I only started playing Dragalia right before the EoS date was officially announced. The game always had my interest for multiple reasons, but I'm a huge slacker when it comes to games and an even bigger one with mobile games. So, while finding out about the game's shut down was the kick in the pants I needed to incentivize me to finally play, I can safely say that my enjoyment of the game would have been greater if I had picked it up earlier on. Sure, I didn't have to deal with the power creep, and sure, I could still replay a good number of the events on my own or alongside the still-very-active community. But this game was designed how a mobile game should be designed, to be played in bursts. So having to rush through it all wasn't the ideal experience by a long shot.
Usually I would write down a good amount of historical info on the game's creation; contextual tidbits and such because I like learning about these things. But another review already did just that and did it far better than I would have given my somewhat limited experience with the game. Feel free to read it! I'll skip explaining the basic gameplay as well on that assumption.
There were many times I found myself getting tired of playing through the game, since while it was mechanically sound and felt pretty good, much of the core game design was recycled. Lots of maps had plain empty layouts that you simply just had to run through before reaching a few enemies, killing them then continuing. Very few objectives and strategies existed in the stages, and boss fights as well, besides whacking foes until they died. There were a small number of bosses that spiced things up with cleverly designed attacks, but I didn't notice this happening too much. Unfortunately, boss arenas were almost always just a big circle you'd run around in too. Hence me saying earlier that I would've enjoyed this game more at a relaxed pace, instead of having to sit down and spend an hour plus on each chapter/event I wanted to go through to reach my goal of experiencing as much of what the game had to offer as possible. But even with that being said, it was gacha game, and unsurprisingly most of the focus was put into its teambuilding aspects, visual polish, and world-building.
I didn't have the best chance to enjoy the teambuilding because the microtransactions were completely shut off shortly after I started playing, but I got good mileage out of the polish and story. The game always looked wonderful and ran smoothly, super great lighting and effects at that. Then the story, hoo boy, I think this story took the cake for being the most anime game Nintendo has ever put their name on. Spoiler warning, I guess? Though I have doubts as for whether they'll rerelease this game or even a sequel on the Switch, it's really funny that we not only got the Power of Friendship™ (and Family) and punching God in the face, but the dang Pope even resurrects Satan (not the Christian one, silly). It's a story that at times reminded me of Umineko (and what I've heard about the Zero Escape series), where the story just goes full scorched earth, no ideas were too wacky to be off the table. The similarities to the aforementioned works also extends to it pissing me off sometimes, because at times it sure loved running in circles, spouting the same eye-rolling nonsense over and over until I was genuinely tired and irritated. Perhaps this is just a visual novel thing, which is what the story part effectively was. It was still pretty fun to read though, don't get me wrong. The highlight for me was absolutely any of the stories featuring the apostles, they were just too cool.
I was initially feeling a bit more harsh on what I'd score the game, but I got to (well had to really) experience the hardest story boss fight through co-op play. While I had done some co-op raid events before, this worked a little differently since, if I remember correctly, the raid fights let you have four full teams of four adventurers. Co-op on story quests, and others presumably, made you use one adventurer per player instead and this changed my opinion on the gameplay a little bit. It didn't change the gameplay too much outright besides not having to deal with the semi-crap AI. But I don't know, something about it felt a lot more like real teamwork and made the experience more fun for me, so that last little moment shortly before the game ended was enough for me to feel slightly more positive about the game. The community from my short time playing was also awesome, and I always get a good kick out of one that has a really well-maintained wiki on top of that.
I think my last thought before leaving this game to my memories (and gameplay footage I recorded along with the assets I snatched because I was in full archivist mode the entire way through) reflects what I've seen others say here and there. And that's just the hope that Nintendo chooses to use the IP in the future. I think it has tons of potential for a proper console installment with some of that fully-fleshed out gameplay I was craving. The team behind it clearly had a lot of passion for the project, so I'd love to see it have more things to go by in the future. Also, hit me up if you've got one of those Greatwyrm plushies, I'm almost convinced they don't actually exist.
Usually I would write down a good amount of historical info on the game's creation; contextual tidbits and such because I like learning about these things. But another review already did just that and did it far better than I would have given my somewhat limited experience with the game. Feel free to read it! I'll skip explaining the basic gameplay as well on that assumption.
There were many times I found myself getting tired of playing through the game, since while it was mechanically sound and felt pretty good, much of the core game design was recycled. Lots of maps had plain empty layouts that you simply just had to run through before reaching a few enemies, killing them then continuing. Very few objectives and strategies existed in the stages, and boss fights as well, besides whacking foes until they died. There were a small number of bosses that spiced things up with cleverly designed attacks, but I didn't notice this happening too much. Unfortunately, boss arenas were almost always just a big circle you'd run around in too. Hence me saying earlier that I would've enjoyed this game more at a relaxed pace, instead of having to sit down and spend an hour plus on each chapter/event I wanted to go through to reach my goal of experiencing as much of what the game had to offer as possible. But even with that being said, it was gacha game, and unsurprisingly most of the focus was put into its teambuilding aspects, visual polish, and world-building.
I didn't have the best chance to enjoy the teambuilding because the microtransactions were completely shut off shortly after I started playing, but I got good mileage out of the polish and story. The game always looked wonderful and ran smoothly, super great lighting and effects at that. Then the story, hoo boy, I think this story took the cake for being the most anime game Nintendo has ever put their name on. Spoiler warning, I guess? Though I have doubts as for whether they'll rerelease this game or even a sequel on the Switch, it's really funny that we not only got the Power of Friendship™ (and Family) and punching God in the face, but the dang Pope even resurrects Satan (not the Christian one, silly). It's a story that at times reminded me of Umineko (and what I've heard about the Zero Escape series), where the story just goes full scorched earth, no ideas were too wacky to be off the table. The similarities to the aforementioned works also extends to it pissing me off sometimes, because at times it sure loved running in circles, spouting the same eye-rolling nonsense over and over until I was genuinely tired and irritated. Perhaps this is just a visual novel thing, which is what the story part effectively was. It was still pretty fun to read though, don't get me wrong. The highlight for me was absolutely any of the stories featuring the apostles, they were just too cool.
I was initially feeling a bit more harsh on what I'd score the game, but I got to (well had to really) experience the hardest story boss fight through co-op play. While I had done some co-op raid events before, this worked a little differently since, if I remember correctly, the raid fights let you have four full teams of four adventurers. Co-op on story quests, and others presumably, made you use one adventurer per player instead and this changed my opinion on the gameplay a little bit. It didn't change the gameplay too much outright besides not having to deal with the semi-crap AI. But I don't know, something about it felt a lot more like real teamwork and made the experience more fun for me, so that last little moment shortly before the game ended was enough for me to feel slightly more positive about the game. The community from my short time playing was also awesome, and I always get a good kick out of one that has a really well-maintained wiki on top of that.
I think my last thought before leaving this game to my memories (and gameplay footage I recorded along with the assets I snatched because I was in full archivist mode the entire way through) reflects what I've seen others say here and there. And that's just the hope that Nintendo chooses to use the IP in the future. I think it has tons of potential for a proper console installment with some of that fully-fleshed out gameplay I was craving. The team behind it clearly had a lot of passion for the project, so I'd love to see it have more things to go by in the future. Also, hit me up if you've got one of those Greatwyrm plushies, I'm almost convinced they don't actually exist.