Shadowrun: Dragonfall - 2023 Review

[@kolosmenus]

Dragonfall is my favorite of the Shadowrun games. I remember playing through the game making choices that I saw as morally good and ended up with one of the worst endings. 10/10

[@SlanderedGaming]

Yeah I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[@alex-uw4mm]

one of your optional companions in hong kong is also chromed up way over like glory, but for different reasons and i really liked what they did with his story

[@SlanderedGaming]

I LOVE his story.

[@shaunhall960]

I'm glad I held off buying the game for this review. Dragonfall looks amazing. You are absolutely right about having a villain and especially for a Shadowrun game.

[@Lashrath]

I think this was the one that turned out best. The first one wasnt too bad either and the last one had an interesting premise too but the middle one was probably the most balanced for me.

[@moonlight2870]

Out of the 3 dragonfall is clearly the best. But Hong Kong is also great. Returns is...not bad. And that's it lol

[@HeroOfCows]

I played the Returns story though a campaign mod for Hong Kong. A little jank but overall a smoother experience

[@Vagran]

I absolutely love hearing your insights about the gameplay and how builds can be affected or how they in turn can affect the gameplay/story.

[@SlanderedGaming]

Thank you! Glad you are still enjoying the content!

[@oliviawilliams6204]

As a backer of both Kickstarter of ShadowRun, and a long time of the setting, i’m glad you enjoyed the game. Hong Kong is great too. I’d say Return is worth a play through too, but is much simpler and linear.

[@SlanderedGaming]

Nice I am playing through Hong Kong now.

[@joshuayoung6672]

I 100% agree about how annoying it is to always have to take a decker on ever mission. I really wish there was some way for the decker to remotely help you out while they stayed safe at your base.

[@tiagoferreira5368]

Blitz is good in combat and if you want an even stronger combat decker you can build one that's really strong in decking and really strong in combat if you focus on 1 ranged weapon.

[@jurgen4466]

The best player world ever! The life, history and mix combination of present, future and fantasy is just mindblowing! And its so fined the balance is amazing. Love the world, the game and the books/novells from Shadowrun! ♥️🥰😃

[@yomogami4561]

thanks man it's fun to see older games reviewed as they're often diamonds in the rough

[@cernunnos_lives]

Your analysis is always spot. And it's funny that despite the issues you have with the game mechanics, you still liked it enough to get the sequel.

[@phantomvulpe791]

You know what you didn't mention? Cybernetics for spellcasters. Having too much cybernetics hinders your spellcasting. 5.5 or 5 essence is the most suffice essence loss. Lower than 5 will fuck you up if you're spell casting as not only you lose some slots but the effectiveness of your spells. From my personal experiences summons are situational. I mostly use them as diversions. Send them in the front line and if you lose control of it...welp...that's the enemies problem now

[@SlanderedGaming]

I didn't play as a Spellcaster so didn't experiment with that system much but we'll definitely be talking about it in the HK review.

[@RoleCrow]

4:14 somebody send this to Owlcat please

[@SlanderedGaming]

😂

[@cafespy6906]

I am late to your video. Don't know how I missed it, Dragonfall is one of my favorite games and I am fascinated by Shadowrun in general. I actually loved playing as a shaman summoner and learned the rng regarding the possibility of losing your summons doesn't matter if you place them correctly. Just don't summon near you or your party. It doesn't matter if you lose control if they will attack your enemies anyway. Great video as always.

[@SlanderedGaming]

Thanks glad you enjoyed it!

[@theshatteredsaga3965]

The only time I have had a chance to play Shadowrun table top, I played an Orc PhysAd who was low key the brains of the group. Most npcs simply assumed he was just the muscle.

[@tiagoferreira5368]

ALL 3 Shadowrun are very good games INCLUDING Shadowrun Returns. Everyone should play them in 2023 because they are good and crazy cheap (i payed 4€ for the 3 games combined) Shadowrun Return is like an intro to the word, short, sweet and simple. You don't have many choices but the narrative leaves you on the edge on what is next. Shadowrun Dragonfall is the best because it is long, replayable, good story and the exact amount of text, chaices and interactions. You can choose to do companion quest and other quest or just focus on the main ones. Shadowrun Hong Kong is even larger, it follow the Dragonfall quest sistem, to me it only loose because is very very text heavy. There even more characters for you to talk too, conversations are really long and after some point it's too much of a reading game. But this reading is optional, and mostly side content that i divided into 2 playthrough. You should play all 3 and talk to everyone. The stories are not related but some secondary characters appear in different games and mention events from other games, which is a nice touch. For instansce, Racter from Hong Kong was a team member of Lucky Strike, a mercenary you can hire in Dragonfall. And to find out you really need to exhaust all dialogue options with both to find this out.

[@SlanderedGaming]

I agree they are all great.

[@gustavogrosch]

I love this trilogy. Hey you can take Glory to the bar after the mission is over, when it make more sense

[@megad7060]

Ranged is a good idea for your HK character. The companions cover all bases pretty much so someone is getting benched no matter what you do and the ranged one is a less interesting character compared to the others

[@thant0s]

I hear you're fairly set on Rifles for Hong Kong, but one suggestion I can only assume has been shouted from the rooftops would be the new improved cyberware weapons, particularly the Monowire Whip. Outside of the highest difficulty early game, you can wind up with a pretty crazy Dodge-based whip build as an Elf and just wade through combat slicing everything apart.

[@SlanderedGaming]

Yup I keep hearing about that will have to check it out.

[@Isomnophilia]

Dragonfall is perfectly balanced, the text on screen felt like they mattered. Hong Kong had so much text, i spent hours between missions listening to everyone.

[@SlanderedGaming]

Yup there was a big difference.

[@TheCrimsonRevenger]

If you decide to go back to SR Returns or HK its gonna be rough. Dragonfall has so many wuality of life improvements. You will feel the difference

[@fonkyman]

good review... but conjuring is kind of a late game super weapon... in those hardcore missions where enemies throw armies at you.. spawning your own hgh level army is OP... its just that you have to suffer to get there :p

[@robertmarquez343]

No Romance that's insane LOL I think romance adds to story but I think it's okay if there's none as long as the game mechanics are fun fun as an enjoyable

[@Kammereer]

I'll hugely disagree with you on Spirit Summoning. Putting more bodies on the board is great for the action economy, and a dedicated Shaman will never have a problem with their spirits. On top of this, Shamans also have regular spellcasting, so after summoning spirits you keep on being very useful in combat.

[@SlanderedGaming]

This is true with Gobbet in HK but in Dragonfall the percentage chance for summons to flat out turn against you ruin the action economy.

[@The-Random-Hamlet]

"The spellcasters hit like trucks." Say it with me, "Geek the mage first." ;)

[@SlanderedGaming]

Yup that's what I always have Eiger do. LOL

[@The-Random-Hamlet]

@@SlanderedGaming Heh. ;)

[@blackfistxu7953]

👍🏾👍🏾🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 I can’t wait to play this!

[@papervoxels]

While I'm glad that you enjoyed Dragonfall, I feel I have to yet again step up in defense of Shadowrun Returns. Everything you have been told about Returns not mattering is completely incorrect and has directly lead to you missing out on a vital piece of the story. Dragonfall and Hong Kong were both setup by the events in Returns, and there's crucial context that you don't get in Dragonfall (and likely in Hong Kong as well, though I haven't played through it yet to confirm) because those parts of the lore were only covered in Returns. I assure you there are things that you experienced in Dragonfall that seemed like they were setup got something happening in Hong Kong that were actually just callbacks to Returns taken out of context. I don't know where the people who told you Returns didn't matter got that idea from, but they either weren't paying attention or more likely didn't actually play Shadowrun Returns and assumed that since not having played that game didn't seem to hurt their experience that it must not have been worth playing, just like people who said the same about not needing to play Mass Effect before Mass Effect 2, even though we both know that playing ME1 first made ME2 better. Sorry for the rant, but I can't stand to let that rhetoric stand. Keep up the great work, and looking forward to your next video.

[@SlanderedGaming]

Several people have mentioned this so I have decided to play Returns just to be sure.

[@anlak1318]

1. i don't know how to tell you, but you can change your companion equipment, when you're departing on the mission, AFTER you choose your companions, you get access to your stash which allows you to "lend" your equipment to your companions, if i'm correct, the only thing you can't change, is their armour, and maybe their spells (although i'm not sure about it). 2. I completely disagree with the claim "summoning is mediocre", summons in this game, are one of the most powerful units you can use, AND are great cannon fodder. They have amazing DMG output, lots of hp, and abilities that, depending on the summoned creature, inflict fantastic stun, deal additional DMG, heal you, which is useful. Yes, they can break free, but it rarely happens, and in my opinion it's worth it for the things they bring to the table. Although i agree that you shouldn't play a summoner, because Summons are not reusable, and are quite expensive, BUT Dietrich has free summons every mission, and in the late game, when you have money, you can fill up his inventory with 5th level summons, which will carry you. 3. Same with drones, if summons were one of the most powerful units you can use, the drones are the most powerful. There are 2 types of drones, support ones which deal good DMG and have free consumables (which can save your money), and DMG dealer drones, which deal HUGE DMG, both of them are great, and allow you to use vents, so you have more options in combat. Not only they are good DMG dealers, but they are the most AP efficient things in the game, because by sacrificing one of your AP, you control an OP Drone which has 2/3/4 AP (depending on your drone combat), AND YOU CAN HAVE 2 OF THOSE. You mentioned that having active drones, limits your combat abilities, because you have less AP, but there are 3 easy things that can negate that problem: later on you have 3 ap every turn, so you still can move, from the beginning you have access to "haste" spell, which increases your ap, and if i'm correct, you can use your drones while hacking, so the "lack of movement" is not a problem.

[@SlanderedGaming]

1. Yup I am aware of that but the system still feels very clunky to me. 2. Summoning is fantastic in HK with Gobbett but here the fact they could turn against you at any time ruins it. 3. Drones are fantastic but most of the time you are not hacking and I use Haste on allies who are attacking to get me out of combat quicker

[@Mayhem242]

Dragonfall was honestly a breath of fresh air as a RPG fan. I played it after a Kingmaker run and Wrath of the Righteous hadn't come out yet. I went Decker first too and was pleased by how much use I was getting. It felt good for immersion and I loved (most) of the team. Glad you enjoyed it. This video gave me the inspiration to finally do another run. I don't think I got it in me to be evil but I'm on the fence between Decker again (but better) or street samurai

[@robertmarquez343]

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@malkavthemad4249]

I have every book for 5th ed Shadowrun if you are ever interested playing the tabletop rpg. Spirits in the tabletop rpg are broken.

[@SlanderedGaming]

That's awesome thanks dude. If I ever get more time cleared out that I can devote to tabletop games Shadowrun will definitely be on the list.

[@malkavthemad4249]

@@SlanderedGaming If you have an email for the channel or something I'll hit you up with details.

[@TheCrimsonRevenger]

Adepts only!! Anyone can kill the mechademon with an anti-material rifle! Only true legends can punch him to death!!!

[@mtaur4113]

I am annoyed that I never finished this one. Got pretty far too. Great characters, backstories were a treat. Classes were not super interesting, combat was a cover leapfrog affair. Jacking into the deck was a real chore and honestly wished it were skippable and replaced with a simple stat check.

[@mtaur4113]

My main was a troll samurai sort of thing. Great for cleanup and sometimes could take hits. Didn't overlap with campaign allies much either.

[@mtaur4113]

* Phys Adept, not samurai. But IIRC the "classes" are just pre-configured classless setups. But yeah, I took some like buffs and CC but used a sword on her.

[@adrenjones9301]

Returns suffers from being underdeveloped. The mechanics are severely lacking compared to the other two and the Story isnt exactly shakespear. But the ending has some interesting story bits about the more Apocalyptic parts of the setting. Like Chicago or the worst Ending of Dragonfall. I thought it was worth playing for that and i probably wouldnt have been interested hadnt i played Dragonfall first.

[@SlanderedGaming]

Interesting I might circle back to it.

[@dagonofthedepths]

Honestly, I felt the party lving was the worst party of the game. I think we have flipped opions on the character system though. I do like the strapped for cash thing though. It makes it feel like you're more of a mercenary and you're living day by day (which you kind of are) so it makes sense to me that buying that sexy top secret military grade smart-link sniper rifle should be exorbitantly expensive. Your never some lv 40 epic level commander guy, your a rag tag group of ne'er-do-wells in way over your head. It sucks you can't really make the ultimate decker rigger lady loaded up with cyberware, but narratively it makes sense. I didn't like how lving works for races. having stats lock you out of key skills and gear is a serious problem for me. But I think that's a core Shadowrun mechanic so I don't think they can change that. I kind of think the dragon kind of has the same lore problem given your status. I mean you're not really important in the grand scheme of things and I don't think randomly cutting to some guy staring out of a 100th floor office window saying evil things while petting a cat would work out good given how dark the story is. I feel like Kingmaker had the same problem. Like most of the game was a villian of the weak thing and doesn't really have a theme until the last 1/4 of the game but you can get strong enough to challenge gods in pathfinder. Like I wont spoil how baddy Glory screwed up but that's some scary crap. Bilbo the Wonder Bot and his problem-be-gone cannon isn't saving me from that. Main quest isn't any less threatening. I do think it needed something more than random doomsday cultist but I'm just not sure how they would do that. Hong Kong does have you get more opportunities from making nuyen though so if you work for it you won't be as hard up, and character progression was improved across each game noticeably. Feel like if you like this, you'll like Hong Kong.

[@The-Random-Hamlet]

Did you take cyberware to up your intelligence?

[@SlanderedGaming]

Absolutely. Worked like a charm.

[@The-Random-Hamlet]

@@SlanderedGaming Cool

[@shawnjohnson4732]

Only one play through is only part of it.

[@gustavogrosch]

I love this trilogy. Hey you can take Glory to the bar after the mission is over, when it make more sense