New Post has been published on Xbox One Corner
New Post has been published on http://xboxonecorner.com/12/04/crimson-dragon-review/
Crimson Dragon Review
Game: Crimson Dragon
Platform: Xbox One
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Developer: Grounding Inc
Released: November 22, 2013
Score: 4/10
    Crimson Dragon, what happened to you?
   For a Panzer Dragoon spiritual successor, there’s way too little success and way too many opportunities to pray that the game gets better. But it doesn’t. Even as the credits roll, the only sensation one is left with is the joy of never having to again saddle a missile-breathing dragon.
   And that’s the true pain of Crimson Dragon: it makes riding dragons – missile/fire/laser-breathing dragons, mind you – a chore. Which is ridiculous, really, seeing as Yukio Futatsugi, lead developer behind both Crimson Dragon and the Panzer Dragoon series, himself once said, “Who doesn’t want to try to ride on a dragon?”
   Well, Futatsugi, when riding a dragon is as teeth-grindingly frustrating as this, it’s pretty easy to answer that question with a resounding, “Me. I don’t want to ride your dragon, Yukio.”
[Source: http://www.gameinformer.com.]
   See, the problems stem from the game’s on-rails automated momentum, which is constantly battling against the right control stick’s ability to let the player aim. All too often a threat comes barreling from the background toward you and in a fit you try turning to avoid it, but that automated momentum shoves the camera – and thus your dragon – right into it.
   Even after hours of messing around on the back of my dragon, I still couldn’t figure out how to get around the camera’s wonky design. And this problem is made all the worse by the dragon’s inherent lack of speed – at least, until agility has been significantly upgraded – so even in those rare moments when the game lets you avoid attacks, it feels impossible to motivate the dragon to move any faster than the airborne equivalent of a slow trot.
   But these complaints are only the tip of this iceberg.
   Dragons can equip two different elemental weapons, and enemies have their own elemental weaknesses and strengths, creating a clunky version of rock-paper-scissors. Players can switch between dragons to maximize elemental strengths according to each level, but switching out dragons too often can split experience between mounts, leaving players with a balanced team that’s too weak for certain missions.
   If the player wants to fill her/his roster with a new elemental dragon, it’s a risky endeavor, as new dragons start at level one and require a ton of work before even entering the easiest of missions. This creates a desire to lean on a single dragon, so as to hog experience and forgo the new dragon grind, but when that dragon hits its elemental weakness, levels become awkward and stupidly difficult.
[Source: http://segabits.com.]
   So what can you do if you want a new dragon or weapon to help beat the game, but you don’t want to jump into the grind?
   The answer is easy: buy it. Buy the weapon or dragon. And not with in-game currency. No, with real-world money. Cash. Scratch. In Crimson Dragon, the green lifeblood of the nine-to-five is the easiest way to rush right into enjoying the game. It’s basically a free-to-play that, well, isn’t free to play.
   However, some people can overlook all of these flaws for the sake of a great story, right? And that would be great, too, if Crimson Dragon had even the smallest semblance of a cohesive story. It’s just some dragon planet with some virus and some government conspiracy. The end. Your imagination would have a better time filling in the gaps than reading the game’s text walls displayed over static character models and matte paintings.
   Nothing redeems this game. Not the graphics. Not the convoluted story. Not the clunky controls or flying dragons, and especially not the microtransactions. Crimson Dragon will only be remembered for its attempt at killing off the mysticism and attraction of dragons.
:-D