Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Are you in the mood for some old-school RPG flavour with a bit of a new twist? Well then, perhaps I can interest you in Dragon Takers, an RPG with some pretty nostalgic vibes but with a few modern twists.
Dragon Takers is a story about a world of sword and magic. One where the Dragon Army led by Drake Emperor Tiberius leads a campaign of world domination against the humans. A world where humans are granted a type of skill at birth which defines their future. Well, except the main character, of course. Growing up ostracized in a remote village, where only a travelling magician and a childhood friend don't pick on him for his seeming lack of inherent skill, his life is turned upside down when the village is attacked and his childhood friend is kidnapped. Luckily, our hero Helio discovers he has the ability to copy skills from his foes. With the traveling magician Milena, he sets out to rescue the childhood friend, and maybe thwart the Drake Emperor while he's at it.
Dragon Takers plays very similar to the old-school Final Fantasy games, where you will be wandering on a world map, or dungeons, in a 2D top-down environment, and you will get into random turn-based battles as you explore the world. Dragon Takers as a game is incredibly linear though, so there isn't much exploring, at least on the world map, so forward is pretty much the theme of the game. There will be towns and dungeons you come across, and wild monsters to fight and steal the skills from.
When you get into combat, you enter into a turn-based system where your options are: attack, defend, skill, and item. You can see what order enemies and allies will attack in, and what enemies are weak to or resistant to. You can use this info to quickly dispatch your foes. At the bottom of the screen you will view your party members' stats, as well as a list of any buffs or effects they are under. Fun fact, status changes can be doubled up on, which I didn't learn until very late game. If enemies are mid to small sized, they can generally come in groups, where you can only target the enemy grouping, and single target skills or attacks will choose one of the enemies in the group to attack. Lone enemies are obviously fair game. Keep in mind that "enemy groups" are not the same as "all enemies" in this title.
Here is where it gets a little bit different from the standard fare. Based on world lore, everyone has a certain skill they are born with. This dictates what skills your party members will learn in combat based on their level. Helio, however, has to copy skills from the monsters he fights. For Helio, attack carries the same meaning as "attempt to copy a skill". Each enemy that carries a copyable skill has a percent chance to copy it when being normal attacked by Helio. The game handily highlights any skills the enemy may have, if you already have it copied, and what the chance to acquire it is.
Instead of learning skills as he levels, Helio unlocks more skill slots which you can assign the skills you've copied to. This is an interesting take that isn't used all that often, and it sort of speaks to my desire to collect things. Thankfully for both Helio and the player, Helio doesn't lose access to these skills, or have limited uses, and can reassign skills whenever out of combat and you are able to access the menu. Well, if you can navigate the menu.
I'll be real with you here, to be honest, this is one of the worst menu management choices in a game I've seen in quite a long time in the state it is at the time of this review. Is it unmanageable? No, but it's pretty close. The first and biggest issue is that it can be really difficult to visually discern what you have selected. The highlighted background border used to show what you have selected is doing a great job of blending in, which it really shouldn't. There have been many times I've leaned closer to the screen and squinted at it to see if what I selected is what I wanted or not. Honestly, I choose options based on what I think I am choosing rather than what I see half the time.
The other issue with the menu is that it's clunky and cumbersome. Now, you might be wondering "how is a menu cumbersome?". Well, let's go through how you equip new gear. You go into the menu, select items, not equipment, find the gear you think should be what you want equipped, there is a sort function at least, then you select the item and see if any characters can equip it and if it'll give better stats. Yeah, I'm not sure if you can change equipment from the status menu, but I found this way easier. Once you get used to it, it isn't that bad, but boy was I surprised when I first tried to equip a new piece of gear.
Dragon Takers does, however, do a surprisingly good job of keeping you invested despite some of it's setbacks in user interface. There are usually a few magic circles littered throughout areas you explore, providing a full heal at no expense and of infinite uses. This is quite handy when trying to farm skills off enemies, as some hit rather hard and only have a ten percent chance of giving up the skill, meaning you'll take a beating while trying to get their skills. There will also be treasure chests with gear, which also occasionally drops from enemies, with which to outfit your party.
Also, while I don't want to give spoilers for the storyline, I will say that Dragon Takers does a good job of lampshading a lot of standard tropes in fantasy games. Yeah, the plot is cheesy and corny and cliche a lot of the time, but it also avoids the pitfalls that standard fantasy writing usually falls into. For example, at the very beginning of the game, Helio wants to immediately charge after the enemy who had just recently kicked his butt in order to get his friend back. Milena essentially calls him an idiot for thinking he stands a chance, and says he needs to at least train and copy some better skills before he has even a chance. He very promptly agrees and essentially says "yeah, you're right. That was real dumb of me". He might not be exactly the brightest bulb, but he certainly has the awareness to realize when confidence and headstrongness isn't gonna get the job done.
Another aspect that is rather endearing of Dragon Takers is the aesthetic that has been chosen. While the field sprites and art are very old-school reminiscent, the character portraits, for both enemies and allies, are actually dynamic, which you don't see a lot of. They move and sway, which you can see in full body shots of the characters, or on the enemies in combat. The music direction is also pretty good, which is always a plus when you're gonna be hearing the battle themes a lot.
Overall, Dragon Takers gives a very nostalgic feeling of older RPGs, made in an RPG Maker style, but with it's own share of interesting aspects. While it may not be super long, and the user interface is rather rough, there is a lot to like, whether it be a well implemented combat system, solid graphic design, or a good sound direction. While the storyline can be quite cliche, it also has it's moments where it surprised me and were a good diversion from the usual plot points you would see in games like this. I would highly recommend checking out Dragon Takers if you're looking to live some of that original Final Fantasy type feeling.
Score: 8 / 10
