![]() The Roost wears these Pokemon influences on its sleeve, with three levels of evolution, and it’s all the better for it. You’ll have a chance to feed, evolve, level-up, manage, and even change your dragon’s form (fire to sky type, for example). When you’re not frantically shooting down horrific creatures in missions, you can visit the Dragon Roost - which is basically a miniature version of Pokemon. ![]() It doesn’t feel like gating so much as an arcade-like setup, which is a major plus as I’m more inclined to want to jump back into previous stages. Sometimes, you’ll also need to kill certain creatures or complete certain objectives to unlock more levels. You’ll revisit some maps to do more missions, but they feel different as you’ll take you on different paths (think A-B-C scenarios in old-school games). They’re mainly used to navigate menus, and order your wingman around, which can be done with the d-pad. Again, I want to make it clear that Kinect support is just relegated to voice commands, and they are completely optional. In fact, once you get used to aiming a few levels into the game, you’ll have very little issues with the controls outside of the occasional free-flight camera hiccup. These portions don’t control nearly as well as the on-rails sections, but barring the occasional camera issue, I didn’t have much of a problem acclimating myself to it. To mix things up even further, every so often (mostly during boss battles) Crimson Dragon will give you “free flight” control and allow you to fly about an arena (think Star Fox 64). ![]() To help break up the pacing of the game you’ll have sub-missions for every level, like “grabbing beacons” or “killing an enemy within a time limit.” You’ll get graded accordingly based on your performance, and the quest to constantly get a top mark is extremely addictive. If you just want to take it easy, a “Casual” setting is available at any time from the options menu. It’s pretty exciting that the old-school challenge of the original series was preserved, and I had a blast trying to best some of the levels that claimed my life more than a few times. If you aren’t always watching out and keeping your barrel roll ability at the ready, you won’t make it much farther than the first few stages. Monsters are relentless, and even smaller foes will regularly keep you on your guard with a consistent amount of bullets always on-screen. That’s basically all you need to know, but the implementation is where it counts, because this game is hard on the default “Classic Mode.” ![]() The left trigger switches weapons (usually of a lock-on and straight-shot variety), and the right trigger is your shot button. You’ll control your dragon by way of left analog movement and right analog targeting, with the ability to barrel roll using the left and right buttons (LB and RB). Panzer Dragoon made its name as an on-rails shooter, and that’s how the vast majority of Crimson Dragon operates. Even just flying around in a few locations had my jaw dropping in awe, with a huge draw distance, and a good variety of themes, like lush jungle forests, frigid tundras, and vast sparkling oceans. I’m not one to usually put much stock in visuals, but being able to see enemies from far away also helps strictly in terms of gameplay. While it would make sense to mold Draco into a soulless collection of browns that the game industry is so fixated on, it must be said that Crimson Dragon is a gorgeous-looking game.Īlthough it is budget priced, it looks decidedly next-gen, and there’s an insane amount of detail that went into the game’s handful of maps and locales. Humans have colonized said planet, and have seized control of the dragon population to fight it - which is where you come in. Ltd.Ĭrimson Dragon takes place on the desolate planet Draco, where pretty much everything is out to get you. Although it may not be quite up to par with some of the masterful games it takes inspiration from, it’s a fine successor all the same for old and new fans alike.ĭeveloper: Grounding, Inc. The forced Kinect scheme has since been dropped, and as time went on, the game looked better and better. The talent is there, as the former director of the first three Panzer games and a Panzer composer are attached, but the prospect of Kinect gameplay and an Xbox One exclusivity deal made things a bit hard to swallow. As the spiritual successor to the Panzer Dragoon franchise, Crimson Dragon has some big shoes to fill.
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