Strategy With Style
Strategy and a fun aesthetic go together like peanut butter and jelly. Games such as Hearthstone, Fire Emblem, and Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark are all great examples of this. Here Be Dragons by Red Zero Games on the Switch takes this idea and puts a unique spin on it. Allowing the systems to take hold rather than mechanics, Here Be Dragons uses a unique combination of elements to create a different type of strategy game. This is all backed up by a fun and quirky cast of characters and some funny dialogue, along with an interesting and immersive visual aesthetic to draw you in. While it is a pleasure to look at and oozes personality, the problems in this title are glaring and only get worse over time.
A Salty Sea-Tale
First thing is first, the world of Here Be Dragons is fun and immersive. Whether it be a voice line or written dialogue, there are plenty of smiles and laughs to be had here amongst the quirky cast of characters. With a cartoon aesthetic and some great sound effects to back it all up, the presentation of the title is definitely top-notch. Each chapter also features different captains with their own abilities which does a good job of drawing you into the world. Whether it be the designs of the monsters or the sound of cannons blasting at the various sea creatures, Here Be Dragons makes a fantastic first impression.
The unfortunate part of the experience is the monotony. Here Be Dragons is not a title made for long play sessions. While fun and quirky, the minimalist design approach to the game does not do its best to capitalize on the fun aesthetic. The reliance on randomization through dice rolls makes restarts frequent mid-mission, as events can go from bad to worse even in the most optimistic of situations. This does nothing to add to the charm of the game nor does it make the difficulty curve feel any more fair. Worst of all, this reliance of randomization makes the layers of depth the game offers feel ultimately unambitious.
The Murky Depths
The gameplay of Here Be Dragons is an easy one to be hooked into. Using dice rolls your ships and the enemies attack each other, using abilities based upon the numbers rolled on the die from a large dice pool. This is backed up with Fate, represented by bottles you can collect in the water by pressing ZL. These allow for various bonuses, including dice re-rolls and healing, while making your move. These are ultimately to balance out another system in the game, in the Initiative System. This system doesn’t necessarily determine turn order, but the order in which each force is able to act, and is balanced by making conservative choices and giving the enemy the higher overall sum of the dice you have rolled. For example, taking the 1 and 3 rolls out of the 5 die used allows the enemy to use the higher dice numbers, but my team will act first during combat.
This entanglement of systems is made even more complex with each captain and monster having their own unique effects to deal with. Your experiences with most of these captains only lasts about 3 to 5 missions, making the rapid-fire pace at which you change a bit daunting in the face of the many systems of the game. After sinking the time into it, Here Be Dragons felt less like a strategy game and more like a puzzle game with a random element in place of resource management. This strange amalgamation of randomness that dictates a wide variety of systems and combat factors is intriguing at first, but becomes frustrating when the solution to the puzzle falls away or becomes a long and drawn-out process. It comes together to create an overwhelming feeling that boils over into frustration when the dice force you to play at a snail’s pace. Having all the information there to give you the ability to make the best move possible makes it less about strategy and more about just making the right choice with the rolls you are given.
Belly-Up
There is a lot to love in Here Be Dragons. The graphics are great, as is the light-hearted tone. The characters are fun and quirky and the game features some great sound effects to draw you into this seafaring world. This all falls apart, however, during the actual gameplay. The many rigid systems the game depends on to function feel as though they are meant to subvert the inherent randomness of another key mechanic, the dice rolling. Combined with an abundance of information to make a well-informed decision, the game feels less expressive in the way a traditional strategy game may present itself. It instead takes on the feeling of a very slow-paced puzzle game, relying on the dice or bonuses from collecting Fate to make plays that hit hard and feel rewarding. While a unique experience, Here Be Dragons also feels like a half-baked one that no one should be in a rush to try.
