Darza's Dominion

About

Darza's Dominion is a multiplayer role playing game. It was developed by Ripple Studio and was released on April 21, 2022. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

The Dominion takes no prisoners! Fight for your survival in the unforgiving terrains that surround you, strengthen your hero through slaying dangerous creatures, gather a group of allies and bring the battle to Darza in this fast-paced roguelike cooperative bullet-hell MMO!

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64%

Audience ScoreBased on 973 reviews

gameplay10 positive mentions

grinding37 negative mentions

The game has a tight-knit community that is welcoming and helpful to new players.
The developers are active and responsive, often engaging with the community and implementing feedback.
The game features a nostalgic feel reminiscent of classic bullet-hell games, with polished graphics and smooth gameplay.

The game suffers from low player count and server issues, making it difficult to find groups for dungeons.
Progression can feel tedious due to low drop rates for items and the grind required to max characters.
Many players feel the game is too similar to Realm of the Mad God, lacking unique features and content.

gameplay
79 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
78%
9%
The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players appreciating its fast-paced combat and co-op elements, while others criticize its lack of variety and beginner-unfriendly mechanics. Some find the gameplay loop repetitive and slow, particularly in terms of progression and loot drops, leading to frustration. Overall, while it offers a nostalgic experience for fans of similar titles, it struggles to innovate beyond its inspirations, particularly in content and mechanics.
- “The fast-paced combat, diverse classes, and co-op gameplay make every run exciting.”
- “Its fast-paced gameplay outshines its pixelated graphics, making it a gem within the genre.”
- “Exciting gameplay with a great community and a cool market for trading, it is very fun.”
- “Its confusing and the gameplay is not beginner friendly, you're thrown in with no explanation.”
- “There is absolutely zero variety in the gameplay loop, and the gameplay loop is very short if you aren't new to bullet hells.”
- “Unfortunately this game is wasting its potential with low drop rates, extremely high boss health, and generally very slow gameplay and progression.”
grinding
38 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
3%
97%
The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being excessively tedious and time-consuming, with many players noting the low drop rates and lack of meaningful content. While some enjoy the challenge and community aspect, others find the grind to be a major annoyance, often requiring significant time investment for minimal rewards. Overall, the game is described as a grind-heavy experience that can feel frustrating, especially for those with limited playtime.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “The game is extremely grindy.”
- “There is little to no content which can all be achieved within 4 hours, with extremely low loot drops which make playing and grinding very unsatisfying as there is almost no reward for your efforts.”
- “The game isn't even difficult; it is simply a long and tedious grind that takes a long time not because of death but because everything is so slow.”
graphics
33 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18%
73%
9%
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the retro 8-bit art style while others criticize the pixelation and lack of optimization, particularly on lower-end systems. While some find the visuals charming and a step up from similar titles, others feel they detract from the overall experience, especially when performance issues arise. Overall, the graphics are seen as a blend of nostalgic appeal and technical shortcomings, with room for improvement in optimization and visual fidelity.
- “I personally love Darza's graphics.”
- “The graphics are impeccable and the gameplay itself is also something of legend.”
- “Wonderful game with great graphics and very enthusiastic devs.”
- “More like domino fun! The graphics are as pixelated as my grandma's cataract vision, but hey, at least it's got more bugs than her garden.”
- “Mediocre realm ripoff with graphics that hurt my eyes.”
- “I tried Darza upon initial release on mobile a few years ago and was disgusted by the weak gameplay, mobile controls, and bland visuals.”
story
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
58%
21%
The game's story aspect is a mixed bag, with some players appreciating the existing narrative elements and cutscenes, while others feel it lacks depth and engagement, suggesting the addition of quests and a more robust storyline to enhance player investment. Despite some updates and improvements, many reviewers believe the game falls short of the storytelling quality found in similar titles, leaving a desire for more substantial narrative content. Overall, the consensus indicates that while there are some story elements present, they are insufficient to fully captivate players.
- “There are cutscenes, there is story, there is a big raid boss with many unique phases.”
- “Love it! They've made big changes to it: updates, new dungeons, new items, and a good storyline.”
- “- adding a questline or quests that players can complete as part of an achievement.”
- “I could go on and on about my gripes with this game, but the moral of the story is: this game tries to be old RotMG but it just isn't and it never will be.”
- “☑ no story”
- “☐ no story”
optimization
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
46%
27%
The optimization of the game has received mixed reviews; while some players report smooth performance and stability with minimal lag, others experience significant issues, particularly on high-end systems, leading to low frame rates. Comparisons to similar games like RotMG highlight that while this game may perform better on certain setups, it still struggles with optimization for lower-end PCs. Overall, the game shows potential but requires further improvements to its optimization for a broader range of hardware.
- “Very well optimized, servers don't crash every 10 seconds, very few random disconnects (haven't had one yet, only saw a few) and the list goes on.”
- “The client is optimized for performance, and game lag has been few and far between.”
- “Very chill game that you can play on any PC/laptop since it's very well optimized.”
- “Eh, it's honestly pretty bad. First off, it's optimized awfully. I have a 4090, 64 GB RAM, a $400 CPU, and I'm straight up rocking 30 FPS.”
- “Despite what some RotMG players and influencers say, this will not run smoother on your potato PC at the current moment of this review as they claim. Despite RotMG having a 60 FPS cap, it is way more optimized and has more graphical options. The rendering scale in Darza's makes it so that any PC without a graphics card just suffers with either horrible-looking graphics or 10 FPS gameplay. I will be returning to check this game out when it has proper optimization.”
- “I had more fun playing RotMG private servers on crappy performance on a Flash Player projector.”
music
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
56%
22%
22%
The music in the game has received positive feedback, with many players praising the soundtrack for its quality and thematic fit, particularly highlighting the darza fight theme and the track "the jungle." While some users noted that the overall game experience is lacking, they consistently pointed out that the art and music stand out as strong aspects, contributing to the game's atmosphere. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a significant strength, enhancing the game's immersive qualities.
- “The music is actually really nice, and I really like the Darza fight theme.”
- “I love the music for this game; it really suits it.”
- “The game feels alive; you can tell that someone actually took more than 10 minutes to make the sprites. The biomes feel like what they were supposed to be, and the music also fits the themes of the dungeons very well, way better than ROTMG in this aspect.”
- “In its current state, it's just not good. I enjoyed the music, but the rest was a chore; it's just a private server that went public.”
- “Tl;dr: this game is really bad, apart from its art and music, and not worth playing in its current state. I'd wait for when it gets more updates and hopefully make the enemy designs better.”
monetization
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
34%
33%
The monetization in the game is generally viewed as less intrusive compared to similar titles, with developers aiming to avoid gameplay disruption from microtransactions. However, some players criticize the pricing of in-game purchases and perceive the system as a potential cash grab, reminiscent of less favorable monetization practices from past games. Overall, while the game offers a more balanced approach to monetization, concerns about its long-term sustainability and fairness remain.
- “The developers are independent and mindful of monetization not affecting gameplay.”
- “This game has the benefit of being a suitable alternative for Realm of the Mad God’s expatriate player base, and when viewed as a ROTMG alternative, it can be considered a simpler game without the terminal rot of FOMO (fear of missing out) events and redundant microtransactions.”
- “One of the best parts is that the monetization system is not in your face like with Realm of the Mad God (there are not overpowered win-all pets, for example), and the developers have plans to add daily quests that reward you gold (the premium currency) on top of the ones that currently exist.”
- “Worth your time, in-game purchases can be expensive.”
- “It kinda just copies the entire formula of the game, while still trying to push microtransactions on you.”
- “Darza's Dominion could have been that game, but it seems that this is nothing more than a cash grab.”
humor
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is characterized by absurd and unexpected moments, such as the posting of semi-hentai gifs in a Discord with minors and the comical nature of users getting banned for trivial reasons, like typing the word "lobter." Players find amusement in the game's quirky elements and the developers' strict moderation policies, which add an ironic twist to the community experience. Overall, the humor is a mix of playful absurdity and social commentary on moderation practices.
- “Haha, funny pixel game.”
- “Edit: Watching people get shadowbanned from their official Discord with zero explanation from any developer or mod because they typed the word 'lobster' is absolutely hilarious.”
- “Actually, watching anyone get banned because they typed something the devs remotely disagree with is hilarious.”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
75%
The stability of the game is mixed, with some users noting that it runs well on low-end systems, while others report significant bugs and unresponsiveness, particularly during connection issues, leading to game freezes. Overall, the experience can be inconsistent, with frequent technical problems detracting from gameplay.
- “The game has low requirements and runs great on my system.”
- “I appreciate how stable the game is; it rarely crashes or lags.”
- “The performance is impressive, providing a smooth experience without any hiccups.”
- “Not good, buggy, and unresponsive; it is arguably just a ripoff of ROTMG.”
- “Also very buggy.”
- “There are so many bugs. Whenever the connection is lost, the game simply freezes instead of shutting down or sending you back to the main menu.”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The recent update has enhanced the game's replayability by introducing a new class and quality-of-life improvements, although the limited number of dungeons and event bosses may restrict variety. Despite this, the expertly crafted content offers a satisfying experience that encourages players to revisit the game.
- “After a long wait, the devs have delivered a very sizable update that adds significantly more replayability to the game, on top of lots of great quality of life improvements and a new class.”
- “There's only a handful of dungeons and very little variety with the event bosses; however, they're expertly crafted to the point of providing pretty good replayability.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional involvement of the developers has led to instability within the community, as users express that this intensity can create unpredictable dynamics.