Black Dragon Mage

by Aethyna Dec 25, 2024 | 1 Votes | 55 Played | 0 Reviews

7 rate

Genres:

Action

Graphics:

Labels:

Dragons , Survivors-like/Bullet Heaven , Dark Fantasy , Roguelike/roguelite

Platforms:

Publishers:

datablob Black Dragon Mage is a Survivors-like game, a.k.a. a bullet heaven game, where you play as a budding mage, battling his way through throngs of enemies in his quest to become evermore powerful. How long will you survive? Play Now Similar Games

People Also Played

Summary Gameplay Graphics/ Sound Conclusion

Summary

Black Dragon Mage is a Survivors-like game, a.k.a. a bullet heaven game, where you play as a budding mage, battling his way through throngs of enemies in his quest to become evermore powerful. Survive for as long as you can, defeat various bosses, and earn enough currencies to unlock powerful items and abilities so you can do it all over again.

Gameplay

To play, you’ll need to first set up a game. Here, you can choose which mage you want to play as, which items to equip, and even which dragon to bring along. You won’t get a whole lot of choices at the beginning but as you progress, you’ll unlock more options, allowing you to really customize your playthroughs.

Black Dragon Mage is a Survivors-like - pure, plain and simple. Also known as a Bullet Heaven, games like this often have an easy-to-grasp gameplay that can be hard to master. Unlike some of the more punishing Survivors-like, you can actually bump into enemies in this game and not get hurt, unless the enemies hit you in the process. This also meant that the dash ability in this game can be super useful since you can technically dash through a thin enough wall of enemies without getting hurt, breaking free from being encircled and subsequently trapped. Note that you only have three lives, though you can restore your lives if you are lucky enough to get a health potion to drop.

You can level up as you progress. Experience points aren’t earned passively but rather, you’ll have to collect the experience gems dropped by your fallen enemies. Once the experience meter is full, you’ll then get to choose one of three rewards, which can range from upgrades for your existing stats or abilities, or unlocking a brand-new ability. Note that abilities in this game come in two forms – passive and active, with the passive abilities being automatically triggered at certain intervals while the active abilities can only be activated manually by the player. You can only have up to four different active abilities at any time.

Aside from experience gems, enemy drops can also include potions, coins that you can use to reroll your level-up rewards, and special currencies that you can then use to purchase unlocks at the Hall of Relics once your current run ends. What truly makes Black Dragon Mage unique is the dragon mode ability. You can fill up the dragon meter by collecting the blue potion.

Once full, you can then have your mage ride your dragon of choice and rain devastation onto your enemies. You can bring along different dragons to each of your runs once you have them unlocked. Different dragons will naturally have different powerful abilities and stats, but they all share the same thing – they all look incredibly cool!

I should also point out that the game environment in Black Dragon Mage is active in the sense that you will have to figure out which is helpful and which is dangerous… and even which is both. It takes a bit of a trial and error, but each feature does have telltale signs that indicate what they can be used for, such as the red “area of effect” circle that traps can show on the ground a few moments before they detonate, giving you ample of time to dash out of the way.

Once you’re done with a playthrough, it’s time to see where you can put your loot to good use. In the Hall of Relics, prior to diving into the next run, you can then spend some of those hard-to-earn special currencies on various new unlocks ranging from items to abilities, to even new maps. There are achievements here for you to earn here as well, many of which offer lucrative rewards for achieving them. However, not all achievements have their requirements clearly written out. There are secret achievements that you can only hope to stumble on as you advance through the game.

That being said, Black Dragon Mage has a rather slow progression where the first few runs can feel like a slog to go through. The special currencies in the game which are crucial to unlocking new items and abilities can also feel skewed. Only the blue gems and the eyeball seem to be more useful than the rest since many of the unlocks ask for them, sometimes substantial amounts of them, enough to take you 10 runs or more to hopefully get enough on them.

Of course, being an early access title, the game is bound to go through further transformations and updates, which may address all of the issues raised (and then some) and perhaps add even more content to help push things along for the new players.

Graphics/ Sound

Black Dragon Mage features pixel art that is pretty common among indie titles. The sprites are surprisingly adorable here, and I love how clear-cut everything in the game is. There is, for instance, no mistaking a boss for simply a new mob here. In terms of sound, the game has a handful of soundtracks, from chiptunes to orchestral pieces, that are played depending on the location you’re in, be it in the desert or the Hall of Relics. The tunes are matched well with the scenes they are assigned to.

Conclusion

Even in its early access state, Black Dragon Mage is a competent Survivors-like that throws a cool rideable dragon into the typical bullet heaven gameplay, which frankly speaking, made the game very fun to play. However, progression can be a tad bit slow here compared to other games within the same genre, so if you expect you’ll be able to blaze through the game’s content using your substantial experience from playing bullet heavens, you will find that this isn’t the case.