The Tiamat Sacrament

In this game, you play as a dragon! How badass is that? Seriously, I could practically stop the review right here, you know you want to play it now! But if that wasn't a good enough reason, here are a few dozen more.

Az’uar is a newly hatched dragon whelp, who quickly realizes just might be the last dragon in the world. He’s not very happy about that. He quickly learns that a brutal emperor has eradicated all the dragons of the world, stolen his sibling’s eggs, and used the latent power of Dragon DNA to create powerful and deadly weapons with which to terrorize the world. He’s not very happy about that either. He sets off on a quest to avenge his brethren, rescue his siblings, and return the world to its previous, peaceful state. By virtue of the fact that he’s a dragon, you’d think this would be easy, but it’s not quite that simple. His only hope is to seek out the guidance of the Great Seven, the most powerful of dragonkind who sealed themselves away to prevent their powers from being abused, and most of them are not very happy to see him…

Battles and Balance 4.5/5:
At first glance, this game appears to use very basic RM2k3 battle mechanics with few twists thrown in. However, it isn’t long at all before the game changes things up and introduces some fantastic battle concepts that make the battles in this game some of the most enjoyable you’ll ever find.

There are three playable characters in the game, each with a very different way of gaining abilities. Az’uar, our friendly neighborhood dragon, learns skills by equipping “Soul Gems,” the remains of other dragons, and progresses towards learning a new skill in every battle. With few exceptions, most of these abilities remain useful for most of the game, and some of the most powerful ones are passive abilities that confer enormous bonuses. Xandra, the scholar, learns new abilities by observing enemies use them, ala Blue Magic from Final Fantasy. Although she is very weak at first, once she develops a sizeable skill set and MP pool she becomes a very powerful ally. The final character, Kelburn, gains abilities based on what weapons he is currently using.

But this is only beginning, as the game also introduces an important central component to combat which grants the party new abilities and incredible synergy: Runes. These simple items each represent an elemental affinity, Earth, Fire, Air, or Water. It is through these runes that Az’uar gains the ability to unleash his awesome and devastating breath attacks.



If you have runes in your inventory, Az’uar may spend a turn inhaling it, and on his next turn may exhale to unleash it to generally devastating effect. For instance, a fire rune will incinerate the enemy party, a water rune will heal your team. Xandra gains the ability to seal weakened enemies into runes with varying degrees of success based on her equipment, so if you want to gather runes it can be somewhat difficult at first, but becomes easier later into the game. As Az’uar inhales runes, his capabilities will increase depending on his most commonly inhaled rune type. As he gets stronger, he can inhale more than one rune at a time, or mix multiple types together for some more unusual effects. Finally, Kelburn can also use inhaled runes using mystical rune blades. They affect only a single target, but are far more effective, and so are very useful against bosses. This gives the party amazing synergy, as all three characters work together over multiple turns to set up a combination attack, and the payoff is both devastating and incredibly rewarding.

There is a flipside to this. Many enemies can also use breath attacks, and theirs are no less deadly than your own. When you see an enemy inhale a rune, you know they mean business. Since you are alerted when they do this, you have prior warning to heal, defend, or (if you learn how) attempt to disrupt the enemy before they unleash their most devastating attacks. If you acquire the proper set of abilities, you gain an incredible mastery over the flow of a battle. You can predict, take advantage of, or block enemy attacks. You will never find yourself flailing madly hoping that the enemy dies before you do. With a little foresight and proper planning, you can always maintain control.

General enemy encounters can be challenging but do not drag on, the way many other RM2k3 battles do. All enemies subscribe to one of the four elemental types and can quickly be dispatched with attacks of the proper element. However, enemies offer many opportunities for other things as well, such as skills for Xandra to learn, and runes to be sealed. The experience curve is very reasonable too, you can level up very quickly if you feel so compelled, but I rarely felt like I needed to do so in order to continue. Overall, battles are handled spectacularly in this game, with only a few minor shortcomings. Runes are somewhat hard to come by early in the game (though a mini-game assuages this), Xandra’s skills sometimes feel like they take a very long time to learn (there are ways around this too), and recovery items are fairly expensive compared to how much gold you will be receiving for much of the game. In some areas, the encounter rate is fairly high, though this levels off the further into the game you go. By the end game, most of these problems can be dealt with one way or another, leaving this game with some of the finest combat you’ll ever see.

Level Design 3.5/5:
The game makes use of no overworld, so you’ll spend a lot of time wandering through empty wilderness looking for your next objective. This is exacerbated by the fact that you’ll often have to travel through the same handful of areas multiple times in order to proceed. The limited number of areas in the game tends to get dull after a while. The encounter rate is also a bit high in some areas but this becomes less of a problem as you go. Also, a few areas use RTP tiles which clash with the rest of the game, though most other areas look at least decent.

Fortunately, once you get wherever you’re going, you’ll find plenty to do while you’re there. Each dungeon contains a handful of clever puzzles, most of which are far beyond the typical “pull this lever to win” fare. Rock-pushing, ice-sliding, water-raising, timed jumps, deciphering ancient texts, and much more await the adventurers on their quest.

Of course, the stand out mini-game is the fully functional Tactics game, in which you will command rebels against the evil empire on a tactical board. It is quite complicated and I won’t attempt to explain it in its entirety here, but basically you will command your own party (who can engage enemies in combat) or combat other units to do it for you. Your troops can attack adjacent units, how they fare is based entirely on troop numbers. If a troop of 4 attacks a troop of 3, the troop of 4 will win and have 1 man remain. You also gain troops that have additional abilities that can be used to set clever traps to lure enemies in or even deceive enemies into joining your side. Each combat scenario has a different win condition (it is never simply “kill all enemies”) and each map has its own quirks and gimmicks. It is surprisingly complex and a whole lot of fun.



Characters 4/5:
Though there are many interesting characters in this game, the most interesting of them is the protagonist, Az’uar, our friendly neighborhood dragon. Much of this stems from the unique nature of dragons in this universe. They draw from a collective consciousness, known as Blood Memory, which gives all dragons knowledge of many things even from the day they are born. However, as the only remaining Dragon, Az’uar’s memory is clouded and he can recall only fragments of the knowledge all dragons possess. He is at once wise yet innocent, very young but very old, and his dialogue generally captures this very well. A few other interesting traits, such as sensing feelings and communicating via telepathy, add a bit of flair to his character as well as playing well into one of his most complex struggles: trying to understand these bizarre humans he keeps meeting everywhere. Ultimately, he ends up very sympathetic and the player is easily guided towards wanting to help him.

Xandra, the second party member, is fairly less interesting, ultimately falling prey to a few predictable plot twists, but for much of the game she holds a grudge against dragonkind that is similarly well represented. The final hero, Kelburn, is interesting and hilarious, able to switch between noble and facetious, serious and amusing depending on who he is talking to and why. Listening to him talk is never boring. Most of the game is spent searching for the Great Seven, who are mostly one shot characters but each interesting in their own ways. These are not the typical helpful spirits who are glad to aid the hero. They will not surrender their powers to just any foolish whelp.

Though there are quite a few other characters around, not many others stand out. The main villain is a fairly typical evil emperor who hangs out in his technological fortress with his unstoppable superweapon, while his black-armored, masked second-in-command (why does this sound familiar?) does most of his ass-kicking on his behalf. Neither are especially groundbreaking characters, although you spend so much time being afraid of them that finally getting to beat their faces in is satisfying to say the least. And the emperor just might have a few surprises for you if you make it that far…

Overall, the quality of the writing is very high and is as good a reason as the gameplay to see this game through to the end.

Storyline 4/5:
While on the surface this is mostly a conventional game of collecting the relics to save the world from the empire, there is a lot of other interesting material making the world a more interesting place. There is considerable lore about dragons, who are not quite the typical fairytale creatures seen elsewhere. Each time you meet one of the sealed dragons, Az’uar’s blood memory is stirred revealing backstory as well as other surprising revelations. The empire is also not quite what it seems, since the entire game takes place in its confines you will see first hand the hopelessness of its people and the courage of those who stand against it.

The game also offers a huge number of sidequests at various points in the game to keep you busy if you need a break from your main quest. You’ll never be at a loss for things to do, and the rewards are far more interesting than “sword that hits harder.” Even after you finish the game it still offers additional things to do if you feel so inclined, and most of it is quite rewarding and well thought out, not merely tacked on.

Music and Sound 3.5/5
With a mostly custom soundtrack by Relyt, this game has a truly unique sound that is reminiscent of many older games of the 16-bit era. Most of the tracks are high energy and fitting for their usage, and even makes recurring use of leitmotifs, which I always find to be a plus. The score is rounded out by a few MIDIs of music form popular games that usually work well enough, though in some cases is too iconic and can be distracting.

Overall 4.5/5:
I had been waiting for this game to be finished since I first played the demo nearly a year ago. It was well worth the wait. If playing as a dragon is not automatically fun, you’ll be pleased to know that the game excels in many other areas. It may not be the prettiest, shiniest game in existence, but don’t let the graphics scare you off, this game is well worth your time.