Perhaps it was my New Year-induced fever or simply the pull of nostalgia, but playing through Dragonyhm felt like discovering a long-lost hidden gem among the sea of Game Boy Color titles released for the legendary platform. Co-developed by Chris Beach and Cowboy Bumbiss, Dragonyhm is an ambitious, JRPG-inspired adventure reminiscent of classic Nintendo titles.
Right away, the influence of classic role-playing titles in Dragonyhm is apparent even before powering it on, thanks to the strong art direction found on the label and the included manual of the game, which features art evocative of the work of Ken Sugimori.
The illusions of Pokémon and Nintendo don’t end there, as actually booting up the game for the first time treats players with a Zelda-inspired introductory lore dump, complete with ancient murals and tales of epic battles.
In Dragonyhm, you play as Kris, the son of Kurtis, the great and highly regarded Yhmszindr, who is credited with ushering in a period of calm during an otherwise tumultuous time when dragons wreaked havoc across the world. In classic JRPG fashion, the story begins with Kris’s father going missing, prompting dark forces to exploit the situation. Meanwhile, other hidden disturbances threaten the once-peaceful era, leaving it up to the player to restore balance.
“Dragonhym is an incredibly ambitious JRPG-inspired adventure reminiscent of classic Nintendo titles.”
As you explore the world of Dragonyhm through its nine dungeons—comprising mandatory boss battles, smaller challenge arenas and overworld-focused gauntlets that fall somewhere between full dungeons and arenas—players will uncover pieces of lore while following in their father’s footsteps. This approach echoes games like Dragon Quest III, which fans of old-school JRPGs are sure to appreciate.
From the distinct pixelated character and NPC sprites to the background environments, portrait art and UI elements, Dragonyhm’s art direction captures the look and feel of the Game Boy Color era—specifically the second-generation style of Pokémon games, which also happens to be my favourite. This gives playing through the game a strangely nostalgic feel, despite it being a new release.
“Dragonyhm’s art direction captures the look and feel of the Game Boy Color era.”
Playing the game on the ModRetro Chromatic, in particular, is excellent. The handheld’s pixel-perfect, bright sapphire screen brings the game’s solid sprite work to the forefront in a way that almost makes it feel modern rather than deliberately low fidelity.
The gameplay in Dragonyhm falls into one of two categories: turn-based battles and exploratory puzzle sequences. The turn-based battles are what you would expect, although Dragonyhm is a solitary experience, limiting you to a party of one.
Outside of learning and exploiting enemy weaknesses, the battle system in Dragonyhm features one somewhat unusual quirk: unlike other RPGs, levelling up specific stats requires using stat-buffing items during battle just as Kris is about to level up. This mechanic encourages bonus growth in the buffed stat.
Progressing through the story involves collecting dragon scales, which function similarly to stars in Mario games. A set number is required to unlock the main dungeons. Much of your time in Dragonyhm will be spent searching for dragon scales, which often requires Kris to solve puzzles.
“Dragonyhm features well-realized environmental-based puzzles that felt satisfying to overcome.”
If you’re not a fan of puzzle-heavy RPGs, Dragonyhm might not appeal to you. However, even as someone who doesn’t typically enjoy puzzle elements in roleplaying games, I found Dragonyhm’s well-designed, environmental puzzles satisfying to solve during my roughly 10 to 12 hours with the game.
One of my only gripes with the game is a somewhat slow and grindy start to the adventure, which highlights one of Dragonyhm’s only issues — dying in the game will send Kris back to his house, forcing the player to walk back to the dungeon, which at the very least is alleviated with some portals outside of major locations, but an option to restart at your last save point (healing shrines) would have been nice, instead of having to soft-reset the game.
The music and overall sound design of Dragonyhm are equally great in terms of its visuals, featuring solid use of the Game Boy hardware in delivering chiptunes worthy of first-party releases.
Finally, one stand-out element I wasn’t expecting with my time with Dragonyhm is its writing, which, at first glance, appears to be fairly bog-standard but, by the end game, features a decent amount of depth and a surprising amount of humour, making it absolutely worthwhile to talk to every NPC that dots the land.
