Dinoblade PC (Final Release)

Wield a colossal Great Sword. Confront rival dinosaurs, some armed with weapons of their own, all in a desperate fight to prevent a looming extinction. Venture across a sprawling world filled with awe-inspiring biomes, from dry canyons to dense, mist-shrouded jungles. Each region is ruled by a ferocious Alpha, an apex predator who guards the path forward. Defeat them, or be devoured. Conventional wisdom dictates that something really ought to go further than just its premise to succeed. There’s a reason people say not to judge a book by its cover.

Although that saying is usually directed at less promising ideas, even the most compelling concepts still need to back themselves up after making their initial impression. Dinoblade, however, scoffs at that notion. Dinosaur soulslike thinks conventional wisdom is for nerds, and honestly, maybe it’s got a point. To be clear, by almost every metric, Dinoblade is kinda good. Its combat is far more wonky and inconsistent than anyone would like, its character progression and build systems aren’t particularly interesting or nuanced, and it’s hard to argue that level design has left the chat if it was never invited in the first place at Dinoblade.

But then you look down at a handsome little dinosaur wielding a giant flaming sword, and the happy thoughts emerge. Then the little lizard unleashes what looks suspiciously like a Judgement Cut End, and the neurons activate. Then it kicks a giant dinosaur’s disarmed axe-greatsword hybrid straight back into its face and… sorry, what were we talking about again? What Dinoblade offers is essentially a vibe machine, turning childhood daydreams into pixels and giving shape to the first and best thing that comes to mind when “sword” and “dinosaur” appear in the same sentence. The scripted clashes against towering bosses are far more memorable than the janky combat surrounding them, and the more front-flipping lizards a game contains.

Still, as much as everyone would love to judge games purely by their concentration of acrobatic reptiles, those weaker elements deserve some attention too in Dinoblade. The adventure begins with a narrow escape from a pack of tiny dinosaurs wielding comically oversized swords. Playing as a young spinosaurus, survival quickly leads to finding a conveniently placed sword of your own. It just happens to be on fire and giggling, which is definitely not ominous. Naturally, the blade houses some kind of Mesozoic god of swords, and before long, armed with little more than the advice to “kill literally everything,” the journey becomes a quest for swords, dinosaurs, and every possible combination of the two.