DragonFable: Analysis of 5/22/09 Release

Gasp! Pitty’s doing a.. Dragonfable analysis? Haha, indeed. Chicken is out of town, so he asked me to take care of the releases prior to the Popsprocket war. And so.. I shall! Now, let’s see what the Pactagonal knights have for us.. Oh my. :O

In-Sir-Mountable!

About

Well, it’s time to try to add more to the ranks of Popsprocket’s army. This time, you have to try to get the aid of the Pactagonal Knights. After meeting with Rolith and learning about a recent bandit attack (They’ve all been very well organized by Sepulchure), you set out to try to recruit a few of the knights. However, they are all far too busy fighting the bandits to be able to help you. No worries though, Rolith has an ace up his sleeve.. Or, gauntlet.. Mehehe..

Pros

This quest was well done, and had you running around a rather large hunk of the forest fighting bandits and searching for knights to assist you. It was unique all the different ways that they were placed and hidden, and it was a nice game of hide and seek indeed. The rewards, new water weapons, are the new higher tier weapons in DF. Yayzerz.

Cons

It could get rather tedious fighting the very hard-hitting bandits whilst searching for the knights. They were strong opponents, and rather annoying in the twos and threes.

Grade

Though the bandits could be annoying, this was still a rather well done quest. 8/10

Rolith’s Solution!

About

This was purely a cutscene, so I’ll just have this and the grade section. Well, with no knights to assist Popsprocket, what can be done to assist Yix and his friends? Rolith has a very unique solution to offer. After you meet with him again, he promises to send help. He says he’ll send it as soon as they’re assembled, he promises. Using a nice little whistle, he calls up… Togs. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of Togs. Zapp is awoken from a nice nap and sees them all, as well as a note from Rolith, enscribed with this: Ahah! A powerful fighting force indeed!

Grade

Hah.. Ha.. Hahah! This was GREAT. Cutscenes are alawys a welcome addition to the game, and this one was very well done. Funny, and it had Togs! What’s not to love? Now we just have to see what we can do with Togs and Sneevils. Hmm.. Anyway, this has to have a 9 Out of 10!

Catch Him! (Bandit Minigame)

About

As a bonus to all the other fun it Oaklore this release, a new minigame was crafted for it! With all the bandits around, the knights need to deal with them. This is where you come in. In this checkers-esque game, you control some knights, moving them around an area. When you corner the bandit, you fight him. There are several arrays for the game, each with its own difficulty.

Pros

Uh, duh. It’s a new minigame. This one is just splendid, trust me. It has several difficulties, as signified by all the ways the field can be laid out. This is truely a tactical mingame, and requires some thinking to win. It has a myriad uses, and can be applied in a ton of ways. Wars, quests, hunts for treasure, and many others. This is just great.

Cons

Though it is very well done, it does have a problem or two here and there. With just a little observation, it’s easy to figure out what your enemy will do, as the AI isn’t that great. Added tricks (Jumping around, etc.) would have cleared that up nicely, and made the minigame almost perfect. However, that’s only a small gripe, I assure you.

Grade

I can’t give this a bad grade due to small quips. Bottom line is, it’s a great release, and is really a great addition to DF. I give this new minigame a 9.5 Out of 10.

Well.. She’s a Princess? (Ash Vs. The Volcano)

About

Well, here we are again, with everyone’s favorite pint-sized nooblet. Ash is on the search for another princess to save, and this just might be it! A tribe in the southern jungle has mysteriously lost their princess. After a search through the forest, you discover her. Though she’s not the best looking thing, she is a princess. However, after her kinsman toss her into a  volcano, Ash realizes that he didn’t save her. Oh well.. At least she enjoyed the lava bath (Though skin!)

Pros

It’s good to see another AK quest. Ash keeps getting pushed to more and more exotic locales in the search for Knighthood, and it’s humorousto see what he’s forced to do.The quest was rather difficult, and required that you search through several areas to find the Princess. There was even a new helm released, the first drop in an AK quest. Hooray!

Cons

While the quest was very well done, it had a few chinks. Combat with Ash is, as always, somewhat too difficult, even with the help of your older hero. Besides this however, very little else springs to mind on the release.

Grade

Well, this was just about perfect. A great new drop, some cool cinematics, and another leg in the Ak story. Great! 8/10

Final Grade of Release

Well, this was a great release, and a great way to start ramping up to the Popsprocket war. Very good week in DF, certainly. Well, it definitely deserves an 8.8 9 Out of 10.