King of Dragon Pass
- July 28, 2015
- HeroCraft
- 30h median play time
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Get on Apple Store"King of Dragon Pass" is a unique blend of strategy and role-playing set in a mythic world of heroes, monsters, and magic. As the leader of a clan, you must guide your people in exploration, resource management, and diplomacy, while also making tough decisions in interactive stories that can bring glory or disaster. With its rich narrative and replayability, this game offers a deep and immersive experience for fans of both strategy and fantasy.
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Reviews
- The world building and lore are creative, believable, and engaging, providing a rich narrative experience.
- The gameplay combines management and decision-making elements, making each playthrough unique and challenging.
- The artwork is gorgeous, enhancing the overall immersive experience of the game.
- The user interface is clunky and feels more suited for mobile devices, making navigation frustrating on PC.
- Many mechanics are poorly explained, leading to confusion and reliance on trial and error.
- The game can feel overly punishing due to random events and hidden mechanics that can derail progress unexpectedly.
- story148 mentions
- 24 % positive mentions
- 72 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The game's story is rich and immersive, featuring a blend of emergent storytelling and random events that create unique narratives with each playthrough. Players engage in a trial-and-error approach to quests, where choices significantly impact outcomes, often leading to unexpected consequences. While the lore and character-driven elements are praised, some mechanics, particularly the reliance on RNG for hero quests, can frustrate players, detracting from the overall narrative experience.
“This is a story-rich game worth playing for those people who like visual novels.”
“The hero quests and event systems are the meat of the game, with long branching narratives that often spiral from something mundane foreshadowing or directly causing some catastrophe or wonder.”
“This unique game combines strategy and management with dynamic storytelling that causes every playthrough to be unique.”
“The story is very not brilliant.”
“Then, on a hero quest 'Elmal guards the stead', I follow the lore exactly, and every step fails - ultimately I lose the rather well-skilled member of my clan, never to be seen again.”
“Despite choosing all the correct choices in a hero quest (with extra magic devoted from the spirit time), I've had 3 questers die in 6 attempts, often just at the very end of the quest for no real given reason.”
- gameplay114 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 60 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "King of Dragon Pass" is a unique blend of turn-based strategy, management, and text-based decision-making, heavily influenced by its rich lore and tribal cultures. While many players find the mechanics intriguing and the world engaging, the game suffers from hidden mechanics, excessive randomness, and a confusing user interface, which can lead to frustration, especially for newcomers. Overall, it offers a deep and immersive experience for those who enjoy management games and storytelling, but its design flaws may detract from the enjoyment for some players.
“The gameplay is fun and unique, and the world's lore is both interesting and memorable.”
“Thanks to the random events and different disposition of your clan (peace, war, or balanced), gameplay can vary a lot, ensuring good replayability and countless hours of fun.”
“In the first 10 hours into the game, I have restarted the game more times than I could count with my fingers and toes - a testament to the game's deceptively simple but rather deep game mechanics that come with palpable consequences for every decision made as the clan leader.”
“But what killed it for me was its bad UI, obscure mechanics, hidden RNG, and just bad user experience overall.”
“Sadly, it fell short of it, in no small part due to poor gameplay design choices that usually plague this kind of indie game, namely a very infuriating RNG (on which the game depends way too much), poor pacing, as well as a very hard to understand choices and bonuses system.”
“This is an 'invisibility of information' problem that plagues this game to its core: it has a complex set of inter-related parts going on under the surface, but the player is left utterly blind to the workings of these mechanics.”
- graphics56 mentions
- 39 % positive mentions
- 55 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are characterized by stunning hand-drawn artwork that blends illustrations and paintings, creating a nostalgic and visually appealing experience. While the visuals are praised for their beauty and the game's unique lore, some players note that the graphics are simplistic and reminiscent of older titles, lacking modern 3D elements. Overall, the artwork is considered a highlight, enhancing the game's charm despite its dated interface and occasional visual limitations.
“The artwork is gorgeous, all the way through.”
“The artwork and lore are absolutely great and serve to create a world worth exploring.”
“Pros: great visuals that look well drawn and show any event pretty well, a nice lore that expands as you melt into Dragon Pass, and a fun challenge.”
“It's a 90s game that's been modernized, and the audio and graphical quality is often poor.”
“No 3D graphics as such.”
“Not enough visuals to let you see the bigger picture, and random outcomes seem to be a thing.”
- music30 mentions
- 53 % positive mentions
- 37 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally well-received, described as catchy and delightful, with a medieval-style that enhances the overall experience. However, some players note that the limited number of tracks can lead to repetitiveness, and the lack of volume control options is a drawback. Overall, while not considered a masterpiece, the music is highlighted as one of the game's standout features.
“The music is delightful.”
“The music and art are both fantastic.”
“The game consists only of static screens, there is no animation to speak of; but the events are illustrated by nicely drawn pictures, and accompanied by catchy medieval-style music.”
“There is no music sliders, it's just on or off.”
“You get no save slots (thus can't run multiple games at once), you have no volume control for the background music, no screen resolution or font size settings etc.”
“They increased the events, added more art, kept the music, and... that's about it.”
- replayability24 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 54 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The game exhibits a mixed reception regarding replayability; while many players praise its high replay value due to random events and varying clan dynamics, some feel that it eventually lacks depth as content is fully explored. Overall, it is noted for its engaging gameplay and unique design, which can provide countless hours of entertainment, despite some concerns about repetitive elements in future playthroughs.
“Thanks to the random events and different disposition of your clan (peace, war, or balanced), gameplay can vary a lot, ensuring good replayability and countless hours of fun.”
“Kodp is among the most replayable games I've ever gotten my hands on; it does random event design wonderfully.”
“Replayability is extremely high due to the variety of random events available, and the fact that there's almost never a clearly right or wrong choice.”
“The game has a decent amount of depth, though eventually, you will reach a point where you've digested the entirety of the game's content, leaving little room for replay value after that point.”
“The clan names were identical or very similar, just in different locations, so again, no real replayability.”
“Even though the game may lack replay value on future attempts due to the reliance on the event system, there's more than enough here to keep you entertained for the price.”
- grinding14 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players have mixed feelings about the grinding aspect of the game; while some appreciate the depth and variety in clan management and farming, others find it tedious and frustrating, especially in harder modes where mistakes can significantly hinder progress. Overall, the balance between engaging gameplay and repetitive tasks can lead to a mind-numbing experience for some.
“The game is tedious and mind-numbing since a single mistake or two will shut down your entire will to chug through a normal playthrough.”
“On the downside, I've found the 'hard' version of the game to be tedious.”
“How much farming do I need?”
- stability4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant stability issues, frequently freezing after a short period of play. Many users report it as extremely buggy, indicating a need for caution before purchasing.
“The game simply freezes after a short time.”
“Judging from the forum, the game is extremely buggy, so beware.”
- humor4 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by occasional amusing events and quirky barbarian antics, such as cow raiding and resource management. However, many players feel that these humorous moments are not enough to compensate for the game's overall lack of balance and clarity, making the experience feel tedious.
“In this turn-based strategy, you take control of the clan’s leaders, manage resources (mainly magic and cows), explore the land, trade goods with your neighbors for cows, set out on quests to gain favor of the gods, and do other funny barbarian things (like raiding your neighbors to steal cows).”
- atmosphere2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The atmosphere is highly praised for its immersive representation of the world of Glorantha, blending elements of choose-your-own-adventure storytelling with strategic gameplay. This combination creates a rich and engaging experience for players.
“An incredible mix of choose-your-own-adventure books, strategy, and a well-represented atmosphere of the world of Glorantha.”
- monetization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The monetization strategy for the game includes availability for purchase on iOS and the option to wishlist on Steam, indicating a direct promotional approach to attract players. Overall, the reviews suggest a positive reception towards the game's accessibility and marketing efforts.
- optimization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The optimization aspect of the game is viewed critically, as guides suggest that certain playstyles, like a peace clan playthrough, are not well-supported or recommended for optimal performance. This indicates a potential imbalance in gameplay strategies that may hinder player experience.
“Somewhere down the road, I'll try a peace clan playthrough, but I doubt that will go well since optimization guides don't recommend it.”
