Procedurally Generated Failed Potential – Dragon Fin Soup Review

<p class&equals;"p1"><i>Dragon Fin Soup <&sol;i>falls into the category of games that have enormous potential but fall mightily short&period; An action role-playing game from independent studio Grimm Bros&period;&comma; the downloadable title was a big hit earlier this year at PAX Prime&period; With so many small studios trying to capitalize on the popularity of rogue-like games such as <i>The Binding of Isaac<&sol;i>&comma; <i>Rogue Legacy<&sol;i>&comma; and <i>Spelunky&comma; <&sol;i>this one actually appeared to be making a concerted effort to appease the fanbase of the aforementioned games&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p3"><span class&equals;"s1">There are two main game modes&colon; Story and Survival&period; The story itself is relatively bland despite having an interesting—and comical premise&period; Influenced by fairy tales such as <i>Robin Hood <&sol;i>and <i>Little Red Riding Hood<&sol;i>&comma; the tale follows Red Robin&period; She is a cheery alcoholic who just so happens to be a mercenary&period; Red Robin drinks to forget her past in Asura&period; By the way&comma; Asura is located on the back of a giant dragon-turtle—I kid you not&comma; I can’t make this stuff up&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p3"><span class&equals;"s1">It’s a generic tale of redemption planted inside dry dialogue which attempts to be humorous&comma; but only garners a few laughs throughout&period; The writing is solid but the delivery is flawed&period; I can’t really fault a rogue-like game for having a mediocre story since gameplay is the emphasis here&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p3"><span class&equals;"s1">The perceptive is top down like Super Nintendo RPGs&period; Red Robin&comma; like all of the characters in the game&comma; is a two dimensional sprite&period; The environments themselves feature nice textures and pleasant aesthetics&comma; if not lacking a bit of variety&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;96150" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-96150" style&equals;"width&colon; 750px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;12&sol;04103133&sol;DFS-Dialogue&period;jpeg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-96150 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;12&sol;04103133&sol;DFS-Dialogue&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"An attempt at humor &lpar;Dragon Fin Soup&comma; Grimm Bros&rpar;" width&equals;"750" height&equals;"421" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-96150" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">An attempt at humor &lpar;Dragon Fin Soup&comma; Grimm Bros&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p3"><span class&equals;"s1">The gameplay is a mix of scripted events and procedurally generated environments&period; The idea here is to give players a different experience each time they replay through the story or even fall in combat&period; The best way to describe the combat itself is to compare it to <i>Diablo<&sol;i>&period; But more aptly&comma; a <i>Diablo <&sol;i>being played on a malfunctioning keyboard&period; The controls are easy enough to grasp&comma; but character movement is delayed and sometimes stagnant&period; Sometimes it feels as if you are not even in control as the player&period; This mechanic is brought in by locked combat from engaging with no way to back out&period; While I understand how this asks for preemptive thought and strategy&comma; it’s seriously hampered due to fumbling controls that often lead you into combat when you&comma; as the player&comma; didn’t engage in your opinion&period; That being said&comma; the difficulty level is tough like many in the genre&period; It’s supposed to test your patience and it succeeds&period; Unfortunately&comma; difficulty is skewed due to the mess of controls&comma; making the experience endlessly more challenging because of it&period; The bright side here is that the music is better than average so when repeated failures are at least accompanied by pleasant tunes&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p3"><span class&equals;"s1">Games of this sort emphasize loot and items&period; In <i>Dragon Fin Soup<&sol;i>&comma; players need as much help as they can get in terms of more powerful weapons and armor as well as consumables&period; The inventory system starts off clean but with progression&comma; it becomes a cluttered pile of ambiguity&period; Too often do you use the wrong item at the most inopportune time&comma; or fail to get to a potion soon enough before dying&period; Once again&comma; this is an extension of the controls but also a design flaw that hurts its overall appeal&period; Without a balanced and accessible inventory system&comma; rogue like games are effectively ruined in large parts&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;96151" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-96151" style&equals;"width&colon; 750px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;12&sol;04103122&sol;DFS-Combat&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-96151" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;12&sol;04103122&sol;DFS-Combat&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Chaotic combat &lpar;Dragon Fin Soup&comma; Grimm Bros&rpar;" width&equals;"750" height&equals;"422" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-96151" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Chaotic combat &lpar;Dragon Fin Soup&comma; Grimm Bros&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p3"><span class&equals;"s1">The main story is long for a budget title&comma; anywhere from twenty to thirty hours depending on pace of play and number of deaths&period; After completion&comma; the Survival mode removes the story and throws Red Robin into environments with the goal of staying alive as long as possible &lpar;quite obvious by the name&rpar;&period; For those who manage to complete the main quest&comma; your skills will be strong enough to wade through mechanical flaws and take on Survival&period; The difficulty here is without a doubt higher&comma; and if only the game succeeded on the parts that make this sort of game mode great &lpar;good controls and inventory system&rpar;&comma; this would be a nice bonus and an addicting way to pass time since the randomly generated environments provide a mostly different experience for each run&period; These modes are supposed to reward skill&comma; and because of its detriments&comma; failures present themselves as unfair&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p3"><span class&equals;"s1"><i>Dragon Fin Soup <&sol;i>could’ve been a great game&period; All of the pieces are here&comma; but it ends up as an aggravating and ultimately disappointing title&period; For what it’s worth&comma; it’s interesting enough to try out&period; I enjoyed bits and pieces of my time with <i>Dragon Fin Soup<&sol;i>&comma; but the overarching problems kept me from truly liking the game for more than an extended moment&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p3" style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">&NewLine;