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I do enjoy a good mystery. There’s something to be said for that moment when you figure out the culprit and are rewarded for your diligence. I love games like Ace Attorney where humor meets murder mystery, leaving you smiling as much as it leaves you thinking. So when the opportunity to review a detective game where you play as a dragon came along, I was all for it.
Developed by Sungazer Software, a one man game studio from South Carolina, Dragon Detective wears its inspiration on its sleeve while also bringing something new to the table. In Dragon Detective, we follow the refined yet reclusive Sevyn Noxley, a miasma-dragon who lives on the outskirts due to the stigma surrounding his kind. The first case opens with him being disturbed in his cabin by two fox children looking for their mother. This brings us to one of the major gameplay elements: Noxley’s draconic senses. When investigating a new character or crime scene, Noxley can look, hear, smell, taste, touch or try to sense something with his magic.
This reveals important information and on occasion, some funny responses from other characters, particularly with taste.
When Noxley isn’t investigating crime scenes, he might get into verbal sparring matches with other characters. This results in a back and forth where Noxley uses his powers of deductive reasoning to get to the truth and try to get a confession or more information out of a character of interest. All while dodging the other sides attempts to rattle him. This is represented by a composure bar and the segment ends when the bar fully swings one way or the other. I won’t spoil any more case details here but know that the cases are well-written and I was hooked for the whole adventure. The mysteries are engrossing and get progressively more complex as the game goes on. A good amount of thought was put into the world that these characters inhabit and it shows. This was a game I didn’t want to put down.
Incidentally, none of this would be possible without the games endearing cast. Sevyn Noxley serves as the main detective and spent his life in seclusion until he started getting cases. Along the way he meets other recurring characters like the lovable hyena Chuckles, or the stern lion guard Morris. The characters are fun to get to know and stick in my memory even after their cases are finished. I won’t be forgetting the aforementioned foxes: Todd and Trie Foxborough or the affable author and raven, Royal Underwood. In fact each character is an animal of some sort and that actually factors into the cases. For example, Noxley as stated earlier, is a miasma-dragon. This means he can sense poisons or even get an idea of how long something has been dead, which comes in handy on more than one occasion. Another character Noxley meets soon after the fox siblings is another dragon and that fact proves important to the case.
All these important characters are brought to life through colorful and well done illustrations. Each one looks unique and captures the spirit of its respective species well. All of the backgrounds are well done in this same style, buildings look distinct and each scene has its own flair with hidden details beneath the surface. I never tired of looking at it all and they breathed a little life into it with details like smoke and moving clouds. Incidentally they gave all of the characters breathing animations too, a small but nice touch.
Audibly this game sounds as good as it looks. If you like Ace Attorney style music, you’re in the right place. Each track does a good job of accompanying the scene that it’s in and manages to sound pretty catchy. Whether its Noxley investigating a scene, or interrogating a witness, I had no objections to keeping the sound on. The game was even nice enough to give the title of the new track whenever it changed. Props to the composer for doing such a good job capturing the vibe of an investigator on the scene.
Dragon Detective isn’t the greatest mystery I’ve had the pleasure of solving, but it was a really good one and I enjoyed my time with it. It’s not very long either with the individual cases taking no more than a few hours each, maybe longer if like me, you choose the detective difficulty and make the occasional mistake. This is a game well worth sinking your teeth into if you enjoy detective stories and visual novels. Definitely take the time to investigate this title.
Shoutout to Sungazer Software for the review copy!
