Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire

Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire is a game that contains a completely original storyline from a famous fantasy writer, Richard A. Knaak. The story is about a world devastated by powerful dragons, and the player must rise from the ashes to protect and restore peace upon the world once again. You will do this by finding pieces of the Dragon Blade, a sword that contains the power and abilities of a dragon, and putting it together once more.

If you have played The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess you will roughly understand how this game works. This is a third-person action/adventure game in which you must save the world and you have a magical sword at your disposal. The controls are simple enough to understand. Move the Wii-mote left and right, the sword will slash that direction. Moving it in an upwards fashion will be a powerful upward slash attack (great for flying enemies), and moving it down will do a down-slash attack. If you thrust the Wii-mote in front of you it will do a sword thrust. Pressing the A button will block, and if you press a direction you will perform a dodge roll. The B button is important as it locks onto any enemy you want. The Z will make you jump.

Fighting this way really makes you feel that you are part of this game, and really immerses you into it. The best thing is that you can combine these moves together to come up with some devastating combinations that will truly put the “hurt" on any enemies that come across your blade. Later on in the game you will be given different powers for your sword, which you can access by pressing a direction on the d-pad. They are claw, claws (two different hands), head, and a tail. I found the most fun to use and the most accurate with the Wii-mote was the whip (tail). The motions for this weapon are spot on and just a blast to use while playing this game.

The graphics for this game are decent, but I have seen much better on the Nintendo Wii. One of the problems is the environments that you are in. While they are nice and varied, the problem is that they are really lacking in detail. There are the boxes, statues, and other things that you break into pieces, but other than the hordes of enemies that you fight, the levels are practically devoid of life. I know that the game is going for a war-torn battle-scarred world, but it is also nice to shove more detail in those worlds.

Another issue that I have is that the main character and generic enemies you fight really lack details, while the “bosses” of the game are really detailed. I understand the generic enemies, but when the bosses are more detailed then the protagonist (especially since this game is set in third-person view); there is something that needs to be corrected. All of this is made even worse since the effects of the sword and the animations are really good looking. If you compare it to the rest of the world, it remains stagnate and stale.

The sound for this game is decent enough and gets the job done without trying too hard. The music is very generic and uninspired, but it is not overly annoying to where you reach for the mute button. The voice acting is not the best in the world either, but it does a good job of helping progress the story alone. The sound effects are also very generic. This game could have benefitted from better music and sound, but with what players are given it gets the job done.

One minor issue that I have with this game that it is too linear. You follow a path throughout the entire level without little deviation, along the way you might stumble across a door which you can’t open yet, but you will after you get powered up again. Then you will kill myriads of enemies, while gathering health and magic crystals, to get to the boss. Fight and then slay the boss to gain a new power, and then repeat. While this is very generic and repetitive, honestly the game still remains fun to play due to the controls of the main character.

Which brings me up to the only real complaint against this game, and that is the motion controls. Most of the time all of the motions are accurate (I would actually say maybe between 65-75% accurate), but there are times when what motion you do and what is shown on screen are two different things. This can be a bit frustrating when you are in the middle of a battle with several enemies surrounding you, and the wrong move happens. Even though this doesn’t happen that often it does happen enough to mention it.

Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire is rated teen and contains fantasy violence.

Gameplay: 6.1
Sadly, the motion controls for this game are not 100% accurate, and that does depending on which form of the sword you are using, it still remains really fun. The game is also extremely straight forward, which is sadly emphasized even more by the path outlined that you are forced to follow. Also why is the main character so boring and completely devoid of ANY emotion, especially after the first minute of gameplay when his fiancée is murdered??

Graphics: 6.1
The graphics for this game are not outstanding yet they are not bad either. One thing that I find funny is the character animations for the enemies you will fight are more detailed and better looking than the main character. Also the effects of the sword make the rest of the game pale in comparison.

Sound: 6.0
It is a pity that the soundtrack is not of greater quality in this game as it could have really given this game some extra push to become better. The voice actors in this game get the job done and add enough feeling to the characters to give more depth to the story.

Difficulty: Easy
This game will provide a fair amount of challenge to you, but overall I found this game to be pretty easy.

Concept: 7.1
I really enjoyed the fire whip in this game, I think that it used the Wii’s hardware perfectly for it.

Overall: 6.2
Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire is a fun game that I am afraid will get lost in the shuffle of this holiday season, since so many “big name games” are launching this year. Even with the game’s flaws, it still remains fun and should definitely be on your rental selection.