Epic Dragon

Epic Dragon
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/epic-dragon/id321929119?mt=8
Cost: $0.99
Developed by Dracosoft
Last Updated on July 31st, 2010

An old favourite of mine, Epic Dragon is a 2D, turn-based RPG in which you will fight legions of goblins, masses of zombies, the all-powerful Counsel of Dragons, as well as some jelly things and a couple of wooden mannequins.

Menu

When you first open up the game you are greeted by the Epic Dragon menu, as you can see from the picture below the game features slots for three games, this is nice as it allows you to play around with the different character classes and builds. To start a new game you simply click on an empty slot.

Class Selection

In Epic Dragon you can choose from 13 classes to play, each has their unique strengths and weaknesses. the classes range from hard hitting warriors to lightning fast rogues to fireball flinging wizards. For this review I chose the always fun "guy with a massive axe" class.

The Story Begins

Once you've chosen your class and picked out a name you are greeted by a blue-robed wizard that we will call Steve. Steve tells you the story of the great King Thanatos, ruler of Arcadia, who everyone loved until one day he ran off into the woods and was never heard from again.

Tutorial

After learning of Thanatos you are once again greeted by Steve (old guy in blue robes) who informs you that you will be playing the Hero of this tale and that he will be taking up the mantle of Narrator. He then graciously explains how to kill stuff, after which you will be thrown into an epic battle in which you must defeat the three evil wooden mannequins.

If you were able to defeat the three swordsmen of wooden devastation, you will be notified that your prowess in battle has been rewarded and that you have leveled up. You will have one point to place in either Attack, Defend, Magic, or Speed and another point to place in Fire, Water, Earth, or Air.

Post-Tutorial

Once you have completed the tutorial you are brought to the main screen of the game where you will find quests that are currently available, a shop to purchase gear upgrades, and a status menu where you can view your inventory and stats.

In order to progress the story you must complete, you guessed it, story quests, these involve fighting boss monsters that are a much more substantial test than regular monsters. But fear not, you may have help...

Combat

Combat in Epic Dragon is time-based, which means that you will be able to attack once every x seconds. The more Speed you have the less time you have to wait until you attack. Each character has their basic attack and a power attack. Each time you attack you gain one power, and each power attack takes from two to five power to use. Power attacks are much stronger than standard attacks and have powerful properties, such as doing equal damage to all enemies, or allowing you to instantly attack again.

Touching an enemy will put an arrow above their head, forcing your Hero to attack them. This is useful for when you need to bring down a dangerous foe quickly. Unfortunately this is all the game really offers in terms of in-battle strategy.

Conclusion

The Good

• Simple game mechanics make it easy to pick up and play
• Fun, comic styled story telling
• Decent replay value with all the different classes

The Bad

• Simple game mechanics makes it hard to get really into the game
• Lackluster combat leaves much to be desired
• The lack of variety in enemies and bosses leaves the game feeling very "grindy"

Should I Buy It?

If you enjoy building and leveling characters I highly recommend Epic Dragon, it can be extremely rewarding at higher levels . But, if you enjoy games with lots of strategy and intricate combat systems I would save my money and look elsewhere.

Sword and Board Rating:  3/5


Thanks for reading!