The Nameless: Slay Dragon is a party-based adventure RPG, released last year on Steam and now available on the Nintendo Switch. This title promises a tale of revenge and proving one’s worth, but does it deliver?
Talk about fast travel
This journey starts off strong, introducing the player to its unique mode of play with efficiency. The Nameless: Slay Dragon is played from an isometric point of view, but lacks any direct control of characters in a traditional sense. Rather, you direct your party by selecting various points of interest on a map with the cursor and deciding actions accordingly. This is a very novel mode of play and presents the opportunity to trim a lot of the fat that many RPGs suffer from. This eliminates the need to fast travel or slowly walk across the map. While convenient, it also comes with drawbacks.
Firstly, while exciting at first, I think the game desperately needed another mode of play. Using the cursor method would be perfect for travelling across the map, sort of like the original Fallout. However, inside dungeons and towns, it becomes a little less exciting. Also, for the Switch version specifically, having to move the cursor around with the joystick slowly becomes pretty tiresome.
A roll of the dice
The most enjoyable part of the game for me was the heavy commitment to its skill check system. The Nameless: Slay Dragon introduces the player to skill checks in the nifty tutorial zone, where I made the choice to evade a wyvern by running into the forest, barely escaping as it burned everything to cinders. On-screen, your odds of success are displayed as a percentage based on the relevant stats to the situation. Had I failed my stat check, I’m not sure what might’ve happened; maybe I’d be toast! Perception checks can be used to detect traps in dungeons, even using them to your advantage.
The Nameless: Slay Dragon almost emulates a D&D experience in which basically all your actions are determined by these checks. While this mechanic adds a lot of uncertainty and excitement to a playthrough, it’s also used in less exciting ways. Skill checks are also used to determine whether or not you successfully mine and gather materials. However, this is a bit boring and also time-consuming. I mostly skipped these activities after a while because of how unengaging it is to gather rubbish/mine stones. I’m on a dragon-slaying quest!
A game like this lives or dies based on the quality of its writing, music and artwork. I found the writing to be acceptable, but often a little cringey and unnatural. The soundtrack is nothing special, but also acceptable; sound design shares the same fate. The artwork is also a mixed bag for me. Monster designs are unsettling and drawn well, and so are many of the environments. However, I found character design to be a bit generic and the design of the menus to be a bit of an eyesore.
Final thoughts
I don’t really have a lot more to say on The Nameless: Slay Dragon. It’s at best an average RPG game that I could only recommend to ravenous fans of the genre. Personally, I wasn’t a fan of the artwork, music or dialogue, but I wouldn’t say they’re offensively bad. I struggled to connect with the gam,e and I found this disheartening. There was intrigue and a lot of potential during the beginning stages of the game, but it never hit its stride like I had hoped. I never found choices to be meaningful or nuanced. The same can be said for systems like crafting, smithing and cooking, which felt a bit tacked on. There is some value to be found here for RPG fans, but it is hard for me to recommend The Nameless: Slay Dragon.
Stay tuned to GamEir. Come talk with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir).