If you were around playing games in the late '80’s and early '90’s you might have caught a fever, a JRPG fever. More often than not you would spend hours reading and gazing at the images on video gaming magazines at Japan-exclusive titles that were deemed unmarketable in the West. Among many of those games were the JRPGs staple series Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Epic storylines, turn-based combat, impenetrable walls of Japanese text, dreamy soundtracks… it looked like westerners were resigned to the short end of the stick and kid-friendly titles generation after generation of hardware until eventually public interest and sales figures of Super Nintendo titles such as Final Fantasy VI, Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger proved publishers otherwise, paving the way for the phenomenal worldwide success of Final Fantasy VII a few years later.
Fast forward to the present day and JRPGs are very much still a niche genre, and despite incredible epics such as Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the fact is not all of us can invest the amount of time needed to see them to completion. Is there a solution to satisfy our love for the genre? Enter EXE Create’s Dragon Sinker, the quintessential 8-bit JRPG experience that began its life on mobile phones but already made the successful the journey to video game consoles, Nintendo 3DS included. Having now arrived on Nintendo Switch with added subtitle Descendants Of Legend, is it a solid option for those who need to scratch a retro JRPG itch? Read on, wary adventurer…
Stop us if you’ve heard this one: A prince, a knight and a cleric walk up to a dragon and it goes horribly, horribly wrong… oh, you do know of this? Don’t worry, that is part of the design philosophy (and charm) of this game. You will not find much in Dragon Sinker that you haven’t seen before if you were an avid JRPG consumer back in the day, nor you will need to get joy out of it because what is on offer is rather solid. In true love-letter tribute fashion, EXE Create baked a mix of the most popular JRPG mechanics into a single package. There's a big chunk-sized overworld you can freely explore, towns where you can seek local shops to supply and better equip your hero, dungeons that warrant full exploration for treasures and bosses, classic turn based combat - everything is designed to tickle your nostalgic memories of the genre, including the big pixel 8-bit graphics (they do look absolutely huge when playing docked, akin to a playing a Game Boy game on a Super Game Boy) and a Master System-like SN76489 PSG chiptune soundtrack.
Thankfully, and despite all these old mechanics, there was still space for some features that make the game more accessible: You can set your combat to automatic, leaving the CPU to handle the best way to fight your foes while you simply observe until needed. Also, should you lose a boss battle, you can immediately try again from the start of the fight rather than be faced with a 'game over' screen. The game even enables you to customise difficulty levels and the enemy encounter rate. As such - and despite being an old-school, hardcore gameplay experience at heart - you are free to approach it as casually as you choose. This will certainly be a helpful option for the least experienced among you who still want to enjoy this JPRG.
Despite the adventure casting you only as Prince Abram, you will not be fighting alone for the duration of your adventure. Meeting and recruiting other characters by solving their side-quests is a major slice of the gameplay and you can have up to 12 of them traveling along with your royal self, divided into three or four-man (or women) squads. This offers quite a lot of strategy because the game also includes a job system reminiscent of Final Fantasy V. By combining squads of different professions you can get all sorts of bonus and it is not only rather fun to work these out for oneself, it is nice to have options when you are entering dungeons unaware of what lies on the other end.
There is a clearly defined path from start to finish of the adventure, but the game will reward adventurers that stray from the path by providing a generous dose of side-quests, extra characters for you to recruit, extra dungeons, extra bosses and extra rewards thus the amount of time that it will take you to complete the journey will vary depending on how much time you will invest in exploring. There is available DLC but sadly it is not really extra content but rather in-game modifiers like experience boosters and other such time-shaving, shortcut features that only make sense in the mobile, pay-to-win market. A sadly missed opportunity to expand the core game right there.
Conclusion
Dragon Sinker is fortunately no ‘Dragon Stinker’. True, there is nothing you haven’t seen before a couple of decades ago and there is little reason to once again venture into this quest if you happen to have played it on another platform previous to this release. But nostalgia is a powerful force and what the game does, it does so quaintly and provides many hours of blissful, care-free JRPGing tropes. Not revolutionary but still a very welcome choice for Switch owners with a retro itch. If you do love JRPGs, miss the simpler days and enjoy getting out of a game as much as you put into it, we have little reasons not to recommend you give this quest a go.
Comments 25
I'll happily grab this whenever I get a chance.
I played it on 3DS. Enjoyed it.
I was listening to a podcast at the weekend and someone said it was awful, they called it Dragon Stinker.
Edit: But having looked at reviews myself elsewhere, it seems to have reviewed very positively. Maybe just that person didn't like it.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE I believe younger players or simply people who don't like JRPGs will find it very difficult to understand the overall charm of what is on offer here. I really liked this.
I was waiting for this review. Sounds passable enough, I'll give it a shot after I'm done with Mercenaries Saga 1.
@Hikingguy
Yeaah... There is a good reason I was waiting for a review first. The video in the eshop did make the game look quite appealing to a RPG nut like myself though.
@Hikingguy We can't judge EXE Creates product based on the publisher they chose to side with.
I tried the smartphone version as a “demo”... how does the controlling work? Does it feel weird moving the character around with the d-pad instead of tapping on the screen to plot the destination? I’m very iffy as I don’t want this to feel like a smartphone port even though that’s what it is.
@Alto I had no issues playing with the pro controller. I used the D-Pad.
This is definitely a game made for a campy type of fanbase. I can tell how it totally isn't for me.
I have this for 3DS. It is a classic JRPG clone. If You like old school than this game is for you. It is pretty good. I did not finish it because I have too many games to play. If I ever have a dry spell again I would go back to this one.
$13 for a smartphone game? /sigh/ Switch tax, hoooo!
@TheLobster
It's $10 on Steam and $15 on PSN, or you can play it on a phone or tablet with Ads, more in app purchases and no buttons.
I don't quite get how people cannot understand that mobile markets are just completely different/broken from console and PC. Yeah the game may be 'free' on mobile but you are paying for it in different ways. For many, paying for it to have full controller support and no ads is completely worth the costs.
This race to the bottom in mobile has completely screwed up how folks value software. A good game is a good game and should be paid for accordingly, whether that's giving up a couple minutes a day to watch ads, or paying some money for in app purchase, or just buying a game whole cloth.
@TheLobster
Let me correct you there...
console tax
Because that's the case on any console across the board. Games get put out for free with ads and timers on mobile, while those same games get put out for a one time flat cost on consoles. Don't like one time flat costs? Then just play on your smart phone the rest of your life and you won't have to deal with it
All those KEMCO / EXE-CREATE games are great, polished, oldschool JRPGs for a very good price.
If you like Dragon Sinker check out their other Switch RPGs Revenant Saga and Antiquia Lost.
I stopped reading when I read "the quintessential 8-bit JRPG experience that began its life on mobile phones"
Sounds like junk to me. Frankly I am tired of all the "Let's recapture the glory days of 8-bit" indie/mobile titles. If I want to play a good retro game, I will play a real retro game. Enough is enough with this fad. PASS.
@Hikingguy I absolutely agree, it is disheartening and something I wish never became a thing. I just lean more towards disliking the multiplayer micro transactions, aka pay to win tactics. A single player RPG with micro transactions though? Seems pointlessness to me but none the less someone must be buying it as evident by it's inclusion.
@Shiryu I highly doubt that Exe made these games and then looked for a publisher. It is way more likely that Kemco requested Exe to make auch a game...how else do you explain the literally dozens of extremely similar games all being published by Kemco?
I think I'll pass. I don't have the time for a by-the-numbers JRPG that can't even be bothered to provide decent 16-bit style graphics instead of these ugly 8-bit style graphics.
@Shiryu not sure whether you reviewed other Kemco RPG’s on Switch or not, but if that’s the case, which do you think is the best one?
Or would you recommend other experiences like Monkey Tavern or Darkest Dungeon?
I’m currently playing SMTIV:A on the 3DS and thinking about a nice RPG to play on my shiny new Switch after that
@clvr I never played any of the others but they usually look really solid from the trailers on eShop. Sadly my lack of time meant it was a miracle I managed to complete Xenoblade Chronicles 2, let alone even think about picking up another massive time consuming epic. this one lets you put as many hours as you want into it and come back whenever you find some more time to play. If you like the whole 8-bit essence, you won't go wrong with this one.
@Shiryu ah I see, I imagined you might not have played them, but I thought maybe you had reviewed other games of this line
Well, thanks for your reply nonetheless
@clvr No problem.
Well I enjoyed Antiquita lost and Revenant saga, both certainly scratched an itch.
I will pick this up on payday as well as Asdivine hearts that came out this week.
More JRPG the merrier
@cowntsikin Cool, I think I'll download it later today when I get home from work. I played a similar looking title "The longest 5 Minutes." It was just ok. Actually, I was pretty miffed at the end, the ending stunk. This game reminds me of that...hopefully a bit better...
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