Dead Dragons (Android) review "Dead inside."

With the sole exception of Chrome Wolf, Magitec’s RPGs released through Kemco could be summed up in the same way: Decent stories attached to games lacking in memorability. Dead Dragons is no exception. Story-wise, it played things way too safe to make the most of its premise; game-wise, it’s short and inoffensive, but not capable of truly excelling at any of its ideas. But that’s the Kemco Khallenge! For every win (no matter how minor) I get, there’s going to be far more instances of me, if not losing, at least finding myself in gaming purgatory staring into blank, empty desolation and wondering if I’m talking about something I played or my soul.

Well, to hold off the existential breakdown, let’s talk about the potentially promising premise that did wonders in, if not grabbing my attention, at least keeping me from totally shutting my brain off when I gave this one 30 or so minutes of my time before going to bed a few nights a week. You control a young dude, Will, who lives in one of those remote villages where nothing ever happens until something does to set him off on a mission that winds up having him save the world.

A trip to the adjoining mountain leads to that stuff happening. Not because of his actual quarry, who winds up being a strange chick holding enough infatuation for dragons to build her own animated (and hostile) dragon puppet, but because of the real deal. In Will’s world, it’s common knowledge that dragons are evil forces of destruction that were supposedly wiped out by a great hero some time ago, so it’s a bit of a shock to see one essentially in his backyard, threatening a young woman. As a brave (if not bright) lad, Will immediately challenges the really large monster with the fangs and claws and ability to breathe fire and something strange happens. Instead of being torn to shreds, he watches the dragon work some sort of voodoo and next thing he knows, he’s got a big scar on his body and is getting yelled at by a very pissed off young woman.

Seems she is a resident of a secluded village that has a way different opinion of dragons, viewing them as the world’s protectors whose population is, if not extinct, low enough to make things problematic for said world. She was trying to perform a ritual to obtain that scar herself, but a certain well-meaning guy just screwed things up for both of them. You see, that scar gradually turns the person “wearing” it into a dragon as part of that village’s slow, gradual way of raising their numbers.

So, the problem is twofold. Shikina, the girl who wants to become a dragon, now can’t; while Will, the guy who thinks dragons are evil, will eventually transform. Unless he kills the dragon who scarred him, in which case the scar goes away. This leads to an all-time whimsical odd couple pairing, as Will gets kicked out of his village due to everyone considering him cursed and the leader of Shikina’s village makes her accompany him to make sure the whole “turns into dragon” thing actually happens. They quickly meet up with Oliver, a knight who claims to know all about dragons, and his assistant, leading to trips to all the places where potential signs of draconic presence have been felt.

As they’re journeying, they’ll find out about other things, such as the religious order that started the whole “dragons = BAD” deal; as well as a kingdom whose king is so young that the place is essentially run by three royal knights who are in no way shady. And, of course, the strange chick from the beginning maintains her infatuation with dragons and does so in a way that compels her to create stronger dragon puppets — always in places that place her creations directly into conflict with Will’s party.

Man, all the intrigue, right? If only… Dead Dragons is great at setting up a story full of twists and turns and then settling so many things in the most cliche way possible. By the end of the game, the biggest surprise for me was that two of the large cast of villains seemingly were still alive, with one running away after a confrontation and the other simply vanishing from the story as soon as that person’s true allegiance was revealed. Oops!

But so what, right? Maybe the story didn’t turn out as well as it could have in more skilled hands, but the game could still be engrossing and fun and I could have enjoyed myself so much that I didn’t care about the other stuff. It has happened before! Sadly, the “could have in more skilled hands” concept also is in full effect here.

On the surface, Dead Dragons has a pretty deep combat system. Your party of up to three active members enters battle in a straight line, where you can have each character step up to the front to attack and then fall to the back until their next turn or choose to remain in their designated place. Upon gaining levels, you’ll get points that can be allocated into six stats, with various spells and skills being unlocked by putting enough into their stats, allowing you to customize each party member however you see fit. Also, the most dragon-ish of your team, Will and Shikina, can easily access a special mode where the other members of the party get replaced by monster familiars possessing attacks that can get quite powerful if you use the proper item to strengthen them.

In reality, I pumped most of my points into strength and defense, with enough into magic defense to access good healing magic and enough into speed to make sure I was moving before monsters as often as possible. I rarely used any skills beyond healing spells because you gain the ability to use that special mode via regular attacks. And I used that special mode against every boss fight because those monster familiar attacks had the potential to utterly wreck just about anything in the three combat turns they’re around.

Regardless of which team is making the game, that’s Kemco in a nutshell. People will scratch their heads and come up with some intriguing way of handling combat and you’ll never have to do much of anything beyond the bare minimum to be successful. Why micromanage my party order when I’m having success letting the chips fall where they may? Why use my large collection of spells and combat skills when regular attacks do me more good in the long run due to charging up my special mode? Why do anything other than the most basic of basics when that’s not remotely required to succeed?

But with all that said, Dead Dragons is a playable and cheap mobile RPG and, by beating it, I was able to say I played through another Kemco-released effort. Is that an endeavor only I could possibly take pride in? Probably, but any port in a storm, I say. After all, that sort of mindset does help to ward off those existential breakdowns! You know, the ones caused by playing games like this…

Staff review by Rob Hamilton (July 10, 2025) Rob Hamilton is the official drunken master of review writing for Honestgamers.