I usually see this spoken of as a historical artifact that was ambitious for its time, but I think Stephen Landrum may have actually delivered a masterpiece that still holds up in 2024. Dragonstomper consolizes the RPG in a unique way that I haven't seen in another game, and in a way that's completely different from Dragon Quest while being no less compelling.
The game is structured into three sequential chapters: exploring the Wilderness, preparing in Town, and assaulting the Dungeon. There's no going back and forth between these modes, once you're done with one it's onto the other. This gives Dragonstomper a tight linear three-act structure that combines really well with its 1-hour length. It's surprisingly modern-feeling, the kind of thing I would expect from an RPG Maker game that has the benefit of 40 years of console RPG history.
The wilderness is a truly desolate place. There are three castles guarded by enormous cursed skulls that will trap you if you walk on them. Animals will guard their habitat jealously if you approach the handful of trees spotting the plain. Combat does not occur on a separate screen, instead enemy sprites will come flying in from a distance, dwarfing the tiny dot that represents your character. You do not gain experience from battle, only money and sometimes items, and half of the items you get will lower your stats. When you approach a hut, its resident is likely to attack you. You can pray at a church, but the game will tell you it has no effect. But you can pay them money to heal you. It's all about the money in this world.
The bridge to town is blocked by a guard who demands to see your ID. You can try to kill him, or you can go loot an ID off the corpse of a "maniac." Or you could bribe the guard with 600 gold, which is no small amount. Once you get into town, called "The Oppressed Village" in the manual, the only people there are merchants and mercenaries. To buy items in a shop you have to physically approach the item sprite, then walk back to the merchant and buy it, at which point the item sprite disappears. This gives the impression that you are buying the last of their stock, that if your assault on the dungeon doesn't work, there's not going to be a second chance. There's no reason not to spend every last gold piece you gathered from the wilderness. You can hire the mercenaries to join you with gold or jewels. No one in town has a single polite word to spare you, only transactions to conduct.
The dungeon is a long corridor filled with trap tiles and poison darts that you have to dodge, wearing you down before the final fight with the dragon. This is a long, grueling battle where your mercenary companions will probably die, and you'll be down to a sliver of health with no items left. It's partially turn based and partially in real-time, because you can try to move around the dragon to claim its prize jewel without killing it, but it'll chase you down if you're not able to stun it with spells. The cycling between your actions, the mercernaries' actions, and the dragon's actions makes this battle feel epic, all with the enormous prize jewel pulsating in the background.
It all adds up to an adventure that feels complete and polished and well-paced, with a tone that reminds me a lot of a Souls game, right down to a boss that you have to strafe around and take potshots at while your allies keep it occupied.
The game is structured into three sequential chapters: exploring the Wilderness, preparing in Town, and assaulting the Dungeon. There's no going back and forth between these modes, once you're done with one it's onto the other. This gives Dragonstomper a tight linear three-act structure that combines really well with its 1-hour length. It's surprisingly modern-feeling, the kind of thing I would expect from an RPG Maker game that has the benefit of 40 years of console RPG history.
The wilderness is a truly desolate place. There are three castles guarded by enormous cursed skulls that will trap you if you walk on them. Animals will guard their habitat jealously if you approach the handful of trees spotting the plain. Combat does not occur on a separate screen, instead enemy sprites will come flying in from a distance, dwarfing the tiny dot that represents your character. You do not gain experience from battle, only money and sometimes items, and half of the items you get will lower your stats. When you approach a hut, its resident is likely to attack you. You can pray at a church, but the game will tell you it has no effect. But you can pay them money to heal you. It's all about the money in this world.
The bridge to town is blocked by a guard who demands to see your ID. You can try to kill him, or you can go loot an ID off the corpse of a "maniac." Or you could bribe the guard with 600 gold, which is no small amount. Once you get into town, called "The Oppressed Village" in the manual, the only people there are merchants and mercenaries. To buy items in a shop you have to physically approach the item sprite, then walk back to the merchant and buy it, at which point the item sprite disappears. This gives the impression that you are buying the last of their stock, that if your assault on the dungeon doesn't work, there's not going to be a second chance. There's no reason not to spend every last gold piece you gathered from the wilderness. You can hire the mercenaries to join you with gold or jewels. No one in town has a single polite word to spare you, only transactions to conduct.
The dungeon is a long corridor filled with trap tiles and poison darts that you have to dodge, wearing you down before the final fight with the dragon. This is a long, grueling battle where your mercenary companions will probably die, and you'll be down to a sliver of health with no items left. It's partially turn based and partially in real-time, because you can try to move around the dragon to claim its prize jewel without killing it, but it'll chase you down if you're not able to stun it with spells. The cycling between your actions, the mercernaries' actions, and the dragon's actions makes this battle feel epic, all with the enormous prize jewel pulsating in the background.
It all adds up to an adventure that feels complete and polished and well-paced, with a tone that reminds me a lot of a Souls game, right down to a boss that you have to strafe around and take potshots at while your allies keep it occupied.