A fun RPG that's not without its flaws
You start in the town of Farglow, where Commander Rhode has taken you to be inducted into the ranks of the famous Dragon Slayers, the most famed and revered elite warriors in all of Rivellon. It is here you choose your class. This has almost no impact on gameplay - it simply gives you ONE basic ability that can easily be trained on level up. Here you also gain the ability to mindread. This allows you to, at any time during dialogue with any NPC, be able to click the mindread button and hear their thoughts. This comes at the cost of precious XP points though, and, while sometimes giving you access to passwords or secret stashes, it sometimes triggers new quests, points of view and courses of action. That said there are far too many times when your XP loss is for nought.
Soon, you are alerted of dragon sightings in Broken Valley, and travel there, instructed to gather intel from the villagers. This is the first main 'town' in the game and is where you will gain access to a plethora of side quests.
That brings me to an area of the game that becomes annoying: Enemies don't respawn. At all. That means that you really feel inclined to take on any and every enemy you face and complete every quest. This also makes it hard if you are after a specific item that drops from a specific enemy type when they have all been slain and their loot sold to traders. Items don't respawn either so you feel the need to take any items you pick up.
However, the game is far from bad. You gain the ability to transform into a dragon about 1/3 into the game. This allows you to fly, take on enemies with more ease and generally feel more badass.
Graphically this game is very stylised - animations are really cartoonish and over the top but really that adds to the charm. The game looks inviting and colourful but it's no technical feat.
The sound is average. The music is excellent and really catchy when exploring forests, calm and reassuring when on a farm, prosperous when in a town and suitably creepy when in a dungeon. Voice acting is average most of the time but really shines through in a few genuinely funny gems in the dialogue.
One thing that genuinely made me laugh out loud while playing was a particular NPC you meet unexpectedly. He is a wizard. Not a mage. A wizard. The most cliché wizard you'd ever care to meet. He wears a blue cloak and pointy hat all adorned by moons and stars, with a white, long beard and glasses. I do hope Larian Studios did that on purpose as a reference to RPG fans, because if not they really slipped up in the character design department.
Overall the game is really fun to play but not the most polised or award-winning either. It's a fun romp that is easily recommendable to RPG fans.
-lintonthepenguin