot of modern systems to ensure players don't get too locked into ruts regarding gear progression. There some faults among the positives, though. ---Pros--- Artwork: Probably what attracted your attention to the game, same as me. The pixel art on display is incredible, and it maintains that throughout the title. While it does lose a small amount for the procedural generation inhibiting level design, I really can't find anything to complain about here; it's just an amazing looking game. Loot: It has the fun addictive qualities of getting good drops and has many unique items to add additional affects to your skills. There are also a number of systems that let you add or reroll stats, craft legendaries using more basic gear for further stat selection, and a bunch more besides. It definitely helps you not get completely screwed by bad rolls. Controls: It plays very well, all attacks are responsive, the dodge feels fluid, and using a controller (as the devs recommend) all of the keybinds felt super natural and were easily rebound for those who want to change them around. ---Cons--- Level design: There basically isn't any. Every zone from start to finish is essentially a series of linked arenas with some good background art. There's no secrets to discover, paths to take, or anything else you might consider metroid-y. It's a highly linear experience that just assumes you're here for combat and nothing else. Music: It's not awful, but no single track stayed in my mind at all and the hub music is painfully reminiscient of Tristram from the OG diablo. Not every town needs mournful string instruments to remind me I'm playing a grimdark fantasy epic. Story: It can't decide if it wants to be dark souls or not, with a lot of characters rattling off terms and names from the get-go with nary a glossary in sight. Eventually you will piece together what's going on, and maybe there's more with repeated nightmare difficulty runs, but I wasn't impressed. No moments stood out to me and there are no characters I'll remember for more than a week. ---Summary--- If you want a fantastic-looking combat experience with both solid roguelike elements and gear-chasing, then this game will be right up your alley and will almost certainly give you great bang for your buck. If you prefer more narrative driven experiences or games with a more robust world then you might look elsewhere. I'd still recommend to pretty much all fans of the genre though.

- This is the worst Engrish I have seen in a game in a very long time. Gameplay is tight but I can barely understand what the writing is trying to convey at times, and it's riddled with mistakes that Microsoft Word would have pointed out with a simple proofread. - Game is pretty unoptimized. Just moving side to side in the screen can cause some lag/delay. (I'm running an I9-9900KS at 5.4 ghz with a 4090 Trinity OC - my rig is definitely not the issue here.) - At the end, when I was done, I went to "Quit" and it said "Progress is saved when you quit the game, you really want to quit?" and I went, "Yeah, duh". Then it put me back to the main menu. That's not the point of quit - the point of quit is "Hey, close this game". Thing is, is the save ONLY triggered upon usage of "Quit"? If I alt+F4'd would I have just lost all my progress? - Lack of tooltips is annoying. I have no idea what the stats actually do - you would think STR would increase HP or damage, but there was no difference to either. - Training dummies are nice but a poor substitute to actual data to provide to the player (see previous comment) I'm overall not impressed with this game. The name itself was pretty weird but I liked the premise. Unfortunately it's just not for me. Am I nitpicking? Maybe. But I can't help but think, if these glaring issues were not identified and resolved, then what might I be missing that would evolve with more gameplay? I'd give this an average 5/10 any day of the week as it's nothing special. This is fully released, not early access, and I'd expect a polished product. This dragon surely is quite dead. Let it lie.

This game for the time been plays more like Dead cells. I just hope that it gives up ways to go back to stages to grind rather of dying and restarting from the very start in which it makes it annoying for some players. I hope the devs add a save feature when it is launch.

honestly the more you play the more awful everything feels. cant find the legendary youre looking for? thats cause the game's RNG gave you the *same* legendaries like 9 times in a row. have a tanky build? everything and anything can perma stunlock you until random stuff kills you. bonus points: you have large dodge and damage reduction but your dodge fails to trigger on any of the 19 hit combo youre about to receive and your damage reduction is just good enough to absorb all 19 hits before dying. lots of synergies and relic options to choose from but most of the time youre so heavily limited by the RNG that you wont ever complete anything anyway. stat systems and talent systems that feel super duper boring and bland. some stuff feels required (especially if you have legendaries focusing on specific elements / skills) but also heavily requires getting good relics and relic synergy to fully function. this leaves you with half a build at all times; and hardly ever feeling like you can competently complete a build during a run. enemy placement and enemy movement is a massive chore to deal with; especially into later levels. if you dont get the synergies / relics you need to just offscreen / oneshot everything--youre going to be in for a terrible time. auto homing bullshit; "elite" mobs with auto homing / auto spawning damage auras and spikes and bombs and abilities. it becomes extremely unfun to engage with; and the balance is somewhere between 'you easily oneshot and coast through all levels and bosses' and 'you didnt get what you need and the entire run feels awful and you can barely keep up with the damage needed to advance through levels.' THERE IS POTENTIAL but it honestly feels like these devs are never, ever going to hit that potential. i hope they do! but it really doesnt seem like this game is ever going to make it.

I haven't played the game much, yet I feel the very strong need to leave my opinion on it. Which I rarely do. The game has several horrible problems that are a deal-breaker for me. I hope that many if not all of them are fixed by release otherwise I would definitely will have to refund this. Let's start: THE BAD - The HUD This game includes platforming. You know what I like to see? What's below me. Sure, it was very Diablo inspired but that works for a game such as Diablo not a game where suddenly the enemies decide to hide behind the HUD or you cant see if below you theres a pit or enemies or solid floor since THE HUD IS ON THE WAY. Please place it elsewhere. - The dialogues and writing I know this is an early access game but the writing looks... iffy. As if it was written in some other language and then just translated into English. Mind you this is okay for some stuff but some expressions don't translate well to English and just feel odd or incomplete or out of place. Maybe try and get a localizer to make it work. Transliteration (and not translation) rarely does a good job make. The worldbuilding and story exposition sucks in the beginning. You're given NO reason to care or do anything. "Hey merc, go do merc-stuff because uh yeah! Things are bad because reasons!" Way to make me interested in investing my time in the game... Maybe it being a roguelite doesnt help as much at stortytelling? Who knows, it gives me no reason to care for the game to find out. - The sound effects When enemies drop loot, it is straight ripped off from Diablo. Please please please get your own freaking sfx other than that the sound-music design along with the environment feels all too bland and uninspiring. It feels way too boring. - The Gameplay It is somehow trying to be quite epic but ends up being both ridiculous and clunky. You can do ridiculous stuff like jump, midjump-air dash, double jump and dash again. Looks cool right? Same as the fire-sword thingy but then again, it is also bland and clunky. It looks good and flashy but deals little damage while the enemies deal too much damage (at least comparatively) One skelly can wreak havoc with 3 arrows and his attacks are less flashier than anything you can do at that very same moment. I get it, its low level but at least scale it so you don't look like a flashy fool. THE UGLY (but expected) - Buggy. When talking to a character the "Press X to talk" wont go away and it will draw over. - The UI looks like its placeholder (please be it like so) - Little to no indicator of what to do or who to talk to. Takes away from the User Experience, you'll eventually figure it out but... you still have to give the player a reason to play. THE GOOD - Art style! In fact this is what drew me in and made me buy it. It looks very Blasphemous/Souls like. Quite interesting. Some stuff that I cant really categorize: Didn't read it was a roguelite something I don't really enjoy that much unless the rogue-like elements are incorporated into the storyline (much like Hades) in a way it makes sense and isn't just a poor excuse like "It's a dream world! its a cursed dungeon that changes every time you visit! It was an illusion devised by Satan!" The game looks good, I like the sorta-kinda half baked premise but so far, it gives the player no real reason to care lore-wise. If it, in fact, does it later, then I can just say this game isn't for me. I really dislike games where the hook of the game comes much later. If you're going to do that, give the player some reason to want to stay playing that's not "grind to become stronger and maybe learn more about this bland world we're giving you." I honestly hope they fix it because it's a shame such a good artwork and interesting characters (like the talking tree) are wasted like that. Give us more info on the characters, about the world. I don't really care about a character just because it looks weird and you expect me to like them. The giant and the other guy just felt like they were in the way the first time I met them, and their writing is sooo bad. What about the tree thingy? Why should I go slay and help his friend? Because he just asked me to? "Oh merc, go from point A to point B where you'll get tasked to go to point C without giving you any real reason to do so other than "merc gets paid". Talk to Tree thing and kill other tree possibly evil thing." That's exactly how the game feels right now. Also whats the reason you get 2 chests after each level? Because it's a roguelite of course, but things need to make sense in the world they are in. Give us more lore. Give us better writing. Fix the HUD so it isn't in the way. And care less about looking cool and more about BEING cool. Focus on the now and not on the later. We don't need everything explained right out of the bat but we do need a reason to explore, to want to learn to want to do stuff inside your world to pique the curiosity. You have nice art, nice world and potentially good ideas. Don't let poor execution kill it!

love this game

I am writing after having gotten to the end of story content that was available. What the early access offers is really promising, a platformer heavily inspired by Diablo. Each of the 2 characters has multiple different skills per break point that they can spec into, with legendary equipment that alters or improves how said skills can perform. These skills can be changed once during a run, and are entirely reset at the end of a run. Gear obtained during a run is carried over between runs, and can be either used, sold, or stored at home base. Artifacts can be obtained during a run and offer stat bonuses, with larger bonuses being offered if artifacts share affinities

Pros

- Combat is simple but engaging - Combat is broken up into multiple small zones within a larger area, giving you time to breath after an encounter - The skill trees offer a lot of versatility when paired with the artifact system - Character and enemy design is immaculate

Cons

- Various small glitches and issues throughout, nothing game breaking, but the occasional audio or visual glitch can be jarring - Later enemies have true combos, and it can feel unfair to have to deal with them when there are multiple enemies on screen - Plot dumps begin early, and happen often. At a certain point I was mashing to get through them without reading because of the sheer amount of lore that gets dropped all at once as opposed to being bled out over multiple interactions or areas - I can't find a way to report bugs or balance issues I come across

Conclusion

This game is 100% worth the price tag currently, and I can't wait to see what it will become with improvements. Edit on November 1, 2024: Removed one of the cons, as a patch removed the issue