Three Dragons

Three Dragons
by Tim Samoff profile

Fantasy
2015

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

RPG-style game with slick text effects, September 6, 2016

by verityvirtue (London)
Related reviews: phlegmatic, sanguine

Three Dragons was designed as a micro-RPG, and is a technically polished Twine with slick text effects. This game has several of the hallmarks of a usual RPG: there's an inventory system, combat, and a completely characterless PC.

Two things of note: stats are presented qualitatively, not quantitatively, meaning you see "You are in good health" or "The dragon is stable" instead of numerical values for health, or any other stat. This, for me, kept it from being a numbers game - it signalled that trying to keep track of health lost and damage dealt was not the point. What you have are tactics: do you feint, or swipe with your weapon, or retreat?

Second, combat is in realtime. This lends a sense of urgency to the fight: if you delay, your options dwindle. In IF and text-based combat games, this is a rare thing indeed.

So far, I haven't found any way to get anything resembling a 'successful' ending, though it's not actually clear why. Three Dragons feels like an introduction more than anything, but it introduces some interesting system which I wouldn't mind seeing in future works.

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Danielle, September 6, 2016 - Reply
I got a successful ending; take note in the ABOUT section that the author says (Spoiler - click to show)that it has "a distinct moral message" and that may help.

verityvirtue, September 7, 2016 - Reply
Oh! I'll try it again sometime. Did it involve reflexes...?

Danielle, September 7, 2016 - Reply
No (although I did back off from the fights on occasion to "rest"). I think you also (Spoiler - click to show)have to retreat far enough from the fight to notice that the old man isn't there anymore to trigger the event, but don't run from the fight, either. It has more to do with how you treat (Spoiler - click to show)your fallen enemies. Hope that helps!

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