Dragon Sword Is a Gacha Without being a Second Job

What do you do when your gacha game no longer has a publisher? Apparently you rip out the gacha, make it single player, and somehow that might be the best thing that could have happened to it. This is my first look at Dragon Sword. I went in knowing very little beyond the basic story. It used to be a gacha game, had publisher issues, and came back as a single-player anime action RPG, so I played through the demo to see what’s actually here. Overall: I liked it. The combat starts off feeling weird compared to similar games. It’s slower, more deliberate, and more about triggering signal skills, down/break/airborne states, and character swaps than just doing a normal rotation. I’m not fully sold on whether that’s better yet, but it is at least interesting. The biggest strength is the obvious one: it has that anime gacha game feel without the gacha maintenance. No daily checklist breathing down your neck. No second job. Hopefully fewer dark patterns stuffed into it. That said, the game still has issues. The tutorial priorities are strange, some of the mechanics needed way more explanation, the story is a little too cartoon relief for my taste, and I did fall through the world at the end of the dragon fight. That one’s a pretty egregious bug, even if swapping characters fixed it. Still, for me, this is a recommendation. I’ll probably pick it up at launch, partly because I had a good time, and partly because I’d like to see more games in this space that are actual games and less barely masked subscription models. Thanks for watching. If you made it this far, drop a like and sub. I’ll catch you in the next one. ???? Don't forget to Like, Sub and Share! Thank you. ????️ https://store.steampowered.com/app/4570720/DragonSword__Awakening/ #DragonSword #FirstLook #GameplayReview #shadowsthoughts If there's a game you'd like me to check out, feel free to contact me below. [email protected] https://discord.gg/rmc8YFX https://www.twitch.tv/shadowsthoughts https://twitter.com/mastergamingvr https://www.youtube.com/c/MasterGamingVR/join https://www.patreon.com/MasterGamingVR Sign up for a free Audible Subscription and get 2 free books! ???? https://amzn.to/2E2yGyz Index bundle ???? https://amzn.to/4cGdf4o Check out these e-books to support the channel https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3SIZ7ZU8URWEZ/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_2 0:00 What even is Dragon Sword? 0:36 Voice options and test build settings 2:08 The dragon intro goes exactly how you think 3:06 Anime gacha story energy 3:53 Movement, loot, and early gameplay 8:17 Goblins, combat basics, and first reactions 25:03 Where the gacha tutorial probably used to be 32:09 Skills, signal skills, and team logic 42:34 Why character swapping feels different 53:03 Climbing jank and side quest stuff 1:10:31 Combat starts to click 1:31:20 Characters, levels, and team setup 1:34:16 Dragon Worshippers Hideout 1:43:14 Let me kill the dragon 1:57:48 Final thoughts: bugs, combat, story, and verdict