The game is divided in five chapters, each one has it´s own hero, the offspring of the previous character, and a dragon to defeat. Although the first chapter has alternate levels, as in, choose one stage over another, it´s the only one like so, the rest of the chapters offer no choice at all, bah, sometimes you can go to a shop before going to the next stage. One thing to keep in mind, is that you cannot backtrack at all, so be sure to collect all that is there to collect on a level before finishing it. Furthermore, you cannot return to the shops either, and these ones offer different services. They may buy your items, sell you items or trade items, but not more than one service. Wether they buy, sell or trade, they only stock 3 different items, and you have to go through each one. Want to sell a harp? You are gonna have to say "No" to the previous 2 items, assuming it´s in the last slot, it´s very time consuming, which makes visiting shops quite a drag.
Like the game itself, stages are very linear. There are a few forks every now and then, but probably puzzle related. There are puzzles, but most of them are pretty easy, and are a mixture of block pushing, switch pressing, lever turning and key finding. There are also numerous traps to avoid, from spikes to explosive mines. While you have 3D movement, the camera can´t be moved, but it rarely gets in the way, heck, a lot of items are hidden behind objects. Your hero has a deceptively long moveset. You have a basic 3 slash string, jump and double jump, 3 types of jump attacks, rising slashes, launcher slashes, a backstep that can be followed with a flying kick(really) or another backstep and a couple of variations to the 3-slash combo. You also have access to magic, there are 8 different spells, which range from offensive magic, like Fire or Ice to support magic, like Heal and Stealth.
The game has a few RPG elements, namely numerical stats. You increase these buy buying certain items or from random monster drops. There are two types of stat-increasing items, those that have a green name and those that have a blue name. The green-named ones provide minimal increases, but they are hereditary from generation to generation, blue-named items however, provide larger increases, but only for the duration of the chapter. It can be quite annoying to have to go back almost to scratch every time you go to the next chapter and having to grind the random drops.
The game is moderately challenging, but nothing too hard. Bosses are the kind that follow a certain pattern, learn it and you deal the most damage. Funnily enough, sometimes you can get the bosses stuck in a pseudo-loops, enabling easy damage. There´s no real punishment to dying, besides a small coin-loss, and if you die on a boss fight, you restart on it, fully healed. Die during the stage, and you are back to the beginning of it, but they are pretty short, so no biggie.
Visually, it looks surprisingly good. Models are blocky and simple, but they look good. The stages themselves offer a nice variety, and they are pretty interesting. The music, while fitting and decent, it´s pretty forgettable.
The game lasts a good 7-8 hours, but there are 3 different branches. During chapter 1, Clovis may marry either Celia or Caroline, which takes you to two completely different different chapter 2s. One of these chapter 2s has another branching path, for a total of three completely different chapter 3s. Chapter 4 and 5 however, are very similar between the three branches. Two of the branches have the same leads, Anna and Mihaile(Their fathers do marry the same women, and they do have the genes from the same Dragon Valor), but you play them in different orders(Mihaile on Chapter 4 and Anna on Chapter 5 on one branch and vice versa on the other), As similar as they are, they at least bothered to change the puzzles and the enemies(not the bosses), so it´s not completely identical. Sadly, all three endings are basically the same, the dialogues are almost the same, which is dissapointing.
The game does have replay value, as stated, three different paths, with different storylines(Even if the conclusion is the same), and it´s very interesing seeing just who will be the successor. While all the Dragon Valors play mostly the same, with very slight differences, each chapter lasts about 1 hour, the latter ones a bit more, so it´s not a huge drawback. You also unlock an art gallery, and the art is pretty good. Heck, even the concept and unused assets are very interesting!
Notably, I came upon a game-breaking bug, where an item would not spawn. It only happened once in my 16 hour, 3-playthrough run through it, but it´s worth mentioning. Lastly, the game has it´s way with details, for example, each character has their own answers to the shop owners! While Anna might refuse with a "Why no", Mihail has a more shy "Um no" and after every chapter you are presented with a family tree, and the biographies of the ancestors might change depending on how you played. Favored magic? It will mention how his magic was feared by the demons, favored sword fighting instead? He was an expert swordsman then!
Dragon Valor is a criminally underrated game. Currently, it holds a 56 on Metacritic and I can´t fathom why. It´s simple, yes, but it´s also very good, not quite great, but a very solid action game.
7.5 out of 10.
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