Dragonsword: Awakening Review — Mercenary Heroes

If you’ve seen any trailers or gameplay for Dragonsword: Awakening, something must inevitably come to your mind: The game looks a lot like Genshin Impact.

To be more specific, Dragonsword: Awakening bears a striking resemblance to the “gacha MMO” genre popularized by the aforementioned title. This is no coincidence, as Dragonsword: Awakening was originally conceived to be a competitor to the ever-so-popular Genshin Impact, one that was going to release on iOS and Android devices and one that likely would have been just as monetized as other titles in the genre, with the term “gacha” referring to the gambling-adjacent pull mechanics these games are built around.

However, at some point during the game’s development, Dragonsword: Awakening shifted focus and instead released on PC as a single-purchase or “packaged” game. While the title maintains its game-design identity, players can access it for a one-time purchase and then unlock all in-game content for free.

Yes, what that means is that Dragonsword: Awakening is essentially Genshin Impact or any other gacha game without the gacha mechanics. Many of the same mechanics, including the resource-focused character progression, remain practically unchanged, but there is no option to purchase any of these goods for real money.

This translates into a title that many players may feel familiar with and simultaneously relieved by, knowing that they can engage with systems that they adore without worrying about forking over cash beyond the initial price of entry. For that reason alone, Dragonsword: Awakening is bound to earn a high ranking with the gacha game audience: I can assure you folks that the game is everything you love for a fraction of the cost to enjoy it fully.

That is a major caveat I need you to keep in mind for the rest of the review: No matter what I say about the game, having zero microtransactions definitely improves the experience, and I wouldn’t want them added.

To my taste, Dragonsword: Awakening‘s focus on resource management is interesting, albeit time-consuming and tedious. Collecting and upgrading your favorite characters is a serious investment of time, not just in actually playing the characters, but in going out of your way to collect the goods needed to fulfill the requirements of each form of progression available for each character. While some definitely enjoy this system, it’s not one I personally like, and I’d rather spend less time going out of my way to collect materials and more time simply playing the characters I enjoy.

Dragonsword: Awakening‘s combat is fun, albeit clearly a port of a mobile game’s mechanics over to PC. Each character has a main attack pattern, a way to exploit status effects at the push of a button, and two abilities. Further interaction comes through the character-switching mechanic, and if you like the combat of Genshin Impact, you will definitely enjoy it in Dragonsword: Awakening.

Personally, however, I found switching to be a momentary burst of flair in an otherwise somewhat boring and repetitive combat system. Once you’ve seen what your team can do, combat doesn’t really evolve, except for passive upgrades from progression. New abilities can be unlocked, which definitely do add flavor to the combat, but most of the time, you’re really just bashing left-click while waiting for your abilities to cool down. I also felt that enemy health, in general, was way too high, which made a lot of combat encounters drag on and many enemies feel unnecessarily spongy.

In my opinion, the highlight of Dragonsword: Awakening is the game’s characters, which are introduced to you over the course of its story. Said story I wasn’t super invested in: It’s good, albeit somewhat tropey and generic, but the game’s characters really shine through with their personality and designs. Of course, you have to expect this from a gacha game, which originally would have made its money by selling pull chances to unlock these characters. My favorite character, however, the axe-wielding elf Castella, was available from the start, and I spent most of the game playing her and not a lot else.

In a vacuum, Dragonsword: Awakening‘s gameplay feels a little underwhelming, very clearly being a port of a mobile game. Its resource management systems are a little tedious, but those who enjoy that type of gameplay will find that Dragonsword: Awakening does it very well. However, the simple fact that Dragonsword: Awakening offers a one-time-purchase package of a genre that is notoriously riddled with microtransactions makes the game an excellent new title for genre fans, offering all of the fun they could expect from titles like Genshin Impact for a fraction of the price. If that is your cup of tea, I absolutely recommend giving the game a try.

Try Hard Guides was provided with a Steam code for this PC review of Dragonsword: Awakening. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Dragonsword: Awakening is available on Steam.