Sign on Options
Theme:
To Dark

E3 '07: Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire Impressions

Related Platforms:
  • Wii
By Aaron Thomas, GameSpot, Posted Jul 13, 2007 3:40 am GMT

We tag along with Dal as he travels the world to put the dragon blade back together.

Now that the Wii's stellar sales have proven that the console is here to stay, developers have taken notice and are starting to create more original games for the system. One such game is Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire, a hack-and-slash adventure from D3. It wasn't playable at E3 2007, but we were given an extensive look at the game in action.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Dragon Blade's story is being penned by Richard Knaak who's best known for the "Dragon Lance" series of novels. As the story goes, a fire dragon tried to help mankind stop a war but was betrayed by some dark dragons and was sealed into a magic sword. The sword was broken apart and its shards were spread across the land. You play as a boy named Dal, who is the descendant of a king and is in possession of the hilt of the sword that contains the fire dragon. It's up to you to put the sword back together and vanquish Vormanax, the leader of the dark dragons for good. To do so, you'll have to fight kings and dragons across the game's six worlds and 20-plus stages.

In the first level, we saw Dal making his way around a large fortress. It wasn't long before a group of lizardlike creatures appeared from out of nowhere, forcing Dal to whip out his sword. To swing the sword, you move the Wii Remote in the direction you want to swing, and you can put together combos by quickly moving from one attack to the next. Watching one of the game's producers play it, it appeared that short, subtle motions were enough to swing your sword, so you shouldn't have to worry about waving your arms like a madman to kill just one foe. Once all of the enemies were dead, the force field that had been blocking the path ahead disappeared, and Dal was free to move on.

The next level we saw began outside of a castle on a rickety-looking bridge that spanned a moat full of bubbling lava. This is where we were introduced to Dal's dragon powers. These powers are earned by defeating kings, and once acquired, they can be mapped to the D pad. As long as you have enough power in your meter, you'll be able to unleash a variety of attacks with each different power. Fire claw turned one of Dal's hands into a giant flaming claw that he was able to use to smack around flying bats and hoglike creatures with ease. Dual arm turned both hands into giant flaming hands that could be maneuvered by moving the Nunchuk and Wii Remote in conjunction. Another attack we saw was the dragon tail whip, which was a flaming whip. Another attack was called dragon head. Last but not least, the dragon wings attack gave Dal the ability to double-jump and dash. The last part of the game we were able to check out was a fairly long boss battle, which pitted Dal against a giant three-headed dragon.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

What stood out most about Dragon Blade's visuals were the interesting character designs. Many of the creatures Dal was fighting appeared to be a cross between humans and animals, such as rams, lizards, and a burly-looking creature that resembled a hog. The levels weren't extremely detailed, but they looked fine and had an interesting Asian-inspired design to them.

We would have liked to get some hands-on time with the Dragon Blade, but unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards. Hopefully, we'll be able to spend some more time with the game before it ships to stores this fall.

35 Comments

  • rouguesquadron

    Posted Sep 10, 2007 5:20 pm GMT

    Sounds like a Zelda clone, but since Zelda is my favorite game of all time, this might not be a bad thing.

  • dizzyrhino

    Posted Aug 17, 2007 12:23 pm GMT

    It's obviously a streets of rage style beat 'em up. It reminds of Dragon Valour for the PS1, except for the fancy fire moves.

  • kneppi88

    Posted Aug 15, 2007 7:20 pm GMT

    This will be a title I'll be keepin my eye on.

  • 1871995

    Posted Aug 8, 2007 5:57 pm GMT

    The game looks interesting, but it sounds a bit like zelda, I hope they are making something original

  • Blackmage456

    Posted Aug 7, 2007 11:52 am GMT

    This game looks really good. I hope its a Wii Exclusive.

  • nidgamer

    Posted Aug 7, 2007 9:21 am GMT

    I hope the developers are reading this, they need the positive feedback so they don't run off and port it to another console. Aside from better level design they need a lock-on feature to steady the camera then again, i wasn't the one holding the controller in the video

  • Treifla

    Posted Aug 3, 2007 10:58 am GMT

    at first i wasn't too impressed, i thought it would be the same one-track-no-dynamic-quick-money-making-arcade that is usually released and aimed towards parents who think their kids will love it "'cause is has Dragon in the title" (you know the type, anybody who has had video games when they were young may have remembered getting one or two of these titles) but it actually looks to be shaping up to be pretty good, im just hopeing it will have a good storyline to back up it's visuals and controls

  • dragonlord94

    Posted Aug 3, 2007 3:37 am GMT

    Seems to be a fairly good game, The Dragonlance books are fairly good so the story should be good. I'm looking forward.

  • stanley2011

    Posted Aug 1, 2007 5:15 pm GMT

    might be a really good game we will just have to see. might be like GoW for the wii

  • webbut

    Posted Jul 29, 2007 3:37 pm GMT

    doesnt look to bad could be something worth buying

  • coolnunker

    Posted Jul 24, 2007 9:48 am GMT

    I saw the screens and the game looked pretty awesome. But when I watched the gameplay movie was when it made me smile big. If they can make this a good game, I will be very very happy.

  • kbaily

    Posted Jul 21, 2007 4:08 am GMT

    It doesn't look bad and this is a good sign that soon we're finally going to see some good third party games that aren't either sloppy PS2 ports or mini-game compilations. Be patient fellow Wii owners. Soon we'll be swimming in great games.

  • icarus212001

    Posted Jul 20, 2007 7:42 pm GMT

    this is kinda like GoW for the wii lol. but still, nice to know that developers r taking advantage of the wiimote instead of making more minigame compilations. looks very interesting

  • JiminycricketX

    Posted Jul 18, 2007 12:14 pm GMT

    Wow, I was skeptical when looking at the screens, but the game looks really good in action. I like the look of some of the fire attacks. I'm glad someone is finally doing something to appeal to the harder-core gamer. Not that I have a problem with Minigame collections, but this is definitely what most Wii enthusiasts have been waiting for.

  • ookami-gamer

    Posted Jul 17, 2007 4:39 pm GMT

    definitely looks like a good game. i hope to hear more about it soon.

  • icytower

    Posted Jul 14, 2007 10:18 am GMT

    Looking good at this point.

  • msudude211

    Posted Jul 14, 2007 8:37 am GMT

    Screenshots look cool to me.

  • magicmo

    Posted Jul 14, 2007 7:51 am GMT

    Very nice. I would definitely pick this up. Richard Knaak is one of many a great author of the Dragon Lance series of books. I've been reading them for oh, about 15 years now.

  • GabrielN

    Posted Jul 14, 2007 7:48 am GMT

    Sorry, weird mental slip. My point, which still stands, is that it proved the wiimote can aim just fine and is pretty precise in general, contrary to what the Wii's detractors and often lazily-made/adapted early games would have you believe.

  • MasterAsh42

    Posted Jul 14, 2007 2:16 am GMT

    This game sounds generic as all get out, but egads I can't help but be interested.

GameSpot on YouTube

Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire

Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire BoxshotEnlarge the boxshot
Not Following
Follow
Add to List

Follow for the latest news, videos, & tips from experts & insiders

GameSpot Fuse

    Game Stats

    • Rank:
      10,343 of 0
      Wii Rank:
      558 of 2,141
      Followers:
      250Follow»
      Wishlists:
      141Wish It»
      • Player Reviews: 17
      • Player Ratings: 240
      • Users Now Playing: 23
    • Number of Players:

      1 Player

    • T Rating Description

      Titles rated T (Teen) have content that may be suitable for ages 13 and older. Learn more

    Close
    Dragon Blade: Wrath Fire Navigation

    Games You May Like

    Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.

    See More Similar Games