Dragon Blaze is a 2-D sidescrolling role-playing game for iOS and Android systems developed by Korean company Flint and published by GAMEVIL. Described as a "playable fable", in which you take control of an adventurer who discovers that they are a descendant of the Boden, a race of humans who possessed god-like powers.
The story kicks off after Deathcrown, the dragon king of the living and the dead, returns after a century of exile and wages war on humanity, vowing to take revenge on the Hero King Gram, who won the previous war. After the player character, a lowly soldier, is seemingly killed off in the opening battle, they are brought back to life by the witch Brightspark, who believes you could single-handedly end the war yourself. But first she gives you a task to find out the true cause of the war, which might be more complicated than you first believed...
The six playable classes in the game include:
- Warrior, armed with a sword and shield, who can serve as either a Mighty Glacier or Stone Wall in battle depending on his build.
- Mage, who can rain fire and meteors on her enemies or turn them into helpless sheep.
- Rogue, capable of vanishing into thin air and ripping apart enemies with his blades.
- Archer, capable of firing powerful focused shots and a hail of arrows with her bow.
- Priest, whose powers of light can either heal and protect her allies or smite her enemies.
- Paladin, included in Chapter 3, who is a peculiar mix between Warrior and Priest with his own combat mechanics. He uses light magic either to smash his enemies or to protect and heal his allies.
Gameplay takes place on stages similar to Beat 'em Up games where your player character and up to four other computer-controlled allies fight off against groups of baddies of all kinds, including gnolls, orcs, elves, and even gigantic dragons in MMORPG-style raids for rare loot. As you progress through the game, you gain stronger allies, either by summoning them or combining your less powerful allies together. Players can also face off against the teams of other players in the arena, fight world bosses, and see how many rounds you can last against monsters in an endless labyrinth.
Many have noted that the artstyle and graphics are similar to Vanillaware's 2-D sidescrolling games. Not to be confused with the medieval Shoot 'Em Up made by Psikyo in 2000 of the same name.
Dragon Blaze uses the following tropes:
- The Alliance: Made up of humans and led by the Hero King Gram to fight against the Dragons and their allies. The only other races that seem to be part of the alliance are Porori and some High Elves.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: This is especially noticeable during Arena battles.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can have up to 5 characters in your party, including your player character and 4 allies, and you can summon a friend to help out in battle.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Many of the most powerful allies are rulers or royalty of some kind, but this trope is perhaps best exemplified by Hero King Gram, whose half-Titan heritage allowed him to become so powerful in the first place and win the previous war.
- Back from the Dead: The new Awakened allies were added in a recent update. Basically they are Hero Allies from previous chapters, who died but were reborn with new powers (and appearance as well). The first Awakened allies added were Refuge King Gram and Merciful Mercedes.
- Barbarian Tribe: The Varman, who also have some features of Horny Vikings.
- BFS: Hero King Gram, Gaela the Fallen of Septem Archangeli and especially Storm Bear, one of the Boden.
- Bears Are Bad News: Giant killer bears were introduced in Chapter 3. Some of them use stones and even beehives as throwing weapons.
- Chaser Tracy can summon a polar bear named Ursa to smite her enemies.
- Big Red Devil: Valmut of the Netherworld, one of Chapter 2 raid bosses.
- Combat Medic: Paladin allies fit this category best, as they are suited more for combat but do have single-target healing. Orc, Lamia, and Reptilian priests are also capable to cast some offensive spells against foes, as well.
- Chest Monster: Played straight with Mimics.
- Cute Monster Girl: Lamias from Chapter 1, but later the Succubi were added in Chapter 2. All of them are quite attractive.
- Cute Witch: Brightspark and Belle Snow are the most prominent examples, as well as the Mage and Priest player characters.
- Damager, Healer, Tank: The three classifications of allies in the game.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: All three World Bosses (Lava Golem, Hydra, Shariet). Although, your main goal when fighting them is not to kill them, but to get as much points as you can.
- Dem Bones: Skeletal Orcs and wolves (and also some strange creatures, which look like skulls with bat-like wings) were introduced in one of the recent updates.
- Expy: Shadow Howl has a striking resemblance with Lich King.
- Finger Gun: Belle Snow does this gesture when she is summoning an ally for help.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Brightspark's three abilities include a meteor strike, blizzard, and a thunder storm.
- Forced Transformation:
- Salamander's Curse, one of the Mage's spells, can transform an enemy into a helpless sheep, letting the rest of the party wail on it. The ultimate form of this spell can even transform the entire enemy party into a flock of sheep.
- Bliss Foxy can turn her enemies into foxes.
- Giant Spider: Low-tier enemies/possible allies in Chapter 2.
- Gorgeous Gorgon: Despite having the lower bodies of snakes, all of the Lamias are quite beautiful.
- Horned Humanoid: Demons and Quinque Draco.
- Horse of a Different Color: Calgar, the Wolf of Death, rides a huge wolf into battle. Farrah the Healer of Septem Archageli rides on a gazelle and Chaser Tracy has a polar bear for a mount.
- Humongous Mecha: Dragon Busters, very powerful (and thus game-breaking) battle robots which were introduced in one of the recent updates. Technically, they aren't "normal" allies, but a kind of mecha suits, which your player character or another ally can summon in combat, if they have a special key item. On the other hand, obtaining this key won't be so easy.
- Impossibly-Low Neckline: Draco Blackaria's dress is cut down past her navel, and shows her off Navel-Deep Neckline, as well.
- Improbable Weapon User: Pirate King Byron uses an anchor as a weapon.
- Jiggle Physics: Many of the female characters bounce around in their Idle Animation.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Deathcrown ditches his Western-style longsword for a huge katana in his Quinque Draco form.
- Level-Up at Intimacy 5: Each ally has an Affinity tribute which goes up a little bit any time they are used in battle. Reaching 100 affinity is necessary for them to be used as fodder for combining into stronger allies. The game gives you rubies the first time you reach 100 Affinity with each ally, and even more rubies after you've reached affinity with a number of allies or every ally from a certain region.
- Little Bit Beastly: The Porori, who otherwise look mostly like young human girls, except that they have bunny or rodent ears. Most of them seem to be Priests.
- Also Ravengale the Kind of Septem Archangeli.
- Lizard Folk: The Reptilian race.
- The Medic: The Priest character class.
- Monogender Monsters: As of yet, there only seem to be male Orcs, Gnolls, and Reptilians, while Lamias and Fairies are all female.
- Ms. Fanservice: Most of the female characters, especially Lamia queens, all of the Succubi, Draco Brightspark and Draco Blackaria.
- Mushroom Man: Living mushrooms called "portos". Their in-game description says that some of them possess Orc-like strength.
- Oculothorax: Cyclops Bats.
- One-Gender Race: So far, no male Dark Elves have been seen. Likewise, no female Orcs have shown up. The Porori all seem to be female, but it's not completely clear.
- One-Winged Angel: Deathcrown can be fought as a gigantic dragon called Deus Deathcrown in a raid. Also Ragnarok, the final boss of Chapter 2, has an ultimate form called Deus Ragnarok, which can be fought in 6-player raid (unlike other raid bosses, which you can beat with three other players. You also need to have a special badge instead of normal tickets to enter his raid battle).
- Oral Fixation: Lllywelyn the Fiery always chews on a blade of grass.
- Our Angels Are Different: Septem Archangeli. They differ greatly in appearance from your ordinary angels with wings and halos. Only Kymael the Just looks somewhat like typical angel.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Quinque Draco, who look like humans (or elves) with big glowing horns. We never see their true forms, except of Draco Deathcrown, who transforms into his "Deus Deathcrown" form in some cutscenes. He can also be fought as a raid boss in this form, see One-Winged Angel above.
- One of Chapter 1 raid bosses, Storm Tyrant, looks more like a Sand Worm than a typical dragon.
- Our Banshees Are Louder: A new type of enemies/possible allies, introduced in Chapter 3. They come in three different classes - swordsmen (warriors), witches (mages) and nuns (healers)
- Pimped-Out Dress: Princess Mercedes's royal gown, which has a convenient Showgirl Skirt to show off her legs.
- Power Floats: Most of the spellcasters have levitating orbs, skulls (in case of Orc priests) or spellbooks, which serve as their offhand equipment. Some characters, like Deathcrown, are capable of levitating under their own power, as well.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: All of the Orcs seem to revel in battle and seek to become more powerful.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Many of the royals encountered throughout the game can be acquired as allies, including Princess Mercedes, Hero King Gram, Deathcrown, and Princess Aura Windlune.
- Savage Wolves: Chapter 2 introduced wolves, who have escaped from the control of the Ironwolf Tribe of orcs.
- Shout-Out: Shaman Doll Margaret's puppet looks similar to Chucky from Child's Play.
- Snake People: The Lamia race.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Princess Mercedes and Deathcrown.
- Stripperific: Succubi and some of the Dark Elves. Lamias can be count too.
- Succubi and Incubi: The Incubi and Succubi were introduced in Chapter 2.
- Summon Magic: Incanter allies are capable of summoning an extra ally to help out in battle. This can be truly gamebreaking with Shaman Doll Margaret, who is capable of summoning one of the Draco, Boden or Septem Archangeli.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Incubi Incanters, like Yvante the Incubus.
- When Trees Attack: Ent-like creatures, which can be met and fought in Chapters 1 and 3.
- Winged Humanoid: Incubi and Succubi have "standard demonic" bat-like wings. Also, Kymael the Just has a pair of golden "angelic" wings.
- All fairies have butterfly-like wings. According to the in-game description of fairies' party buff, their wings are considered as popular souvenirs for adventurers.
- World of Action Girls: A whole bunch of ass-kicking babes. Of note are Dark Elves and Varman women.
