The Dragoness: Command of the Flame is Turn-based Tactics game with City Builder and Roguelite that is accessible for new players and with a small level of difficulty for those who are familiar with the genre.
Rescue Party
You play an Elvish Commander sent to help protect and rebuild the crumbling Kingdom of Draithir after an internal conflict spiraled out of control and broke apart the once united Kingdom between the dragon houses of Regal and Va (now Shai-Va after being influenced by dark magic).
2 Worlds
The gameplay screen is divided into 2 sections in The Dragoness: Command of the Flame, the base building section (which we will touch on later) and the mission area. The mission area consists of an area that you can explore fully (or not) in order to complete the main objective. Along the way through exploration you can encounter secondary objectives that you can choose to complete or not.
Things To See, Stuff To Do
The mission area/map itself will have points of interest for you to interact with, be it compulsory (the objective) or secondary, there’s also some challenges you can complete for rewards (resources). Points of interest include encounters with beasts who stand in your way of progression or some notable loot or resource that you want. In the mission area, you’ll find resources you gather in order to hire and recruit units into your army for that specific mission area. They do not carry over to main units outside of the mission area (think mercenaries).
Make it Quick, Or Not
You can “grind” for resources by exploring the mission map fully in order to get every resource and recruit every unit before embarking and completing the object of the mission. The only caveat a bit or urgency you have to consider is that your commander has a certain amount of moves she can make before she runs out of movement points (yes it’s turn based outside of combat in a way). As she runs out of it, you then end your turn and that consumes food so there’s some attempt at having some urgency to complete the mission quickly, however the food the game gives you at the start + the food you can find at some POI is so lenient that it negates its purpose.
Nothing Too Far
The POI in the mission area/map that takes most of your time in the game is the battle screen. Battles work in a turn-based order, who moves first depends on their initiative. Ranged units have the benefit of being able to fire throughout the map but are more frail compared to melee units. Most units will have a spell they can use for buffs and debuffs.
Build Up
After successfully completing the main objective of the mission, you can use the rewards from the mission and challenges to build your base, unlock units which are persistent in your army unlike the ones in the mission area/map, upgrade those units and forge artifacts that you can equip on your commander that boosts her on the mission map or boosts her units in battle.
Ticks the Right Box, But Nothing New
Visually The Dragoness: Command of the Flame is a decently good looking game with various numbers of units that look apart from each other. Gameplay-wise there’s nothing different in what it does. What may be slightly different from typical turn-based games is that if you fail a mission, it’s not back to the same spot you were in prior, but you get to keep all the resources you collected prior to you falling in battle. So in that sense it is a forgiving game.
Final Thoughts
The Dragoness: Command of the Flame no doubt is a very accessible game even though it is both a turn-based and base building game, genres that can sometimes be complex. With the simplification of mechanics, gameplay and some questionable mechanics, here you have a competent and accessible game for players who are usually daunted by the complexity of the genres. However veterans of the genres who love punishing gameplay and challenge, you may find this one not scratching that itch.
Purchase The Dragoness: Command of the Flame on Steam!
Hailing from a small Island. Huge football fan. Drinks too much tea.
Survival, Roguelikes, Turn-based or Indie games in general are my go to genres but I like to dabble in all kinds of genres. I tend to have a soft spot for Shmups and Hidden Object Games once in a while.
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