Dragon Sinker

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
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No score yet - based on 2 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 2
  3. Negative: 1 out of 2
  1. Cubed3
    Apr 3, 2018
    30
    Dragon Sinker is almost laughable in some aspects. The lottery system makes an absolute mockery of traditional RPGs, and completely imbalances the game. Once you have taken the gameplay out of the equation, Dragon Sinker is just a retro RPG filled to the brim with cliché fantasy tropes and boring storytelling. It does have a somewhat interesting job party system, but that doesn't make it any more worth playing.

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User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 3
  3. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. GamerGuysNGals
    Jan 21, 2020
    8
    Hey all, it's your friendly neighborhood PS4 guy. Today is something finally in my native home of JRPG. Today I get to go over how I was notHey all, it's your friendly neighborhood PS4 guy. Today is something finally in my native home of JRPG. Today I get to go over how I was not born in time to catch the birth of the JRPG genre, however, this did not stop it from changing and shaping the person I am today. Dragon quest is often credited for the start of the genre and term based heavily on wizardry as well as dungeons and dragons, so much so the iconic slime enemy became prominent because of those influences. The combo of Yuji Horii and Akira Toriyama set the groundwork for years to come for style. Another title more so credited with starting the "boom" and popularizing the genre is final fantasy, the swan song that saved square soft giving us the A-team and the father of final fantasy Hironobu Sakaguchi forefront as game-defining defining sound from Nobuo Uematsu. Our journey is soon to begin and though our game today is not as long as many, this review will be an adventure itself.

    Dargon Sinker is a JRPG of traditional design, however, not so much in the Kemco sense who pumps out games like candy. Dragon Sinker is what I would say is like playing the first refined JRPG during its infancy years in the late '80s. Our story is a pretty standard affair, an evil dragon once ravaged the world a millennium ago and was stopped by the 3 races of the world, humans, elves, and dwarves. Using legendary weapons to fell the evil dragon to save the world. This, however, was the last of there unity for the next one thousand years. The true start of our game starts with our protagonist Abram and his trusty human followers fight our evil dragon Wyrmvarg.
    Of course, they are woefully unprepared and lose thus starting our true, adventure. A quest to reunite the races and become strong enough to defeat Wyrmvarg!

    Classic world exploration and turn-based combat abound, storytelling through both.
    Dragon Sinker is not here to innovate but, to refine. I will be omitting world exploration details as it is something that literally feels just like you would expect, very much so reminiscent of the early '80s, '90s. Where it does shine is character management. 16 jobs for characters and 6 special jobs reserved for our heroes and animal friends(we will come back to them later) the jobs really do what you would expect them to, a mage cast offensive spells, a priest heals and a knight protects. this is all managed in 3 parties led by our main heroes from each race.
    There is plenty of layers to this party system, stacking multiples in various ways matters. Multiple humans make the party leader stronger, elves protect your stats from debuffs and dwarves protect your status conditions. Multiples of the same job garner more job exp, that right we have a duel leveling system. Higher base level means more stats, higher job level means more skills. The job system is fairly cut and dry sans mastery of a job. When a job is mastered by any nonhero they learn a passive that will permanently carry over to any job. Bonus: you get a scroll for this that bestows the same skill on to anyone character you want. Now I imagine you are asking yourselves "But Ken how do we get all these wonderful jobs?" Well, sweet summer children, the answer is of course...SIDE QUESTS! As mentioned before Dragon Sinker is about refinement, the side quests are fairly robust for a game designed in this style. You have standard fetch, go talk to my and z, please kill the monster, fight me! And of course hidden dungeon. For the last part of our gameplay discussion, I would like to talk about items and equipment. Firstly here equipment is only needed for the heroes (party leaders) which are streamlined into weapons and armor with 2 accessory slots. There truly is not a lot to go over here as its all standard healing items and stat enhancement. A very straightforward yet fun set up.

    There are some interesting and unique things to be noted as well. Abram the MC has some pretty stand out responses of dialog throughout the game. To keep it spoiler-free there is not a lot the can be said aside he has more personality than most. Further yet the story and main quest are paced really well for a game like this. It truly feels like what a DQ and FF cross over could have been back in the day sans one mechanic... A very game-breaking mechanic. The lottery aka gatcha. It has 2 tracklists for tickets and DRP. DRP is basically freemium
    Currency used for the lottery and for the shop. Remember the part where I said id come back the animal friends? You get them from a gatcha. Spoiler, they're really good too. So it's an optional mechanic but some really cool stuff is locked behind it. Something like this makes for replayability as well as speed run tech. After all of this, I think our quest to review this game has come to an end. Honestly, Dragon Sinker has a lot to offer a little to each type of player.    … Full Review »
  2. egoBorder
    Oct 5, 2019
    6
    This game is not very original, squanders its party and battle systems badly, and may cost an extra $5 on PS4... but damn if I didn't enjoyThis game is not very original, squanders its party and battle systems badly, and may cost an extra $5 on PS4... but damn if I didn't enjoy the 9 or 10 hours it took me to beat it! Look, it just plays like old RPGs used to play: very easy and accessible to everyone. From a time when even some older adults were buying an 8-bit NES. Franchises like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest have all become way more complex games, it's just nice to play something that is simple and surmountable in a few hours (it probably took me longer than some people, I heard some say they beat it in like 6 hours). If you find this on sale it will probably entertain you for at least a couple of hours, and if you push on you'll find it doesn't overstay its welcome… Full Review »
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