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Firstly, I would like to get one thing out of the way: Dragonica is, hands down, one of my favorite MMOs of all time. That being said, forgive me if I become a bit too lenient concerning its flaws and start foaming at the mouth whenever someone talks badly about it. Now that that’s out of the way, let us continue on to the actual review, shall we?
Draconica is a semi-side-scrolling brawler (I say “semi-side-scrolling” because you are allowed to move up and down—as in towards and further away from the 2D plane—and you are granted full 3D movement in towns and cities, although the camera is immovable). Picture Super Smash Bros. but with a more magical, fantasy-oriented skin, and you have Dragonica. Of course, this isn’t to say that Dragonica is a pure fighter game—there are plenty of traditional RPG elements scattered here and there that keep it true to its MMORPG roots. For example, there are many skills to be gained in Dragonica, all of which are governed in a neat little skill points system. To put it in simpler terms, every time your character levels up, you gain a certain number of skill points. With these skill points, you can essentially “purchase” a skill that you will then be able to utilize in combat. These skills differ (but not too greatly, to my dismay) from class to class. There are four initial classes to choose from in Dragonica: the Warrior, the tank of the group, the Mage, the support unit, the Archer, the long ranger, and my personal favorite, the Thief, the quick-footed damage dealer. Although the skills these characters can get differ in name, their essential purposes remain the same. For example, the Thief starts out with a skill called Air Combo Launch. I know, the name doesn’t exactly leave much to the imagination, but essentially what it does is launch two or more enemies into the air, presumably starting an, you guessed it, air combo. However, the Warrior class also comes installed with a move that mirrors the actions performed by Air Combo Launch exactly. Even worse is that both the Thief and Warrior later on get a skill with the same name (Cutdown) that performed, again, the exact same action. However, this was just a minor inconvenience for a perfectionist like me, and if you don’t seek ridiculous amounts of flawlessness and originality like yours truly, then I doubt this will be a problem.
The gameplay, though it can lag a bit at times, is amazing. It plays basically like an old arcade game: X to punch (or slice or claw in this example), C to jump, and Z to use a Charge Attack. The Charge Attack is, for some reason, only reserved for the Thief and Warrior classes. Although Dragonica operates like a fighting game, I feel like the Hadouken-like Charge Attack is a somewhat out of place addition to the gameplay. Fighting mobs usually doesn’t leave time for lollygagging, and the Charge Attack, of course, has a charge time of about three seconds. That may not sound like a lot of time to most people, but if you’re being attacked by an angry crowd of Axels, then three seconds can feel like thirty years. Not only that, but the Charge Attack does not apply to the skill points system and isn’t very strong to begin with (or to end with, actually. It doesn’t get stronger at all). The enemies also have this strange habit of occasionally floating around when air combo’d, and an even worse habit of warping behind you, much like those super-powered ninjas from Naruto or Bleach, and striking with all they’ve got. I’m no game programmer (at least not yet), but I figure mobs of ninja-warping enemies that don’t agree with the laws of physics or gravity are something that you would look out for. Player versus Player, however, is another story. The glitches I have mentioned beforehand are nothing in comparison to the atrocious pile of lag that is Dragonica’s PvP. I conducted an experiment with one of my associates (as in my cousin, LeSean) in which he and I challenged each other in PvP. LeSean was on a laptop in the same room as me, while yours truly was on his trusty PC. After metaphorically fighting our way through the hellish menu screen, we finally managed to get into a one on one duel. Sure enough, as soon as the battle started and we both took one step, we disappeared from both of our screens. Only when we were completely motionless for at least four seconds (which roughly translates to about forty years) were we able to see each other, and it seemed as if attacking anywhere on the screen would do damage to the other player and even cause them to warp all over the place. I felt as if the PvP in Dragonica was just an afterthought in the minds of the developers, and you should steer clear of this hot mess.
Other than these nit-picky problems that only occurred once every blue moon, the fighting runs smoothly and is a great deal of fun. The graphics are fantastic, and the battles range from goofy and lighthearted to intense and downright epic. The customization is just as epic as the fighting, and the quests even more so. The in-game community is abnormally well behaved with nary a troll in sight since I started playing. Thank goodness for that, because partying up is pretty much a necessity when fighting the bosses in Hero Quests. The background music is a bit lacking with only three or four not-so-impressive tracks, but it’s the game play that matters most, and it is just that that makes Dragonica so fantastic.
To summarize, Dragonica may have its technical flaws, but gosh darn it, this game is way too much fun to pass up. I seriously suggest you download it and get started. I mean like right now. I’m not kidding. Stop reading and play.
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