Dinoblade

I went in expecting a meme that somehow shipped. What I got was a Soulslike that earns its 90% Steam rating even while leaving a trail of rough edges behind it. Dinoblade started life as a 44-second animation clip by Jean Nguyen, a senior animator whose Ghost of Tsushima credits show clearly in how this game moves. That animation went viral, the internet demanded a game, and Nguyen built one. The result is tighter and more purposeful than that origin story has any right to produce. The core conceit does all the heavy lifting. Your Spinosaurus holds its Great Sword in its jaws, which means every attack arc originates from neck and head movement rather than arm swings. Wide horizontal sweeps, committed momentum, no cancelling mid-animation once you commit to a strike or a dodge. That last point is the design soul of the thing. This is animation-priority combat, which separates it from action games that merely borrow Souls aesthetics. Button-mashing punishes you. The bosses, each one an Alpha ruling its own region of the prehistoric world, read patterns and demand you read theirs back. Kira the Exile, Axe, Kasei the Tyrant: the named encounters are consistently the best content in the game, dramatic and visually spectacular in a way that fully justifies the absurd premise. A Boss Rush mode unlocks after the final boss, which tells you the developers know exactly where their strengths are. The supporting mechanics add texture without overcomplicating things. Stamina management is constant. Parrying regenerates stamina and builds toward posture breaks. Defeating bosses unlocks soul summons you can call mid-fight, like the Axe summon that accelerates stamina recovery when you have exhausted yourself dodging. The progression uses two currencies: SP for core attributes like Health, Strength, Resonance, and Stamina, and Boss SP for unlocking abilities. Critically, you do not lose carried SP on death, which softens the Souls punishment loop considerably. Legendary weapons are scattered across the world's biomes, dry canyons and mist-heavy jungles, rewarding exploration. The wiki lists six weapon types with distinct movesets, Greatsword, Battle Axe, War Hammer, Scythe, Spear, and Claws, though the build variety reviewers flag as thin is a real limitation. Defensive play largely revolves around blocking, parrying, and dodging rather than equipment-driven theorycrafting. What doesn't hold up as well is everything outside the combat encounters. The story is minimal, the NPC roster is sparse, there are no dialogue trees to read three times for hidden meaning, and the worldbuilding communicates in broad strokes rather than layered lore. As someone who spends time in RPG dialogue menus arguing with fictional scholars, the narrative offering here is closer to flavoring than substance. The menus feel underdeveloped for the ambition of the rest of the game, and technical hiccups on Unreal Engine 5 have been flagged by players on lower-spec hardware. The runtime lands somewhere between six and ten hours depending on how Soulslike-fluent you are, which makes this a focused weekend experience rather than a sprawling RPG. For what it is, a debut Soulslike from a studio that is essentially one very talented animator who downloaded Unreal Engine tutorials in 2023, Dinoblade punches well above expectation. The boss design is the headline, the combat feel is legitimate, and the soundtrack's willingness to swing between mournful and full metal at exactly the right moments gives the whole thing a personality that keeps you engaged even when the rougher seams show. If you want branching questlines and memorable NPCs, look elsewhere. If you want to parry a T-Rex wielding a war hammer and feel unreasonably good about it, the game is waiting for you.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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