To summarize, Dinoblade is an excellent debut game, but one that's on the shorter side of your standard game at about 8-9 hours for all achievements. It has rough edges, but overall it's a really fun time with models/animations that punch way above their weight. Gameplay is solid, the mechanics are enjoyable and fit with different playstyles, and the models/animations are fantastic. I'm looking forward to a Dinoblade 2, where they can build on the solid foundation of this game, but flesh it out with more build options, maps, enemies, and lore! Definitely take a look if you like souls games, but maybe wait for a sale if the souls + dinosaurs pitch isn't grabbing your attention, or if you're worried about length of play time.
As a starting point, this is a souls-like through and through. Bonfires, respawning enemies, boss-focus, stats; it has the foundations of any souls-like, if a bit on the basic side. I'd have loved to see more varied weapons/movesets, and potentially an armor/skin mechanic, although that might not fit the natural dinosaur aesthetic the game has (minus the swords). To the developers' credit, what they chose to implement from souls games, they implemented well. Major bosses are very engaging, and the summons acting as a passive buff reminds me of talismans/rings in a good way.
Gameplay is very fun, especially the end game bosses and the early T-Rex fight. They clearly favor an aggressive, parry-heavy style, though other builds are certainly viable. I particularly liked the sword that allowed random summons, including the major bosses, as it was so satisfying to watch a camarasaurus or T-Rex body the enemy when you get lucky. The abilities are a bit hit-and-miss in my opinion, though it might just be my playstyle. In particular, the meteor slice felt weaker than the others, and much easier to be knocked out of the animation. I did like the unleash the beast ability as an "all-or-nothing" finisher, with a very high tradeoff of no stamina if the boss doesn't die during the attack.
Bosses are overall good, with some being excellent, and others being just okay. As I mentioned in the gameplay section, the highlights for me were the endgame bosses and the early T-Rex fight. The T-Rex is the early-game bottleneck, essentially combining all the elements the player needs to know in an engaging and fairly challenging fight for early-on. Something like Margit in Elden Ring or the Gargoyles in Dark Souls. The animations are gorgeous, the boss idea is great (using an Ankylosaurus as a weapon was funny and cool at the same time), and the difficulty felt good. One issue I had with it was that its second phase sword just falls out of the sky, which was a bit weird. I would have liked to see it pull it out of a stone or something instead, for continuity. The final two bosses are peak. They're much harder than the rest of the game, but manageable. Both have great boss arenas, lore, and movesets that evolve in second phase. And like every enemy, the models/animations are better than some AAA games. I wish they had an animation gallery so I could go back and just appreciate all the effort they put into making these bosses look and feel so awesome. The minor bosses were decent, although they felt like they lacked something. Their movesets were fine or even good, the varied styles were again good, but they maybe lacked context and reason for placement to justify a minor boss. While it doesn't affect the fights themselves, it doesn't help me to think of them as a memorable or interesting feature of the game.
The style of the game really stands out to me as the defining feature. The animations and art style are great, and the idea of "dinosaur souls-like" feels just the right amount of off-the-wall. The music is also great, both boss music and ambient sound. I do wish there was more fleshed-out world building, because other than the last two bosses, you're sort of just beating unnamed dinosaurs to death. Not every boss has to have a centuries-long backstory, but it would have been nice to have some reason for a dinosaur to be where they are, and a reason for the player to kill them. Similarly, it would have been nice to see some way all the weapons were made, like maybe another sentient dinosaur smith (living or dead), so it's not just one sentient dinosaur among a world of feral animals.
One last note before the conclusion; I love the boss rush mode, it's a nice challenge and a good way to quickly try out skills. Getting a set amount of skill points also means you can't overlevel to beat the bosses, you actually have to work out movesets and strategy.
Overall, Dinoblade is worth taking a look at if you're a fan of souls-likes, and it's a lot of fun even though it's a bit rough in spots. It feels like the studio focused on the core aspects of the game and nailed what they chose to work on, so I'm excited to see how they expand on this foundation in something more fleshed-out down the road.
