On the Dragon Wings - Birth of a Hero

I have a weakness for dragons, and I will admit that weakness got me through the front door here. What I found inside is a micro-budget open-world action-RPG from a solo developer that swings for a concept most AAA studios have inexplicably ignored: a full third-person game where your dragon is your primary weapon, mount, and companion from the first few minutes. The setting is Sivashills, a fictional island filled with forests, farms, villages, and water on all sides, with a day-night cycle, dynamic weather, and enough visual ambition to make you root for the team behind it. You pick either Bruce or Ursula at the start, and the sibling you don't choose follows you as a companion through missions. The story framing is simple - a villain called the Dark Rider has captured your father, your village is under threat, and a dragon you rescue early on becomes your ticket to heroism. The writing has been widely noted for its grammatical roughness, which ranges from charming to disorienting depending on your tolerance. Do not come here looking for the layered prose of a Larian title. The narrative is thin scaffolding, not a feature. The actual dragon-riding is the game's reason for existing, and it works just barely well enough to be fun in short bursts. You fly in third-person, breathe fire at enemy ships and ground targets, rise and dive to manage positioning, and unlock additional dragons as you level up and earn gold. There are eight distinct dragon types - from the entry-level Black Skin Dragon to the rare Emerald Tooth with its Anor flame, up to the fearsome Dark Night Dragon that the game itself warns you to flee on sight. Each has different flame types and stat profiles, which gives the progression loop a genuine hook. Burning pirate ships from the air has a satisfying simplicity. The problems start when you hit enemies on land: the fire-breath targeting is awkward, turning too steeply can stall your dragon mid-flight, and the controls in general feel like they need another pass of polish that the game's truncated development window may not have delivered. Community feedback has also flagged that some achievements don't reliably trigger, and the late-game gold grind to reach the higher-tier dragons can feel like padding rather than progression. Graphically, the game is sparse. Performance has historically been rough relative to what the visuals suggest, and the textures read as functional rather than atmospheric. If you are used to the dense worldbuilding detail of bigger RPGs, this will feel hollow. What keeps a portion of the Steam audience positive on it is the same thing that keeps budget indie games alive: the game commits to its core fantasy without burying it behind twenty hours of tutorial. A dragon is in your hands within minutes, not at the end of an unlock tree. For a certain kind of player, that immediate payoff forgives a lot. As an RPG specialist, I will be blunt: the story does not reward re-reads, the build variety is limited to which dragon you ride and how you invest your gold, and there is no meaningful narrative branch based on your character choice. This is not a game that rewards the patient CRPG reader. It is a rough, good-faith attempt at a niche that deserves a better-funded entry. If you have a high tolerance for unpolished controls and low-fi presentation, the core dragon combat loop has a scrappy charm. Everyone else should wait and see if development continues.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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