Dragondot, Dragondot, does things that a Dragondot does; slashes goblins, and some ghosts, fights some worgs, and something else that has context and rhymes with "ghosts".
Hey there! Here comes that Dragondot!
Aren't you sick of games that have things like complex plots and cutting edge visuals? Sure you are. That's why Dragondot is here to sweep you off your feet and into its... um... arms, presumably... with a hack-and-slash-esque java game about defending your adoring kobolds and your territory from invaders. What sorts of invaders? Well, everything from goblins to ghosts to ninjas, obviously, and some are stronger than others with different abilities to watch out for. Use the arrow keys to move, [Z] to jump, and [X] to attack, but keep an eye on your health in the upper left corner. The more enemies you slay, the stronger you'll get, with bonuses given for saving kobolds from attackers. When enemies drop them, pick up gold coins for score increases, and pink dots to heal your health.
Dragondot is about as minimalist as you can get, and it's also completely adorable. Despite consisting primarily of circles of various sizes and colours, the creatures still manage to feel distinct from one another. Ninja zip from place to place, hobgoblins pound the area with clubs, and your kobolds shower you with tiny pink hearts. The whole thing won't take you that long to finish, since it's mostly just a matter of figuring out the proper order to complete the areas in so you don't get slaughtered, but the whole thing is the perfect bite-sized bit of quirky action to fit into your morning. There's not a whole lot of replay value to be had once you've cleared the land of menace, but should you ever feel the need for the sort of blind, unassuming love that only a mass of circular kobold followers can deliver, Dragondot is right here.
Waiting.
<3
There's a pretty big difficulty jump between the giant and, like, everything else in the game. I tackled him while fully leveled up and he still slaughtered me.
The giant was actually pretty easy for me. The trick is to
fly over him low enough that he tries to club you but high enough that he doesn't hit you, then *quickly* double back and throw out a combo. If you manage to get the tail slap out before he clubs you, he'll fly back far enough that he misses. At that point you lure him back to the center of the map and repeat.
You can make it easier by
always approaching from the lower-left, so that if you mess up you stay in the area and prevent him from gaining all his life back.
My problem was actually with the Dire Warg in the lower-right. His bite disrupts your combo and he's too fast to kite.
How many different shaped circles can there be? I assumed all circles were circularly shaped.
i like the graphics and gameplay, but i HATE the sound effects!
This game has a bad memory leak. Or something. It takes up to 3 seconds for the game to respond when i press a button.
I also hate this music, developers need to learn to ALWAYS include a mute button.
People with Windows 7 or vista can must the music by going to mixer and muting Java.
The sound's killing this.
Ugh. This game actually penalizes you for exploring. If you get hurt, you stay hurt. But if you leave a screen and come back on, the enemies have full health again. Yeah, that's fair.
Also, death is absolute, and there is no way to save or anything similar.
I liked it until the third time I died and had to start over.
Short and sweet. The attacks and interpretation of monsters and attacks into circles is really cute. The giant is disproportionately difficult, though. Especially when he knocks you off screen. Ugh.
I'm disappointed with the lack of firebreathing.
I found the giant to be easy my second time around.
Just approach the giant, back off when it stops moving, wait for it to attack, run up and attack it a few times, run back and repeat. You only have to do this a few times if you get the right amount of attacks in.
Y'all talk about the giant as if the wizards are easy, whereas I keep getting blown back and then fireballed when I try to take them on.
I don't know what you guys are talking about. I loved the music. It was quite fitting, in my opinion.
After a few times of killing everything except the giant and the wizard, I decided enough was enough.
Game creator here. Just wanted to offer a couple notes.
1. I recognize the lack of a mute feature (and demand for one), and given this game's popularity I fully intend to add one in the near future (once the game rolls out of my "published and done, no feature updates" window). The weekly deadline found me crunched enough for time with Dragondot that I had to make the tough call between the features of "being able to mute the game" and "being able to win the game". Firebreathing is another thing that was planned and didn't make the cut; Dragondot 2, when I make it, will certainly have it.
2. There's a trick to each of the bosses, such that attacking all-out isn't generally the best plan.
Ghost trio:
Ghosts are fast, but have terrible acceleration. Wait for them to come to you, and time your attacks carefully to intercept them.
Wizard:
He leaves himself open after a fireball. Jump to avoid it, then close in fast and smack him before he can Thunder Pulse to defend himself.
Giant:
Don't use your tail sweep. Bait him into attacking, close in and attack quickly after he misses, and back off immediately after your bite. He'll swing as you back away, at which point you can come right back and keep attacking.
Dire Worg:
Easiest way to kill this guy is to head straight for him and jump over; you'll have time to pull off a 4-hit combo on his back as he misses with the bite.
Here's how you beat each of the difficult "bosses" in the corners:
Three ghosts
Upper left corner
Just concentrate on one ghost, kill it, then leave the area and defeat another area to heal up, and then come back. When an enemy dies, it doesn't respawn, even if you leave other enemies alive in that area.
Wizard
Upper right corner
The wizard only has two attacks, and he uses them constantly with about a 2-second lag in between. Just stay far from the wizard, and once he uses his Fireball attack, charge in and swipe him once or twice and run away before he uses his lightning (which could possibly blow you off of the screen, forcing you to start from scratch)
Dire Worg
Lower right corner
Handle the dire Worg just like you handle normal worgs. Once they attack, they freeze there waiting for you to attack it. So jump over the Dire Worg, charge back and slash its backside again, then run away, then jump over it again and repeat.
Giant
Lower left corner
By far the hardest boss, b/c if you get hit once, you'll almost guaranteed fly off of the screen and start from scratch. I left a few areas uncleared so that if he blew me off of the screen, I could go to those areas and pick up some health.
At any rate, the trick is to first kill the goblins, and then run around the giant like crazy, "just" outside of its swipe zone. When the giant stops, you know he's about to swipe you, so run AWAY from the giant, and after he swipes, run towards him and slash him once or twice and DOUBLE JUMP away before he can slash you again. Later, rinse, repeat.
Why isn't there a save? It doesn't increase difficulty, just frustration.
What do the allies do? They don't heal or attack enemies...
Should I... should I be attacking my Kobolds? I mean... they seem so nice, but they're filled with gold, which I like... ohhh... And these mean goblins keep knifing them! I... I'LL SAVE YOU! *swings in on vine while doing the Tarzan yell* *biting and slashing sounds*
Huzzah!
Ah, I see!
@jonc: Keeping your allies alive gives you Rescue Bonus after clearing the "stage"
I found a secret cheating button :D
It gives you score each time you press it and you can level up quite quickly, though f you beat the game after cheating it tells you off :P
Cheating button is easy enough to find on your keyboard if you just hit keys.
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