In Dragonyhm you play as Kris Yhmszindr, son of Kurtis Yhmszindr. Your father, a great warrior during the age old conflict with dragons has gone missing. Once your father went missing, the sealed dragons began to awaken and threaten the great land of Archend. Now it’s up to you (Kris) to find your father, seal the dragons, and bring peace once again to the land of Archend.
This really is the story in a nutshell, and it’s a wonderful story that is told very well. It is written well, is very interesting and will keep you engaged and wanting to play until its conclusion.
Dragonyhm is a role playing game that features both turn based and action based game mechanics. As you go through the game, you will encounter enemies on screen that when interacted with, will propel you into a turn based battle. This is similar to other JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. The battles are fun, engaging, and rather strategic.
When you’re not battling enemies to level up, you’re talking with townspeople in an effort to locate your father, buying equipment to make you stronger, and in some cases doing side quests for the people of Archend.
The action based mechanics come in the form of interacting with the world around you, solving puzzles in dungeons and the over world. It is a rather unique experience for a role playing game, especially on the GameBoy to feature both turn based and action role playing mechanics. With nine main dungeons and numerous mini dungeons, there is a lot to do in the world of Archend as you scour the land for your father.
Graphically, Dragonyhm is rather impressive. The world of Archend is rich with people and a lot of towns and environments to explore. Each area explored features a lot of animation. From townspeople, to animals, even plants and flowers have subtle animation.
Couple all of the environmental animations with the animation featured in the battles and you have one impressive title on the GameBoy. But beyond the animation, the use of color in this title is breathtaking. The developer really left no stone unturned when it comes to the use of color.
Everything is bright and vibrant. Towns, dungeons, battle sequences, even the inventory menu and map screen is just brimming with bright and gorgeous colors. I suppose what makes this more impressive is coming from the original release of Dragonyhm which didn’t have color, it was made for the original GameBoy, but this release takes advantage of the GameBoy Color and offers something rather amazing. It’s truly like night and day in comparison between the two releases.
Not only is Dragonyhm impressive graphically, but in its performance as well. The developer really took the time to make this release very unique and special. They worked hard to differentiate this release from the previous one and it shows. Battles are quicker with this release and better optimized. Character animations and the scrolling of the screen are as smooth as butter, regardless if you’re playing using the Super GameBoy or playing on an actual GameBoy handheld.
When it comes to sound, I think that this is another area of the game where the developer really cranked it up to 11. I mean it sounds like the soundtrack of the game was completely re-done. Each background track sounds cleaner and seems to even be re-arranged from the previous release which is a nice surprise, and is yet another element that makes this release unique and special. Even the sound effects in the environment, magic spells, and weapons used in battle sound like they’ve been cleaned up quite a bit.
It’s nice to know that a lot of attention to detail and care was put into this release to clean up the sound track, not just make the game look better, but sound better too.
Dragonyhm is easily one of the most impressive games I’ve ever played on the GameBoy in every aspect. There is so much attention to detail, so much color used, that it really feels like something you would have on the Super Nintendo, not a handheld like the GameBoy.
If you like role playing games, you really need to pick up this game. I can’t recommend this game enough, it’s fantastic and a must play on the GameBoy and GameBoy Color.
Those interested can check out the game here
Disclaimer: We were provided with a review copy
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.