Who here remembers an older title for the PS1 called The Legend of Dragoon? Hopefully, we see some hands being raised as we loved The Legend of Dragoon and have always prayed another game would come along mirroring it. With publisher KEMCO and developer EXE Create’s newest title called Revenant Dogma, have we found our prayers answered? If you want to find out more about this old school RPG that tries to appeal to gamers from the yesteryear of RPGs then you’ll have to scroll down to see our review of Revenant Dogma in its entirety. Just know that Revenant Dogma is a game meant to appeal to JRPG fans who don’t want just pretty visuals and overly complicated turn based combat.

Revenant Dogma plays out like any ordinary JRPG. Players assume the role of Caine alongside several other heroes who venture into the world torn apart by segregation of species and various evil intentions by both parties. With a focus on traditional RPG themes, players will embark on a quest to stop an evil force that threatens both Humans and Therians alike. Those who love old school titles like Final Fantasy and The Legend of Dragoon will love Revenant Dogma’s 3D turn based combat with the ability to unleash transformations that can increase strength and power at the cost of potentially going berserk. Those who have been itching for a more classic JRPG title will find Revenant Dogma to their liking!

For some time, the world has been split into two races Humans and Therians. Both races have delegated themselves to researching different ways of life and have found success in some of their ventures but failure in others. As time passed, Therians began to find power in numerous technologies and abilities while Humans fell behind causing a great rift between them. A shining light for Humanity came forth and with his arrival came evolution for the Humans. Caine—one of the Humans—has found himself with a group of servants meant to infiltrate the Therians’ secret labs but with his arrival, he uncovers a strange plot that will change the world for both Humans and Therians forever more.

Back in the PS1 era, there was a really cool—but kind of obscure—JRPG known as The Legend of Dragoon. The main draw of The Legend of Dragoon was its 3D turn based combat that allowed players to take control of Dart and his allies all while utilizing a neat transformation system that gave them power in battle. The Legend of Dragoon has been long gone in the gaming world, but when we heard of Revenant Dogma by developers EXE Create—and published by KEMCO—we couldn’t help but be reminded of The Legend of Dragoon. Is Revenant Dogma the next big JRPG or does it fall just a bit short from greatness? Find out as we dive headlong into our review of Revenant Dogma for the Nintendo Switch!

Revenant Dogma is a pretty simple title to explain in terms of gameplay. Players take control of a young wannabe hero named Caine as they do battle against various monsters and baddies in traditional turn based combat. At its core, Revenant Dogma doesn’t change the systems that we all know about turn based combat, and that is where its strengths and weaknesses get highlighted. We’ll talk about each positive in Revenant Dogma but equally discuss the weaknesses that are noticeable.

Players will walk around various locations, kill baddies, level up, rinse and repeat over and over while playing Revenant Dogma. Those who love this theme in their daily dose of JRPG will be pleased to know that it works well in Revenant Dogma. Battles are fast and fun with some cool concepts thrown in that echo The Legend of Dragoon. During special attacks, players can occasionally hit a button prompt and allow for increased damage or even additional attacks. Early on in Revenant Dogma players will also gain the transform ability which allows them to unleash an inner power/armor for absurd amounts of damage but with a risk involved. Using the transformed state for too long causes the character transformed to go into a berserker status and thus the player loses control of them. We rarely had that happen in Revenant Dogma—though we did play on normal—but it meant you couldn’t become reliant on the power if you were looking at a lengthy boss fight.

Unfortunately, combat in Revenant Dogma can be absurdly easy and that is due to the quick battles and the EXP Ring which players can purchase in-game. The EXP Ring gives players 1 exp for each step taken outside of combat and seeing as how Revenant Dogma is a RPG, you’ll be gaining 1 EXP every second in droves. By the first boss, our characters could literally two-hit the boss and be done with the battle. If you don’t use the ring, it will be a bit harder of a first boss, but even still, we didn’t struggle with Revenant Dogma on normal difficulty and had to push it higher to get any real satisfaction from combat. Again, DON’T BUY THE EXP RINGS IF YOU WANT A CHALLENGE!

Another strength of Revenant Dogma is the simple story that is just fun and nostalgic. Revenant Dogma is a “hero saves the world” tale and while that is cliché and done to death, it works for this title. The characters are likable and the dialogue occasionally can be quite funny. We laughed at the banter between Caine and his friends which means Revenant Dogma is well written. The flip side of this simplicity though is that Revenant Dogma can be a bit…forgettable. Not only is the music ho-hum at best, the story won’t leave a lasting impression on you like The Legend of Dragoon did way back when. Graphically too, Revenant Dogma isn’t great, but it’s far from good either. The character models during dialogue are quite nice and well defined but during combat the game feels dated. Revenant Dogma truly is trying to be old school and while that might appeal to some, others might feel it’s just another JRPG in the sea of JRPGs.

Revenant Dogma is what we consider an okay game with reasons to love it and reasons to skip it. Ultimately, Revenant Dogma doesn’t reinvent the RPG genre and/or truly do anything that stands out against the millions of JRPGs like it, but that’s what can be quite appealing about Revenant Dogma. If you’re looking for a simple turn-based RPG then Revenant Dogma delivers with a simple system that harkens to JRPGs like The Legend of the Dragoon. Though if you grow weary of random battles and constant micromanaging, then Revenant Dogma should be avoided. Revenant Dogma is a title that isn’t expensive and thus, we recommend to old school JRPG fans who miss traditionality as the main focus of a JRPG.

Games like Revenant Dogma don’t all need to be amazing JRPGs that change the gaming world. At the end of the day, we enjoyed the time we put into Revenant Dogma even if we didn’t find it to be anything groundbreaking. For an easy $12.99, you can pick up Revenant Dogma on the Nintendo Switch and have a decent old school JRPG on the go or at home to sink some time into. Are you thinking of nabbing Revenant Dogma? Comment below so we can hear your thoughts! For more game reviews and gaming related articles, be sure to keep stuck to our hive here at Honey’s Anime!