Dragon’s Wake

Dragon's Wake is a very charming indie game, that was genuinely engaging and interesting, but is also very rough around the edges. I appreciate a lot of what was going on, and the general impression I ended up with was a positive one, but I'd be remiss to ignore the flaws.

Starting with bugs, of which there was a couple. A child got stuck on my back at one point because I left the village with him, and that basically permanently lowered my movement options making me have to completely restart. The stomp is also very, very inconsistent (which is a problem when it's required to beat the game), and I also found that hitboxes on both your and the enemies attacks can be a little wonky. In terms of things the game did that I just didn't like - the platforming is very floaty and slippery, it felt more like trying to guide a levitating ice cube at times than actually being a dragon. In addition to this, I'm not the biggest fan of platformers or invincible enemies (the ghosts) so those are immediate problems for me, and the final boss was a massive difficulty spike that just doesn't land well at all.

While there were a fair few things I thought weren't great, the actual atmosphere, art, storytelling and level design are really interesting and engaging. While the overall game is short, it's charming enough and interesting enough that I didn't feel the pain of the rough parts so much (except that final boss when I had no fire), which is a testament to the charm that this game puts out given my open disdain for platformers. Overall, I think that Dragon's Wake is a really charming game, and if you actually *like* platformers, then you'll probably be able to have more fun than I did. Despite that, though, I still don't regret the time I spent playing it - and I hope the developer's next game will be something that remedies the problems this game had.

Alright, first let's talk about the positives. The art is really really nice for a small indie dragon game, and the plot and interactions with the world are also very enjoyable. The two story paths that there are, which I will not be giving spoilers for, feel distinct and like you have actually made a difference.
Now for the criticisms. While the difficulty in achieving both story ṕaths is fun, and I'm not sure if this is just me, but figuring out the best path has quite a few components to it that would take several playthroughs of an otherwise short game. If you like it, that's great, but if you're feeling worn from the jankiness of the controls which I think are supposed to be more precision platformer then you're unlikely to replay it.
Secondly, the controls: It would on ocassion feel like the controls which had been consistently doing one action for the past 15 minutes would start behaving in an entirely different way. That's the only reason I didn't finish out the "bad" story path in the game.
Overall I think this game is definitely worth trying now or on sale, as the price is exactly where I'd play it for the 3-4 hours at most that you'd get from it.

suffering. i like it. + so neat hfgdskdsgds I WANT MOR
WAWA!!!

Evidently made with passion.