Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire – WII – Review

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.