Introduction
Dragonica is a cutesy anime based side-scrolling action MMORPG that is played in 2.5D. The lore follows the return of a long defeated evil “Dark Dragon” to the world. In the chaos you are tasked with finding and destroying the root of evil.
The plot of a returning evil and heroes to subdue them is not the most unique or immersive, but does its job and fits the ambience of the game well.
Once you login, you are to create your character from choosing 1 of 4 classes, the Swordsman, the Thief, the Magician, and the Archer. The Swordsman provides the tank role but is more than capable of delivering enough damage to enemies; the Thief has lower HP but is able to provide better damage output and depending on which sub-class a thief advances to, they may provide buffs and support for party members; the Mage is what you would want to play if you want to cast skills that can wipe out whole groups of enemies or take on the role of healing and supporting party members and the Archer is the range character provides massive combo counts and decent damage.
Aside from choosing your class you may also customize your character... to a certain point. You care given a list of preset hairs, hair colors and faces to pick. Though all of this will make very difference on how your character looks.
Gameplay
The gameplay should be familiar to anyone that has ever played side-scrollers. With that said, the learning curve is surprisingly low for a fast paced game such as this. The stages and areas available in the beginning offers little challenge in the platforming area but that works in favor for beginners.
Once in the game world there is a walkthrough of all the basic functions of the game. Anyone that finishes the walkthrough will have nearly everything they need to know to explore the world of Dragonica.
The difficulty is fair through out the beginning and it is not until you reach your first job change quest that you begin to visit a dungeon with moving platforms and various traps, challenging your platforming skills. Unfortunately after you complete the job change area you are put back into mostly linear dungeons with little platforming involved until you reach much higher level dungeons.
Leveling up in Dragonica, your character will not be receiving stat points to customize your characters like in many other MMORPGs. Instead Dragonica only gives skill points for you to use. Yet the system is again a little different from other MMORPGs. For each level you gain a certain amount of skill points is given to you and each skill requires more than 1 skill point in order to be unlocked or upgraded. Though foreign at first it becomes a meta-game of perfect skill point allocation, because there maybe times you have enough points to upgrade a bunch of skills in one level and other times where even a whole level’s worth of skill points is not enough. But this is all dependant on the skills' requirements.
Movement, attacks 
and skills are preformed with the keyboard or the joypad. No third party programs needed for joypad support, Dragonica has it built-in, something all action MMORPGs should have. Both schemes are easily customized so everyone should be able to perform combos within a short time.
The game really starts to take the arcade side-scroller feel after you gain a few skills and learn how to link them up. Soon you will be sending enemies into the sky and racking up your combo count as you juggle them in the air, which is probably the most satisfying part of playing Dragonica.
Most of your time playing will be spent visiting the instance dungeons dotted throughout the Dragonica world. These dungeons may be completed alone or with a party of up to 4. Each dungeon has 4 stages to them with a boss at the end of each stage. Players must start a new dungeon by entering the first and easiest stage. After completing the first stage the next one will be unlocked and so on 
until you reach the 4th and last stage. With each succeeding stage in a dungeon there will be more areas of that dungeon to complete and stronger enemies.
Enemies in the game unfortunately follow very similar patterns. They gang up, they attack and sometimes they have 1 or 2 skills that they spam whenever they have the chance. Higher level monsters just mean they have more hp and more attack power. Because of the simplicity, even a low level character with some smarts can visit higher level areas and battle it out, though it is not recommended.
Bosses are your general side-scrolling beat-em up affair. Each has their own unique set of skills that is used in an easily predictable pattern, which can be learned after only one encounter. But by no means are some of the bosses easily taken down like the regular class of enemies.
The Grind
The grind for the first 20 levels is very bearable. You will be busy following the stream of quests coming your way and the experience rewards for completing the quests is enough of a boost so there isn’t many instances where you need to grind a dungeon again for experience. Though this part of the game may still take up to 8 hours to complete if this is your first time playing through the game.
After level 20 you will receive your first class change and the grind starts to mount up. Though the quest rewards will still be giving a good boosts in experience, you will start to revisit dungeons multiple times so you can meet the level requirements for the next quest. Visiting dungeons at this point almost always requires a party and the time needed to complete a dungeon stage takes longer than it did in the past.
Overall the grind rises steadily in Dragonica, which is fair. At no point will you feel a sudden jump in the amount of grind. If anything it sneaks up on you after you realize you spent hours playing already.
Graphics
The game runs on a 2.5D engine. You will be moving on a 3D platform for the most part but the dungeons almost always run from left to right. There are instances that require you to jump or climb on a different platform that is in front or behind the area you are in. It adds depth and dynamics to the side-scrolling.
If there is an example of the best display of what this engine is capable of, it is the second city that players visit. The entire city is basically a circle and as you move from one side of the city to the other, the entire city will be revolving on your screen. There is also a city centre that floats in the middle of circular city that is accessed by jumping pads.
In other areas and dungeons, there are animated backdrops behind all the platforms. It is one of the highlights of the game when you finally see one of these.
The characters are cute and tiny anime characters with influence from classic western storybooks. The grandest of cities in the game seems to be shrunk to fit the statures of its denizens. NPCs like the characters are whimsical, funny and kind on the eyes. But still the cutesiness of the game is not too overbearing, so people that are not fans of this style are so off put they can not enjoy it.
The clothing for characters is well designed, but characters of the same level will all look the same. Same is to be said of the weapons, there are many of them in the game but players of the same level and class will all be holding the same weapons.
Animations are smooth and flashy only when they only need to be. Skills are wonderfully animated and unique. There is even a skill for each class that allows them to change their heads to their corresponding animals to gain stat boosts.
If there is a disappointment and annoyance for me, it is that for such a great looking game you can not change the game’s resolution. With the resolution is locked windowed mode is too small on the desktop and full screen mode looks stretched out.
Soundtrack
From the relaxing tones of
the small cities to the battle hardened pieces that keep the pace feeling fast, the music fits well with the tone of the game. There is variety and a unique score for each area.
The sound effects never seem out of place and like many things about this game, it works well.
Conclusion
Dragonica is a great side-scrolling game. As a matter of fact it is the first MMO that feels like a proper side-scroller. It provides built-in gamepad support, it is simple to learn and you can create massive combos. It is a great game for fans of the anime style, side scrolling, and action MMOs to try out and because of its incredibly short learning curve it is also a great entry action MMORPG for those who have never played any before.
| Gameplay | 9/10 |
| Graphics | 7.5/10 |
| Sound | 9/10 |
| Grind | 8.5/10 |
| Overall | 8.5/10 |
Resources
THQ*ICE Dragonica Online (North America): dragonica.thqice.com
IAHGames Dragonica: dragonica.iahgames.com
gPotato Dragonica (Europe): en.dragonica.gpotato.eu
