March 30th marked the release of Dragon’s Prophet for non-founder members. After putting a good amount of time into the Closed Beta of Dragon’s Prophet and giving a large amount of feedback, I’ve come to realize that many of the initial bugs/issues that I have reported during the Closed Beta phase are still around. There are still a slew of placeholder/foreign text, optimization issues, slow responsiveness, and bugs. While I’m hopeful that they will get corrected, it’s been nearly three and a half months since Closed Beta was released. In addition to these concerns, I also noticed a very linear pattern to questing, as well as a very unpolished combat system, and an over encompassing cash shop.
Now, while the game is still haunted by limited improvement between beta phases, I still decided to give the game another few hours of my time as I could rule out Dragon’s Prophet as a great game with innovative features. Between the the new-age combat (very similar to that of Nexon‘s MMOs Dragon’s Nest and Vindicus and Enmasse‘s game, Tera), a pet system often compared to Pokemon, and a crafting system with parallels to Monster Hunter Online, my hopes were that Dragon’s Prophet would take the best of the current MMO scene and combine them into one great game. That being said, let’s dive right into how these features were executed:
Combat
If you’ve played Tera Rising, you’ve definitely experienced much of what Dragon’s Prophet‘s combat has to offer. Unfortunately, the combat is much less responsive and felt a little clunky, but this may be attributed to the game servers. Aside from the free combat system, the game also integrates combos to help change up battles. While this was a great decision on paper, it definitely feels off and featureless and has very little options to changing how they work unless you purchase more with Station Cash. Another problem with the combat is that, unlike Tera or Neverwinter, attacks in Dragon’s Prophet seem to clip to the nearest target. Luckily, you’re not alone in combat.
Source: http://mmohuts.com
Pet System
I’m quite a fan of the pet system. Being able to find a monster in the open, do a quick mini-game, and have that monster as a pet is a neat addition to the game. I wish that the developers did a little more with this, though, as it seems like World of Warcraft‘s hunter pet system with ride-able pets. Something innovative with the system, though, is that when you’re not using your dragon for combat or getting, there’s a multitude of options available, such as training it to learn new skills or harvest materials for the crafting system (of course, you’re limited to four Dragons in the Lair unless you purchase more slots with Station Cash).
Source: http://dragons-prophet.wikia.com
Crafting System
Dragons can go around harvesting materials while you’re off adventuring or sleeping, and you can queue your dragons up for hours of activity. While you’re fighting, different recipes are also dropped that can be used in crafting. I haven’t had much time to test this out, but it definitely reminds me of Neverwinter‘s crafting system.
Source: http://massively.joystiq.com
Now, as you may have noticed, an overarching theme of this article has been the presence of Station Cash in the game. While I’m not a huge fan of cash shops with such a huge influence on game-play, Sony Online Entertainment was generous enough to provide me with 500 Station Cash for participating in an old PlanetSide 2 promotion, and I’d like to give back to the community. If you’re interested in getting any Dragon’s Prophet cash shop item worth 500 Station Cash or less, reply below with the name of the item, and how you feel this item will improve your game experience!
