Dragonblade

2008/02/07

Alas, it shouldn’t be this way. … while your neighbours have nothing else to do but to watch, after a couple of minutes you suddenly feel the urge to use the Wiimote for bowling or golf and the next packet of crisps has already been opened. Indeed, the programmers of Dragon Blade promise that one can now finally unfurl slumbering swordplay talents, the bottom line, however, is the same steering mechanism could have been used for a cocktail mixer simulation. As a matter of fact, everything that sounds great in theory, such as different movements of the Wiimote generate different hitting techniques, turns out to be a failure in practice. Merely shaking the Wiimote is enough to achieve the wanted effect. An enemy appears? Shake it. Destroy a box? Shake it. Surrounded? Shake it. Shaking the Wiimote is the answer to everything in this game and displays the simple manner of this product.

Not only does the fact that shaking is sufficient for almost all situations demonstrate how imprecise and inert the steering is, but also how little care was taken in creating Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire. There’s only a minimal difference between swinging and jabbing the sword at the opponent, as jabbing causes more damage and takes a bit longer to accomplish. To defend oneself from attacks key A has to be used – it’s a pity it takes so long for the warrior on the screen to obtain this information. Before he comes to perform the command he’s already been taken down. Defeated by the slowness of the chain of command. It’s a good thing the warrior disposes of enough vital force for most damage to be bearable. Even with constant opponent presence it’s possible to advance in a fairly rapid pace – the gamer doesn’t really have any other options due to the existence of simply one path leading in linear direction through the whole level – crossings, other quests, diversity? No chance. From time to time all enemies have to be defeated in order to advance, but in the end the path of the dragon sword is a strictly straightforward one. After having shaked oneself to the boss, the degree of misery becomes evident: Thanks to the imprecise steering, targeted hits and jabs are virtually impossible. You can merely hope for some coincidental hits and pray for the avatar to take in a defensive position at the right moment. After having tried to accomplish the second level three times, however, faith and hope start to fade – Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire becomes a victim of its own steering. Even the special dragon powers one obtains after having conquered the boss doesn’t change this fact.

The camera isn’t always in the mood of capturing the action in a well-arranged manner, either. You can, off course, continually center it up – if you’re facing a wall, however, the character is blind to his enemies and is easy prey. The only way out once again is shaking yourself senseless. You don’t have to play tennis like in Wii sports to get a fully developed tennis elbow. You’re eyes suffer, as well: The graphics are an homage to the starts of the GameCube, clipping errors combined with computer games aesthetics of the earliest years of this century don’t exactly enhance the game, either. Cliffs are limited through invisible fences, opponents move dreamily and barely animated, nor does a single blade of grass budge. The one and only respectable aspect is the fire effect. The game design isn’t at the level of 2008: After having completed a level you get a score and are then enabled to choose your next station on a map. Though this isn’t fatal, it once again demonstrates the lack of innovative ideas in Dragon Blade.

In this sense, the crude story of a dragon king whose soul flees into the sword of the warrior after a betrayal gets combined with a bit of revenge – An idea out of a hand booklet for script beginners of heroic fantasy for the budget market. The story is told in ugly cut scenes without any voice acting or sound backdrop – elevator music in the background, occasional moans and groans. Only the hated king gets to talk a bit. All other dialogues are in written form and due to missing pictures and the total inexistence of facial expression and gesture, one is never one hundred percent aware of who is actually talking. The story being rather boring, it doesn’t really make a difference cut scenes were neglected – a function that should have been implemented in this game, however.