Dragon Prana (Android)
May. 31st, 2026 09:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroThe “Dragon” series of games are generally differentiated by their art style (“8-bit remade as 16-bit chonky pixel graphics”) and plots revolving around the thee kingdoms of humans, elves and dwarves that don’t get along but need to unite against a threat. In this case, the demon king who was sealed 100 years ago is going to break free, so the descendants of the original heroes are sent to investigate. Unfortunately, the human prince is a weenie (doubly problematic because the human hero was responsible for sealing the demon, and the human kingdom is supreme because of it), so he sends a strong commoner and his competent retainer in his place.
Dragon Lapis, which I reviewed very highly at the time, was a decent start to the series and this follows it and the usual EXE-Create formula fairly closely in terms of systems and setups (there’s a class system and quirks to upgrading it, there are also character-specific stat upgrade trees, there are prizes for beating a certain number of every monster, there’s a gatcha weapons systems and stacking upgrades for those, there are in-game achievements that give prizes, etc). A noteworthy quirk of this game is it one of the rare few that’s presented in portrait mode rather than landscape, so I had to play it on my tablet instead of a handheld.
Dragon Sinker had a party/job system based around a team of followers and a plot I found painfully generic. Oddly, despite Alvastia Chronicles not being officially part of this series, it feels like it should be, with the similar art style and better execution of the many support characters/large party system. (This hewed much closer to the first game and had none of that.)
The job system is a bit messy: You can max out your base jobs long before you get access to the upgrade items (via sidequests), even if you use your limited IAP currency for the two bonus jobs. You can only get the top-level jobs if you buy the upgrade items from the arena store, except for the IAP jobs, which are pretty much the best anyway. Reaper has a basic attack that hits a whole column and a great set of abilities. Thankfully, the equipment is all modular (weapons are “Arma” and not class-locked) so it’s just a matter of choosing whether you want higher physical or magical attack at each level and then stacking the pluses and special effects via the crafting system.
This is another game where the translation is pretty decent except for a few weird choices, and the obsessive use of “suzerain” is one of them. Like, I understand it’s a valid English word that means what they want it to, but it’s archaic and I’ve literally never seen it anywhere besides KEMCO games. Was “sovereign” too much trouble to swap in?
SPOILERS: As you can guess, it comes out that your main character isn’t the real prince but his companions forgive him anyway. The new demon general is the former elf hero from 120 years before, corrupted by the demon lord. Another demon general is your sidekick’s mother. Eventually, all of the kingdoms manage to come together in unity, the heroes claim the Light Crystal, and the power of friendship lets them defeat the demon lord. The end…or is it? (I skipped the postgame.)
Overall: This is a very “by the numbers” jrpg, probably needlessly complex and a little longer than it needs to be, given the simplicity of the plot and the relative shallowness of the characters. It’s not bad, it’s not great, it’s playable but forgettable.
Dragon Lapis, which I reviewed very highly at the time, was a decent start to the series and this follows it and the usual EXE-Create formula fairly closely in terms of systems and setups (there’s a class system and quirks to upgrading it, there are also character-specific stat upgrade trees, there are prizes for beating a certain number of every monster, there’s a gatcha weapons systems and stacking upgrades for those, there are in-game achievements that give prizes, etc). A noteworthy quirk of this game is it one of the rare few that’s presented in portrait mode rather than landscape, so I had to play it on my tablet instead of a handheld.
Dragon Sinker had a party/job system based around a team of followers and a plot I found painfully generic. Oddly, despite Alvastia Chronicles not being officially part of this series, it feels like it should be, with the similar art style and better execution of the many support characters/large party system. (This hewed much closer to the first game and had none of that.)
The job system is a bit messy: You can max out your base jobs long before you get access to the upgrade items (via sidequests), even if you use your limited IAP currency for the two bonus jobs. You can only get the top-level jobs if you buy the upgrade items from the arena store, except for the IAP jobs, which are pretty much the best anyway. Reaper has a basic attack that hits a whole column and a great set of abilities. Thankfully, the equipment is all modular (weapons are “Arma” and not class-locked) so it’s just a matter of choosing whether you want higher physical or magical attack at each level and then stacking the pluses and special effects via the crafting system.
This is another game where the translation is pretty decent except for a few weird choices, and the obsessive use of “suzerain” is one of them. Like, I understand it’s a valid English word that means what they want it to, but it’s archaic and I’ve literally never seen it anywhere besides KEMCO games. Was “sovereign” too much trouble to swap in?
SPOILERS: As you can guess, it comes out that your main character isn’t the real prince but his companions forgive him anyway. The new demon general is the former elf hero from 120 years before, corrupted by the demon lord. Another demon general is your sidekick’s mother. Eventually, all of the kingdoms manage to come together in unity, the heroes claim the Light Crystal, and the power of friendship lets them defeat the demon lord. The end…or is it? (I skipped the postgame.)
Overall: This is a very “by the numbers” jrpg, probably needlessly complex and a little longer than it needs to be, given the simplicity of the plot and the relative shallowness of the characters. It’s not bad, it’s not great, it’s playable but forgettable.
