DragonSword: Awakening Promo Shot
Image: Hound13

I admit to dabbling in games like Genshin Impact or Arknights: Endfield, and much as I enjoy their over-the-top party-based action combat, they are limited by their nature as gacha-funded engagement time sinks. Turns out that it's hard to balance a game when only the lucky (or wealthy) get a full roster of high-tier characters, and it's also meant to support endless grind. Enter DragonSword: Awakening, releasing today from Korean studio Hound13. It's a highly-anticipated anime hack n' slasher that looks to deliver many of those Genshin-adjacent thrills while being a self-contained single-player game with optional co-op.

There's no denying that DragonSword is a treat to look at, if more than a little derivative in its lush green overworld design, characters, and boilerplate fantasy adventure story. While sadly unavailable now, the release of DragonSword: Awakening comes after the release of a hefty, hours-long demo, which featured a lot of satisfying open-world hacking, slashing and juicy juggle combos against orcs, goblins and other high fantasy cliches.

While potentially satisfying for combo fiends, the deep health pools on bigger enemies and especially bosses might be a bit off-putting for some wanting a faster, more arcadey action-RPG experience. At least there's some real depth to the combat, with lots of movement power and combo potential as you switch between party members mid-attack. There's definitely a lot more mobility and aerial attack options than in the likes of Genshin Impact, for sure.

There's been some fevered chatter surrounding this game. Fans of old anime MMO Dragon Nest have been touting it for some time as a spiritual successor to their favorite game, despite being unrelated. That said, DragonSword DID begin life as an MMO, to be published by Webzen. After a legal dispute (in which Webzen lost), Hound13 moved forward with their plans to self-publish it as a self-contained offline title. Judging by the positive user reviews thus far, it was a smart business move.

DragonSword: Awakening is out now for £26/$30. Potentially far more if you want the soundtrack, art-book and a swarm of minor cosmetic extras. Much as I'd like to blame that on all things gacha, that's been the state of JRPGs since the PlayStation 3 was king. It's also worth mentioning that there is an AI disclosure note, saying they used machine translation to help with some of the translation. Not deal-breaking, personally, but still not to be encouraged.