Nintendo
Dragalia Lost represents a lot of firsts for Nintendo. It’s their first mobile game to be based off a brand new IP rather than an existing Nintendo property. It’s also their first time collaborating with Cygames, a popular Japanese mobile game developer.
Nintendo has remained pretty quiet on the project since announcing it in April 2018, but that changes with the release of the Dragalia Lost Mobile Direct presentation. From the looks of it, Dragalia Lost seems to incorporate everything we know and love about JPPGs: tactical combat, party optimization, and ridiculous game titles.
Here’s everything you need to know about Dragalia Lost, including its release date, trailers, gameplay, and more.
Dragalia Lost Release Date
Dragalia Lost releases on Android and iOS devices on September 27, 2018, Nintendo of America announced on its official Twitter account. The game will be available first in the U.S., Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau. Languages supported include English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese.
You can pre-register for the game right now by visiting the App Store or the Google Play store.
Dragalia Lost Trailers
A vast multiplayer action RPG in the palm of your hand! Don’t miss out on all of the information for Nintendo’s next mobile game in tonight’s #DragaliaLost Direct livestream at 8:30pm PT.
Dragalia Lost Story
Nintendo
The Kingdom of Alberia, where humans and dragons co-exist, was founded with the arrival of the Sacred Shard which has the power to dispel monsters. Now with the Shard fading in power, monsters are on the rise.
You play as the seventh royal prince of Alberia, who forms a pact with the dragon Midgardsormr. Once he builds his party, he sets off on his quest to restore the Sacred Shard.
Dragalia Lost Gameplay
Nintendo
Dragalia Lost is an action JRPG, according to the Mobile Direct. You move your party of four around the game world by sliding your finger across the screen and attack by tapping the screen. Touching the skill button activates a special skill for devastating attacks. Enemy attacks are indicated by a red marker that moves across the ground, prompting you to swipe the screen quickly to dodge out of the way in time. Tapping the character portrait on the screen swaps party members.
Bosses have their own rage meter that builds up when attacked. When it fills up completely, their attack power increases. But if you keep attacking it after that, the meter will decrease. When the gauge decreases to zero, they become stunned and their defense drops.
Defeating enemies and breaking Dragon Obelisks grants you gems that build up your Shapeshift Gauge. Once it’s full enough, you can transform into a super powerful dragon. Each party member can transform into a dragon and each dragon has different abilities.
Speaking of party members, there are 60 of them according to the Direct. They can be divided into four groups: Attack Unit, Defense Unit, Support Unit, and Healing Unit. Plus they have different elements that are strong and weak against each other à la Pokemon. Flame beats Wind which beats Water which beats Flame. Light is strong against Shadow and vice versa. This is important since levels will focus on different elements. They also weild different types of weapons and can swap weapons for different fighting styles.
Party members can be strengthened by leveling up and equipping better weapons just like in any other JRPG, but they can also be strengthened by upgrading stats and learning new skills in the skill tree-like Mana Circle. You can also level up weapons.
The game also includes a castle management component of sorts with the Halidom. You can build different structured around the castle for different benefits, such as building mines to harvest gold.
Summoning will let you receive new allies, dragons, and Wyrmprints, according to the Direct. Summoned heroes and dragons range from three stars to five stars just like in Fire Emblem Heroes. Star rarities indicate how powerful a hero or dragon is. If you summon the same hero you already summoned, you get Eldwater instead which is used to increase the rarity of your heroes. Wyrmprints are equippable items that enhance heroes and also come in three to five star rarities. Summoning is done by spending Wyrmite, which is received via login bonuses, event rewards, and more, as well as Diamantium, which is purchased with real cash within the game.
The game also includes four player online multiplayer with all quests available to complete in multiplayer, according to the Direct. Each player controls a party member. You can communicate via stamps. You can create your own online room or find one yourself. The game has multiplayer events coming sometime after launch, and seem to involve way more than four players against a massive boss according to the Mobile Direct.
Who Is Cygames?
Cygames is a Japanese mobile game developer responsible for mobile hits like Granblue Fantasy and Rage of Bahamut. They were founded in May 2011 and are currently headquartered in Tokyo, according to their corporate website.
A Brief History of Nintendo Mobile Games
While talks of mobile game development began as early as summer 2010, Nintendo wouldn’t fully commit to the idea until March 2015 when they announced that it would bring its franchises to mobile devices with the help of Japanese mobile gaming giant DeNA, as TechCrunch reported. They followed that up with the release of their very first mobile game, Miitomo, in March 2016.
Miitomo was a drop of water compared to the tidal wave of success that would wash over The Big N. Pokemon Go became a social phenomenon with over 800 million downloads as of May 2018, according to The Pokemon Company (via Variety). The game has raked in $1.8 billion in revenue as of July 2018, according to a report by SensorTower. May 2018 saw the game reach the highest active player count since its launch in July 2016 with an estimated 147 million people according a report by Superdata (via Eurogamer). That’s not Nintendo’s only mobile success; Fire Emblem Heroes was downloaded 11.7 million times and earned $114.9 million dollars across both iOS and Android products as of July 2017 according to SensorTower.
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