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A visually striking dragon collecting fantasy RPG! | Full Review - Dragon Arise

4K View2023-05-24

Dragon Arise is a dragon collecting fantasy RPG that takes players on a whimsical journey into a world filled with dragons and epic battles.

🟩Pros

+Strategic squad building gameplay

+Automated battles

+Remarkable graphics

+Plenty of side activities and extra gameplay mechanics

+Intuitive progression mechanics

🟥Cons

-Not much depth in actual combat

-Energy currency to limit play

Dragon Arise is a dragon-themed RPG that features the player taking on the role of the main character who is transported into a dragon world in yet another Isekai-esque premise. As the prophesied savior of the Dragon Islands, your mission is to lead a legion of dragons against the encroaching curse and restore balance to the lands.

It features remarkable graphics from the start, with a mix of high definition artwork, stunning 3D models, and a stylized fantastical rendition of dragons and their world. The dragons look cartoonish but still highly detailed. Each dragon is meticulously designed, blending cartoonish aesthetics with intricate details that showcase their unique abilities and elemental affinities. Whether it's witnessing a red dragon unleashing fiery wrath or commanding a resilient rocky tank-like dragon, the visuals never fail to impress.

The gameplay is composed of you assembling a group of dragons, collecting them through various means: Playing the game, through gacha mechanics, or outright spending real money. These dragons can be leveled up, their skills enhanced, and their genes improve to further upgrade their limits. You can create a team of five dragons to bring into missions, and customize their deployment formation. The customization options allow for diverse strategies, ensuring that every player can create a unique dragon squad tailored to the enemy.

The beginner experience is a very welcoming one, with a highly comprehensive tutorial to help the player learn the ropes. The resources given are plentiful, I was able to build a max five-dragon squad immediately, and the first many missions are doable without yet fiddling much with the dragons. New gameplay elements are slowly unlocked as the player progresses through the game. There is an energy currency in play, so the later missions will definitely exhaust your energy and you will be encouraged to spend money or wait, but this aspect only comes a little bit later once you’ve invested a considerable amount of time in the game already.

While the battles themselves are automated, they are still visually appealing thanks to the remarkable graphics design. And they are still challenging to play because the composition of your dragon team matters. Winning or losing a battle can sometimes just be determined by one simple dragon swap in the lineup. The strategic depth lies in the composition of your dragon team. Choosing the right dragons with complementary abilities and exploiting enemy weaknesses becomes crucial for success.

The missions themselves are automatically played out, and players only need to watch. They can, however, opt to manually activate abilities, or to increase the speed of combat to 2x. The fights usually boil down to unit stats , their specific elemental abilities and its effects on the enemies in play in a chess-like manner.

The main campaign takes you into an epic journey across the Dragon world, and allows you to explore each area in an open manner, but only one mission at a time. These missions are either character interactions, world interactions, or battles that players will need to complete to unlock the next mission.

Progression revolves around upgrading the dragons to be able to survive and defeat increasingly difficult missions. Upgrading these dragons can become grindy. Fortunately, the game mechanics are accessible; how to do upgrades, when to find the requirements, are easy to figure out thanks to the intuitive UI and informative tutorial.

Dragon Arise also involves kingdom building aspects in the likes of Clash of Clans, by giving players the opportunity to build their main island and construct buildings. There is a prerequisite system in play, with buildings requiring other buildings or player levels to be able to continuously build. With each building providing different bonuses to the player.

Aside from the main campaign, there are also other side activities such as an endless battle, an increasingly challenging set of missions mirroring the main campaign, or a simplified dungeon crawling experience to spice up the whole experience.

Conclusion:

Dragon Arise is a captivating dragon collecting fantasy RPG that delivers an enchanting experience for mobile gamers. Its remarkable visuals, diverse dragon designs, ands strategic gameplay make for an engaging and addictive adventure. Despite the potential grind in progression, the game's intuitive mechanics, generous resources, and comprehensive tutorial ensure a welcoming experience for players.

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