Hidden Dragon: Legend
Powered by the Unreal 4 Engine, Hidden Dragon will make players utilize all their skills in combat, acrobatics, and puzzle-solving to navigate their way through tough enemies, powerful bosses and Metroidvania-style puzzles while building their fighter through an extensive skill tree that allows players to customize their fighting style. Action packed gameplay— 2.5D hack and slash platform gameplay, uniquely set in the imperial and martial times of Tang China. Slice and dice with combos— Dispel foes with a variety of attacks, devastating them with stunning combos and abilities Fight with skill and style— Battle through waves of enemies using lightning-fast, deadly attacks, or perfectly time a dash to counter-attack adding even more combos. The more you kill, the stronger you get— Use soul stones you gain by defeating your enemies to expand your character’s skill-tree, combos and stats.
Steam User 29
Wow, how can I start. So many triple AAA games have bored me after a couple of hours... but this game got me. It is not a master piece but it is well done. I have enjoyed it every minute that I have been playing it and trying to get used to combos.... I think I have played to much jrpgs cause my hands keep tripping.
Anyways, I totally recomend this game, because it is FUN. That was games are supposed to be. Some games aspire to be so much more and fail to grasp anything. This one does not promise anything that does not accomplish.
It is a game from a new tiny team, so if you are looking things to critique, you are going to find them for sure. but so far the game has no crash for me, has been FUN enough for me not to stop playing and wanting to find every little secret.
I have been playing this game for a couple of hours with the latest patch and the game is in english. I have the voices in chinese, so I can enjoy it as it was developed.
Graphics: They are good enough, actually for the budget they have I am impressed. check the videos on youtube or steam.
Controls: Simple and responsive. You start with simple combos and you can expand later as you get more abilities. Don´t expect DMC combo system though, but more like GoW from PS.
Music: Good enough, I havent play the game for so long so I havent noticed if it gets repetitive later on :S
Voices: I am using chinese voices, and they seems good. I have not tried english and I will not. I try games in their original language and use subs, thats how I roll.
Difficulty: Easy, any gamer will figure out after a couple of minute where the secrets are but then again, I have not complete the game yet.
There are things that could be improved but on average and with so many games that are so dissapointing this one is a big thumb up.
I hope you guys can enjoy this simple but well done game.
Steam User 10
Overview
Hidden Dragon: Legend is a 2.5.D action platformer combining the historical realities of imperial China with fantasy elements. Although the game is enjoyable for one playthrough, it has several negatives that reduce the enjoyment of playing the game.
Pros & Cons
Pros
The art style of the game is marvelous, and the graphics are pretty, as well.
The gameplay is enjoyable, as it changes enemy types in every act, making the fights a little bit different.
For the most part, the game has a good enemy and bosses variety. Their movement and attack patterns are always different.
The game has several hidden items you can find, starting from actual equipment, like swords and daggers to collectibles.
The soundtrack fits the atmosphere of the game and has several good themes. And it is for free on Steam.
Cons
Storytelling, as well as characters, is a bit uninteresting, as it contains a simple plot. It would not be a problem if the game did not have tons of unnecessary cutscenes.
As for the mentioned cutscenes, they sometimes show you where you need to go, although the game is linear, so you literally cannot go wrong.
You need to complete the game if you want to play on higher difficulty settings.
It is way too easy to stunlock enemies, even some bosses with the right combos or dagger throwing.
The game loses its breath after the first half, as the locations and enemy encounters become atrocious and uninspiring.
In-Depth Analysis
Story
The game takes place in the imperial China, during the lives of Empress Wu Zetian and Wang Xiaojie, meaning in the seventh century when the Tang dynasty ruled. However, fantasy elements in the form of monsters and magic are involved. You wake up at the prison, where human experiments took place. You are the only one alive and find out that a secret organization, Tigram, is doing those experiments to find immortality. So, naturally, you must stop them.
Although the lore itself is interesting, the characters and the plot overall are very bland. You will not care for them. Another main problem is, unfortunately, cutscenes, as situations which are supposed to be tense, surprising or sad, look rather dull and even laughable sometimes.
Gameplay
The game lasts about 5-8 hours. After you finish the game for the first time, the higher difficulty settings unlock. There is no reason for locking the difficulty by this means, as the game is quite easy, so an option to actually choose a challenge if the player wants should be there from the beginning. The gameplay consists of platforming, character customization, and combat.
Platforming
Platforming and combat are separated parts of the game. You never fight with enemies during it. There is mainly jumping, but you cannot climb or grab ledges, so it might be a little unpredictable at some times. You also get a grab hook that can be used only on highlighted areas. The last part is swimming, which is the most boring part of the game because you do nothing there, and it unnecessarily lengthens the levels.
There are also simple puzzles. The game plays cutscenes showing you exactly where you must jump and go next. It is very annoying, as the levels are linear, so you feel like the developers thought that you are not bright enough to figure it for yourself.
Character customization
From defeating enemies and opening chests, you get points for which you upgrade your abilities, weapons, and skills. As for the abilities/skills, there are passive and active ones. As for the passive ones, you can get more points from killing enemies. For the skills, they apply for the combat where you can combine them with combos. You also buy health potions. This can be done only between fights, not in combat. You can carry ten potions, and they are very cheap.
Unfortunately, only the sword is your main weapon. You cannot use spears, crossbows, axes, or other weapons your enemies have. You can throw daggers, but I did not find that much use for them, although it can stun a boss in some occasions.
Combat
When the combat starts, the game locks you in the current location, and you cannot leave until all enemies are dead. There are several enemy types with varied weapons, skills, and magic abilities. You have standard fast/heavy attacks, along with dash, and the mentioned abilities. You can counter enemy attacks by dashing on time, as it starts a new combo. Dash can be used three times and then slowly replenishes. There is no stamina for regular attacks.
There are few design problems with a few boss fights. For example, one boss fights require to be beaten by bombs you throw on him. He can, however, destroy those bombs with one hit, so you are left there with nothing as bombs spawn randomly.
The combat is very simple, and there is not much to describe. It does not bring anything new, and it is the same for the whole game.
Audiovisuals
The art style is beautiful, as the game often shows nice scenery, both in-game and during cutscenes. As for the graphics itself, it is of good quality, considering the price of the game and studio's capabilities. Most of the locations look good, as well as enemies, armour, and other equipment.
As for the soundtrack, it fits the game's setting. It provides themes for calm platforming, as well as for action scenes or combat. The game also has full Chinese audio for better authenticity.
Performance
The game was tested with an i5 8300H, GTX 1060 6GB, and 16GB RAM, running at the highest settings at 60 frames per second, at 1920x1080 resolution. The framerate is stable the whole time with a minimum, barely noticeable drops. The game also did not crash or had other performance issues. The same applies to the bugs, as my playthrough was without them.
Conclusion
Hidden Dragon: Legend is quite enjoyable if you are looking for a small game. However, I would wait for a sale, as I do not see much replayability there. For the 15€ I would imagine having more polished gameplay or better replayability.
This product was reviewed with a key provided by the developer for free.
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Steam User 4
What I like the most about this game is the number of combo skills I can do combined with its awesome effects. As a fan of hack and slash games, the effects makes me want to keep attacking. Although, sometimes there are few issues with the frame rate and cutscenes, but I still love the different effects of the combo skills.
The Chinese background music also matches the game, it gives a good traditional Chinese gameplay experience. It would be great if they can also put some sound effects on each combo. One thing I find funny is whenever I hit the low rank enemy with the mask, sounds like he has hiccup lol.
If you like Devil May Cry, you should try this game. It's more affordable, but you will get the same feeling. The quality of this game was really unexpected for an indie game.
Steam User 8
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Hidden Dragon: Legend is a nice little action platformer that clearly draws inspiration from the likes of Devil May Cry. Like most character action games, the goal here is to juggle your enemies and keep that combo high. The game presents you with enough of an arsenal that it keeps the action varied and exciting.
The 2.5D works really well in my opinion as the foreground and background are clearly distinctive which prevent frustrating deaths. Actually, Hidden Dragon reminds me in a weird way of Shadow Complex. While not a metroidvania, Hidden Dragon has some parallels to Shadow Complex and feels very similar visuals-wise. The game looks pretty good as well and has some very nice particle effects.
With a good amount of variety here and different difficulty levels, Hidden Dragon: Legend is a pretty good bang for your buck. I would say it easily surpasses other indie action games such as Onikira, Rain Blood or Shadow Blade. Even at full price this game is certainly worth checking out.
Steam User 0
Very satisfying combat with fun combos. Some surprisingly engaging and rewarding exploration despite how linear it seems. Solid game.
Steam User 2
Well , This game running smooth on my pc . Classic like The Devil May Cry but sometime I feel easy than when actually know enemy's move . Graphic , music , voice is fine , It's a great deal compared to the price you spend . After 2hour , the only challenging in this game to me is avoiding success to get the slow motion skill , lol.
Better to play with the controller, but not integrated with the ps4 controller, I have to use external support to use it.
*Thanks to keymailer for giving me the opportunity to experience this game :) .
Steam User 2
This is incredibly well made for a non AAA game!
The movement and combat is very smooth and tight, you always feel in control. There are lots of things secrets to discover throughout the game so if you like finding stuff there's that as well.
It's not very long though. I completed it in about 4.3 hours played. This is only for the completion though and there are lots of secrets that I did miss. As well there are lots of achievements, Normal/Hard/Hell difficulties and a Challenge Mode as well.
The story is alright, it's not much depth to it but it's fairly interesting for what it is.
If you're a fan of hack-and-slash games and some platforming alongside it, then I greatly recommend this game!