The Dragoness: Command of the Flame from PQube and Crazy Goat Games brings us a Heroes of Might and Magic-inspired turn-based strategy RPG with a roguelite twist. Check our The Dragoness: Command of the Flame review!

 

The Dragoness: Command of the Flame from PQube and Crazy Goat Games brings us a Heroes of Might and Magic-inspired turn-based strategy RPG with a roguelite twist. The Kingdom of the https://www.ps3blog.net/2023/08/04/virtual-reality-from-playstation-4-to-the-future-of-online/ Draithir Peninsula was ruled in peace thanks to the Regal Dragons’ immense wisdom and the might of the Va Dragons, known for their strength and valor, who defended the land. Due to the influence of an ancient scroll, the Va were corrupted. The Shai-Va rose from its ashes thanks to the power of dark magic.

The Regal Dragons managed to win the war, but the Kingdom then grew into chaos. With Shai-Va still looming as a dormant threat against the Kingdom, the Queen knew a new leader was needed, so she sent a missive to the elves. They replied to this request by appointing a skillful noblewoman to take on this task. You’ll be taking on the role of said commander, who must use her wisdom and the abilities of her troops to defeat the rogue enemies and mighty bosses on her path.

You’ll be greeted by Natiq Hay-Awan, a member of the noble house of Battle Pangolins, who are cousins of the dragon race, which you can tell from their shining scales. The Queen has sent him to escort you to the new Capital, which is easier said than done since the roads are infested with villainous types that are up to no good. On top of that, the road to the portal that leads to the Capital has been blocked, and you must collect the special stone required to open the way.

The game can be played in one of three difficulty settings: Easy, Normal, and Hard. Easy is recommended for players who are new to the strategy genre and want to focus on the story without having to worry too much about combat. Normal offers the standard experience, balanced for those that are familiar with turn-based strategy games. As for Hard, it’s a difficulty setting recommended for experience strategy players who are looking for an increased challenge that will test their skills.

Once you gain control, you’ll use the right analog stick to move the camera around each map. You can rotate the camera by using the D-Pad. You will use the left analog stick to move a cursor around the screen in order to determine the path on which you’ll walk. The color of the path will indicate if you’ll arrive at your intended destination in a single turn or if you’ll need more than one turn to make it there. Once you’re out of steps, you must end your turn by selecting one of the end-of-turn bonuses.

 

What are these bonuses, you ask? Well, you could decide to get additional steps for your next turn so that you can move further away from your current position. Another option is obtaining a blue potion that can help you to regenerate additional mana, which is required for activating skills and abilities. The last option is a red potion that will heal additional HP, which could be just the thing you need in order to survive against the deadly attacks of your opponents.

Along the way, you might find a treasure chest or two that you can interact with to obtain its contents. You could be rewarded with one of two choices from a treasure chest and will need to choose wisely to help your cause. Would you choose to collect 200 experience points so that your heroes can level up and gain additional skills? Or would it be best to collect 12 pieces of iron, an essential resource for crafting weapons and armor that can improve your odds of victory in combat?

Pressing the L2 button will allow you to examine buildings and structures. This can prove to be useful since you’ll be able to review what each building or structure does before you approach them. You might observe a large carved rock that you can approach so that you can interact with it. Doing so could reveal a tiny altar buried within the ancient stones, featuring an interesting carving of two dragons flying over the land, an image you wouldn’t have otherwise found. Thanks to this, you will be rewarded with a bit of extra knowledge, which translates into some bonus experience points.

Interact with an iron mine, and, as expected, the mine will start to produce some iron for you during each turn. Interact with a university, and you will gain the experience points needed to gain a new level! What will happen when you level up? You’ll get a chance to select from one of the available skills presented to you. The first pair of options you can choose from are a boost to the number of health points available to beasts in your army – a generous boost of 5 HP – or you could choose to unlock an additional spell called Mana Infusion. What will you choose?

Your commander will gain experience points for defeating monsters, visiting buildings, and more. By selecting your commander’s portrait, you’ll be able to take a closer look at her stats, talent, and adventure skills. This will allow you to review her current mana and total mana, current experience points and the threshold for leveling up, how many steps in total she can take during a turn and how many remain, her HP regeneration and MP regeneration percentages, as well as her talent. She can, for example, provide additional shield to centaurs in the army, as well as a boost to ranged attack. She will start with a single adventure skill thanks to Flash Heal, a useful spell that can be used to heal wounds.

By combining monsters, you can increase their power. This can be done in the Army Management window. Once you merge monsters, you’ll be rewarded with a new unit that will have better overall stats – more health, more shield, more powerful attacks, and maybe even some spells to use. You will be able to easily see which of your units are of a better quality thanks to the stars that will be displayed on their portrait. What’s the difference between, say, a single star Centaur and a Centaur with two stars? The Centaur that has one star will be called a Centaur Veteran, and it will have 26 max health, 23 shield, and 14 for its ranged attack. As for the Centaur with two stars, it will be known as a Centaur King, and it will have 34 max health, 29 shield, and 18 ranged attack. And yes, a higher number for each of these stats is certainly better!

Once you come into contact with an enemy on the map, a battle will commence. It’s then that you’ll clearly see the Heroes of Might and Magic influences on The Dragoness: Command of the Flame. Units will be able to move a specific amount of tiles during their turn, depending on their movement stat. Units will attack in the order shown at the bottom of the screen, which is determined by their initiative sta. You must plan your strategy accordingly so that you can know what enemies you need to focus on first to keep them from dealing considerable damage to your units.

What can your units do in combat? Along with commanding them to move over the battlefield, you can also command them to attack an opponent with a melee attack or a ranged attack – all depending on which unit you’re controlling. A unit can also defend to lower incoming damage from melee, ranged, and magic attacks, and you can have them wait out their turn. Some units will be able to cast spells at the cost of 10 mana points per spell cast. And don’t forget that your commander can also cast some spells of her own!

You should always keep a close eye on your opponents, which is why you use the R2 button to check their stats just to make sure you know what you’re dealing with. Doing this will allow you to check their stat values for shield, health, mana, melee attacks, ranged attacks (if it’s a unit that can attack from a distance), dodge, magic resistance, move range, initiative, any spells it might be able to cast, as well as any currently active effects.

As you explore each map, you should keep an eye out for any resources you can collect. Resources such as iron or granite are very important since they can be used at a mercenary camp to hire new units for your cause. Adding an extra Centaur to attack from a distance or adding a Griffon that can fly over great distances on the battlefield can make a big difference! You should also search for additional food for your units so that they’re fed every day at the end of the commander’s turn.

This is very important because if units are not fully fed, they will start to grow weaker and weaker, which will have an impact on their stats values. A unit without food for a single day will start to lose 5% HP per day and will have a lower attack, initiative, dodge, and magic resistance. If a unit goes four days without food, it will start to lose 10% HP per day, will suffer from an even lower attack, initiative, dodge, and magic resistance, as well as suffer from lower movement. If a unit is starving, which happens after 8 days without food, it will lose 20% HP per day and suffer a huge blow to its attack, initiative, dodge, magic resistance, and movement while also suffering from having fewer mana points!

During your travels, you might end up finding some rare artifacts that can be put to good use. Take, for example, the Enchanted Blade that you’ll find early in your journey. Equipping it to your commander will make it possible to boost all beasts’ melee attacks by 2 points. You can equip up to 3 artifacts at the same time, so be sure to review your inventory to see which combination best suits your efforts.

Remember how I mentioned that this game is a roguelite? What that means is that death is very much going to be part of the gameplay loop, so you’ll be making some progress during each run as you obtain resources that will allow you to unlock more units, more areas to explore, and new abilities and bonuses. To obtain these, you will need to construct buildings in Niwenborh. You could unlock permanent boosts to the commander’s max mana, increase how many resources you obtain at the start of each run, increase the size of your army, unlock new end-of-turn bonuses to choose from, and more.

Units can also be boosted by spending resources at the camp. Take, for example, the mighty Centaurs. Since they use ranged attacks, it would be wise to spend some resources to unlock reinforced arrowheads. Doing this will increase the base damage dealt by Centaurs, which can make a big difference in the long run. After that, you can spend some additional resources to unlock the life sigil that will boost the Centaurs’ hit points by 2.

The game has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy waiting for you. On top of that, this is a Cross-Buy release, so if you own a PlayStation 5 console, you’ll be able to download both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of the game at no extra cost. Each version will have its own trophy list, which includes 17 Bronze trophies, 17 Silver trophies, and 3 Gold trophies for you to work on. What will you need to do to obtain all trophies from this long list?

There are trophies that will pop up as you progress through the game, as well as trophies for completing the game in the Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty settings. Other trophies require you to complete your first challenge, as well as complete 15, 30, and 48 challenges, complete all challenges on any map in one go, construct all buildings in Niwenborh, grow a dragon to its final form, grow a puppy to its final form, defeat 50 beasts originating from the forest, frozen, desert, and volcanic biomes, respectively, defeat 30 dragons, and win 20 and 80 battles.

The Dragoness: Command of the Flame brings us a Heroes of Might and Magic-inspired turn-based strategy RPG with a roguelite twist. As you help to rebuild Niwenborh by following the Queen’s orders and making the most of the new predicament of your life after death, you’ll take on an experience that pays homage to the classics while having some 21st-century quality-of-life elements. Make the most of your skills and the resources you manage to collect because even in defeat, you’ll be able to slowly make some progress. Will you be able to save the Kingdom from the Shai-Va? The Dragoness: Command of the Flame is out today as a Cross-Buy title, so your $17.99 purchase will allow you to download both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of the game at no extra cost.

Disclaimer
This The Dragoness: Command of the Flame review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by PQube.