Go On A Quest With Dragon Lapis For 3DS

One of my favorite games from KEMCO is called Dragon Sinker and its for the 3DS. It is a retro-style turn-based rpg for the system. I enjoyed it a lot. So when I heard that KEMCO was doing another retro-style rpg for the 3DS, I got excited. The game is called Dragon Lapis and its out now. I recently received a review code for the game and want to provide you with some impressions of it. Is Dragon Lapis as good as Dragon Sinker?

Dragon Lapis for the 3DS reminds me a lot of old school NES Dragon Quest, so did Dragon Sinker. Of course both games have some things that the early Dragon Quest games didn’t have.

In Dragon Lapis and in Dragon Sinker, you can save anywhere. The games also provide pentacles in the dungeons, which when activated, will let you get out of (and around) dungeons quickly. Dragon Quest didn’t have either of these features. Dragon Lapis does have things that make it unique and different from Dragon Sinker too.

Dragon Lapis features a job system, which Dragon Sinker didn’t have, and also has a new (very cool) skill tree system called growth plates. While I haven’t switched jobs yet on any of my characters, I have messed around with the growth plates a lot. At first, this skill tree system may look complicated, but once you get the hang out of it you’ll have characters quickly learning new skills and get them more HP, MP, and other useful stats.

I also like how Dragon Lapis battle system is set up. Dragon Sinker had a good battle system, but Dragon Lapis improves on things by letting you know which character, in your party or the enemies, will be going next with a little bar at the top of the battle screen. This is very handy and helps a lot in the battles. I think the battle system of Lapis, overall, is a big improvement over Sinker and thats saying a lot. Also, just like Sinker, Lapis has a good story too.

No spoilers here for Dragon Sinker or Dragon Lapis stories, but I think these games definitly have better stories then anything you’d find in early Dragon Quest. KEMCO has put together two really excellent retro turn-based rpgs for the 3DS.

My review for Dragon Lapis is not done yet but I don’t hestitate to say that if you enjoyed Dragon Sinker, you should download Dragon Lapis. And if you’ve never played either and you love retro rpgs, they are both must download games.

I will have more thoughts on Dragon Lapis when my review comes out. Please stay tuned!