Dragonyhm Review: Old-School Adventure With All The Peaks & A Few Valleys

Modern consoles and PCs make the possibilities for grand, realistic roleplaying games wider than ever, but there’s still something special about cramming an ambitious fantasy adventure into an 8-bit handheld. Dragonyhm, developed by Spacebot Interactive and published by ModRetro, opts for the latter. Released as a physical cartridge compatible with the new ModRetro Chromatic or any old Game Boy Color, Dragonyhm feels every bit as comfortable on the hardware of yesteryear as Link’s Awakening or Final Fantasy Adventure does.

The story of Dragonyhm starts with a smattering of familiar elements. As a boy named Kris slumbers, a pixelated tapestry lays out a history of conflicts with dragons that culminate in the slaying of one and the sealing of another. Upon waking, Kris finds out that his father, a legendary dragon-slayer, has gone missing, and Kris predictably sets out on a quest to find him and save the realm.

Dragonyhm's Combat Gets The Job Done

A Turn-Based System That Takes A While To Get Going

Just as predictably, the path to Kris’s father is littered with complications, both in the form of militant foes and challenging environmental puzzles. For the former, Dragonyhm sticks to turn-based combat but deploys it in a way that highlights a consistent sense of peril. Standard enemies aren’t much less powerful than bosses, and Kris has no party to back him up. Early on, this can necessitate liberal use of healing items or frequent returns to save points.

After the initial hump, there’s no real need to grind, but combat only becomes interesting once Kris’s list of abilities starts to grow. Buffing and nerfing offensive and defensive stats are a central part of the endeavor, as are often mysterious elemental weaknesses. The most unique aspect is a leveling system that assigns stats based on what Kris uses in any encounter that triggers a level-up. It's easy to start maxing magic early, as spells are the quickest solution to the early game, but bumping up defensive stats by consuming protective balms in battle takes more deliberate effort.

Puzzles Are Often — But Not Always — Great

The Best Brain-Teasers Make It Worthwhile

Aside from one optional dungeon that focuses on fights, the puzzles are what Dragonyhm tends to place front and center. Many of these are genuinely great, and solving my way through one icy dungeon felt particularly rewarding. Whether delivering instructions through a fantasy script or crafting challenges that spread across multiple rooms, Dragonyhm doesn’t fret too much about the possibility that a player will get stuck, and its willingness to take that risk significantly boosts its old-school authenticity.

As is often the case, the intellectual challenge does come with a few hiccups. I was making steady progress most of the time, but each of the few places where I got stuck was more frustrating than the last. My first roadblock was simply figuring out some of the game’s rules of interaction early on, but the second happened midway through, when unlocking the third and fourth main dungeons requires Kris to find the rest of the game’s collectible dragon scales. Some of these are fun, but one is more about not missing a couple of pixels than solving anything.

The challenge that I actively disliked appeared in the water dungeon – which, despite the bad rap that water dungeons get, is otherwise excellent. One room relies on a bit of tricky platforming, but as far as I can tell, the mechanics behind it are exceptionally arbitrary and inconsistent, and I would have been much happier running through the entirety of Celeste or Super Meat Boy at the dungeon’s behest. My first instinct was to assume that I was missing the actual solution, but even after solving it, I’m having trouble convincing myself that the timing was working as intended.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

Screen Rant Gives Dragonyhm A 7/10

I’m inclined to forgive the more arbitrary puzzles, partly because of how good the others are, but more because of Dragonyhm’s ability to consistently win me over with its charm. The main story does its job nicely, throwing in just enough lore and complexity to spice up the simple premise, and the ice dungeon’s approach to its narrative proves particularly strong. It’s in the more menial tasks, however, that its personality flourishes, and several of my favorite lines of dialogue only appear when popping into NPC homes in the garb of the villainous faction.

Dragonyhm doesn’t operate at its peak quite as consistently as some of its inspirations, and even ignoring the potential rough patches, it takes a while for the gameplay to hit its stride. With fantastic art, engaging dialogue, and frequently interesting challenges, however, Dragonyhm is an easy recommendation for anyone who misses the days of switching off a handheld to let a puzzle percolate.

Source: ModRetro/YouTube