Dragon Racer

I do not recommend this game, even though I really wanted to but there is too much wrong with it to get people to play it. Long "story" of meaningless tasks that seem to be linear even if you have high stats, you are required to go a specific way else you will fail even if it makes no sense.

This game has a problem in that it I did not enjoy playing it, it felt like a chore to go through. It starts out interestingly enough with an actual plot/story that sounds really cool and has different outcomes...but then it just stops and you are forced to go from one meaningless task to the next until the very end of the game when it's suddenly picked up again. It felt like there were two separate games that got mashed into one and its very jarring.

There are so many grammar errors, incorrect spelling and repeat outcomes that it feels like everything is held together by tape. Such as moments where it says the same dialogue multiple times which just confuses what its actually trying to describe. The stats feel arbitrary and useless way too much, more than once you will fail a task purely because you chose the "wrong" option. And its not that you failed the check or chose an incorrect answer its only that there is only one "True" option, which feels like you have no real control or agency when you are forced to play a specific way to beat an challenge or something.

I really wanted to like this game, there's not enough dragon centred games out there and this seemed promising but unfortunately it flops badly. 1/10.

Well, I was planning to write a full review for this game, but just today I have found out that it was officially cancelled in February. You can read about it here.

To be honest, it was sad news for me because I really liked this story. Despite some plot holes, despite some pacing issues, despite some coding mistakes, even despite the not that meaningful choices. The characters and dragons won my heart over after just several chapters, so it goes without saying that I was really waiting for the next game in series.

However, I also respect the author’s decision. If Tierra Wright is not interested in the story anymore and does not feel comfortable continuing it, none of us (readers) have any right to push her in any way. Also, this amazing person actually provided descriptions to what would have happened to all ROs in next books, as well as revealed some secrets and possible paths for the protagonist (check out her website).

So, I would like to finish this very short review by saying that it was a bittersweet, but still amazing journey with a dragon. It had great potential, and I really hope that Tierra will use characters from this game in her future projects (as she mentioned on her Tumblr page). In the meantime, I highly recommend checking out her other games – Insight, Throne of Ashes and Superstition. They are also all free, as far as I know. As for Dragon Racer, you should still read it if you like the setting and the theme, but are also ready to stop at a cliffhanger and just imagine “what if…”.

Compelling story with interesting characters.

I guess that when I played it, a lot of the bugs had been corrected for I did not run into any errors or weird texts, just some grammatical errors.

There were a good number of choices that stayed consistent and helped define my character and what they could accomplish.

In general, a good game. Looking forward to the sequel.

I actually really liked the game - but I can't recommend it to others for the following reasons:

1. The game plays closer to a slightly personalized novel, than an outright "choose your own adventure". A lot of things will always succeed or always fail, characters will mostly always die or survive, many choices don't feel like they have any lasting impact. The only exceptions would be multiple romantic options, and dragon personality.

2. The game ends in a cliffhanger. I thought I'd get a full, choice based story but it really feels like half a book instead (I was not aware a sequel would be required to make it a full plot). More importantly, the ending feels like it throws everything you work for into the bin as well as making it clear that the setting will change drastically (the next game will almost certainly have little to do with racing). All in all, it plays out more like a prequel while being presented as a first chapter.

3. I really didn't like Nyx especially towards the end as a character, she felt like really heavy handed plot exposition and mystery that no one asked for in a dragon racing story. She always had to make it clear there's something she knows but is hiding. Way too obvious that she'd have a connection to the main character somehow or some sort of agenda. And it turns out she plays a huge role.

All in all, it was an incredibly interesting dragon racing scenario before the fire nation attacked and turned it into your average "chosen one" story led by the wise and mysterious foreigner who's been planning your return, etc etc

There's a lot I liked - but the problem is that they seem to coincidentally match my preferences rather than being things everyone would like. I liked how the world was fleshed out and a lot of details like magic branches, regulations and history were just littered around in a natural way; I liked the way the events themselves were described and played, and I liked the personalities of the characters. But it feels more like a prequel to a standard fantasy novel than a standalone CYOA of a life we wouldn't normally think about, so I can't recommend it.

The ending killed me, like, what? Chances are there's going to be a book two (Least I hope so.) Anyways, the character creation was a bit forced and blunt. Could've been smoother, but it wasn't 'please end me' bad. It's a meh for me, but sways to the 'Yeah, I'm not going to talk about this often.'

Man, what a ride! While I have to admit, that the story trailed off a few times and almost lost my interest, whenever it would pick back up, it did so in the best ways possible! Now I'm just going to be awaiting the next entry into the series! The characters were great. The story itself was really interesting, and not easily predictable. I would highly recommend this story. It was easily one of the better ones that I have read. 9/10

Just finish it.
Why did you kill me lover?
Overall great way of telling the story,I mean,I rarely find 2nd Person Point of View.
but anyway

WHY DID YOU KILL MY LOVER??!?!?

A great game for anyone who loves text based choose your own adventure stories and dragons.

The game provides actual meaningful choice and consequence unlike others.

This isn't the greatest interactive fiction I have ever read, feel free to skip to the end to avoid my rambling. There was a ton of exposition, world building and background info that you had to read through that slowed down the story and I got bored reading through, on the plus size it did remind me of being in school (lol). I find with fantasy worlds like this you kind of need all that background information because it's not our world but it broke immersion for me sometimes.
I would have liked more time exploring the bond with your Dragon and more time with each of the characters, especially for just friend stuff. I found with one of the character if you don't side with them from the start they treat you like your this evil untrustworthy person later on even if you haven't been playing that way, which was weird for me.
There are also still some bugs. The only one I found were in Dragon 101 the notes you can collect didn't show up so keep that in mind, there is a test.
I liked the different personality on the Dragons. I think my Favourite is Blue, but they are all pretty likeable. I also enjoyed the character in the story. I think that they were cliche for this genre but I don't care about Cliches if they are likeable and I liked all of them, even the rival to an extent.
I also enjoyed the end tournament section. I chose Puzzle key and I have a really good time. Though as a side note this is the only time in one of these games I wished for a save function in these games. I know that none of them have it but damn.
I also enjoyed the MC. Again a bit of a cliche but I found them likeable and that they had enough custamizability to keep me interested through multiple play throughs.
The last thing is the overall story. It has a very familiar star wars with dragon feel for me. It's not a replication but there were some similar story elements. It also reminded me of Eragon to an extent. That being said, I love both of those things so it works for me

All in all, I enjoyed myself, which is the most important thing for me when I play these games. I don't think it's perfect and there are other choice of games that are probably better written like the Wayhaven chronicles or Fallen Hero: Rebirth. This one was still pretty fun. I really enjoy Dragon Riders, I think that bond is really interesting and I will likely read this again, I have it both on my phone and on Steam (I tend to play on my phone more often) I am excited for part two, the epilogue left on a pretty decent cliffhanger and I look forward to the rest of the series.

Too good to be just one game I really hope that it gets a sequel, because I dont know if the ending I get it will stay as a cliffhanger or I another choises to get a different ending.........ITS AN AMAZING STORY

A fun choose your own adventure book!

This basically a Choose your own adventure. You've got to be a reader to enjoy it, that being said if you are a reader then you will most certainly enjoy this game! All of the characters are well thought out, as is the fantasy world you reside in. There's plenty of replay value here, I still haven't finished but I've been enjoying myself.

There's even romance opportunities, a definite plus. You can play as a nice guy or an asshole, all up to you.

All in all I definitely recommend this game for those of you who like to read.

I had enjoyed and loved the game but sadly it was a bit short. I could honestly see this becoming a full game with hours of fun and many choices and trails past the point where it did end, it hurt to see that it landed on an actual cliff hanger since ive gotten extermly into it, but overall it was a fun game while it lasted.

Only thing i'd change about this game is making it a lot longer so everyone could see the battle and having to race to save your friends and/or loved ones.

I've played a lot of Choice of Games' titles, and this is without a doubt one of my favourites. Having seen other peoples' comments first, I wasn't sure if I'd like it, but after giving the demo a try I was hooked. There's a lot of variety and replay value, with different ways you can build yourself and your dragon, and a range of competitions you can enter. Besides the actual dragon races, you'll also spend a significant amount of time building relationships/rivalries with a well-developed cast of characters. They're all very distinct, so everybody will have their own favourites. Personally I didn't care much for Cassius or Allison, but ended up loving Saren - I thought his growth was perfectly done, moving from belligerent rivals to wary allies, to awkward friends, to genuinely caring about each other (I mean, you can stay rivals if you really want to, but my character had a better time flirting with him).

It's the first part in a planned trilogy, so I'll be eagerly awaiting part two, Dragon Warrior.

I recently purchased this title and so far i like it a great deal! It Really scratches that "I wanna be a dragon rider" itch that I've had since I first read Eragon! I am going to recommend this one simply because I believe that many others would enjoy this as well.
However, there are some issues. But I'm not the best at typing this down conversationally so I am going to do a Pro/Con list.

Pros:
1: Great story telling so far (I haven't quite finished it since I've yet to find my favorite "Main" skill for my character)
2: The variety of Dragon that you can have, such as gold or black, red or blue, etc.
3: There is going to be a sequel!!!!

Cons:
1: There are a few parts where you seem to be forced into a certain decision regardless of you skill level. (though as with my next con that may be a bug, the story that doesn't force you down that path may just be locked because of the way it was coded/written)
2: At the time of typing this, MANY bugs (no crashes though!) There's one scene (Spoiler warning) that it seems the author intended the PC to be on at least tolerable terms with your rival, but since I never am this scene is a bit weird, for it seems that even if your rival "claims to be sick" to avoid training with you (A result of there still being some animosity from your end) The scene still plays out as if he is there. But that may just be an issue with how the code works for these books.
3: (Though this might also be a bug) (Also, more potential spoilers) It seems that if you wish to pursue a romance then you must sacrifice your "Team" stat and become more of a "Solo" character, for every time I pursue a romance I can't keep the stat bar on the "Team" side and it always goes to "Solo %100" But when I do not I can do so easily. It is quite frustrating as I am more or less a hopeless romantic and would like to be able to be a team player but also romance whatever character I choose (Out of the ones that you can romance obviously)

But in the end, even with these issues (Witch I am sure will be fixed eventually) I must recommend this title simply because it is entertaining, and I doubt that I am the only one who has always wanted to ride a Dragon!

(Ignore the 8 minutes play-time. My actual time is four hours offline)


There is but a single word that can be used to describe this tedious snooze-fest of a game:

Boring.

Chapter after Chapter, you will be treated to boring, mindless tasks for your character to perform, all the while being mocked and harrassed by your arch-nemesis who cheats and knocks you out of the trial run at the beginning of the game in an UNAVOIDABLE, scripted defeat! That's right: the Author 'could' have simply given you the option to avoid being blindsided, or even allowed the player to turn the tables on him, but as you will see throughout the course of this bland, snail-paced bore, said Author is far more interested in shoe-horning you down the paths 'she' desires, rather than giving you, the player, any meaningful agency.

Worse still is that you have no options to harm the arch-nemesis. He messes with your character like an untouchable Satan-like figure, and the game forces you to just take it. Sorry Author, but the genre is called 'Choose Your Own Adventure', not 'Follow The Linear Path'.

Please, please, PLEASE do not purchase this cripplingly-underwhelming game for any reason. You will only be disappointed.

I don't think any CYOA has messed up an intro worse than this. You don't have me create a character then immediately have me play as someone else with no transition. Then, the game tries to sell this really emotional moment, and the whole time all I'm thinking is "who IS this?"

Also, regarding the emotional moment, the game is called "Dragon Racer." I bought it to have fun and ride a f**king dragon. Amazingly poor job of handling tone.

Quick Summary: While the story itself isn't bad, I wasn't able to enjoy the 'game' part of it.

The reason that I play Hosted Games / Choice of Games games -- and back before that read the Lone Wolf and Choose Your Own Adventure books back in the 80s -- is that I enjoy the sense of agency that they give and the feeling that your choices control the events in the story. Unfortunately, after going through Dragon Racer once I felt as though very little of what I decided on had an effect on anything and that many of the things that the game were indicating to me were significant were in fact pointless.

In my first play-though I focused heavily on developing my character as a mage, practicing my magic at every opportunity and raising my magic at the expense of all else. It paid off, allowing me to use my magic several times to win duels and influence races, awesome. But even then a few things were confusing me -- I had zero skill in combat but sometimes when presented with no other choice but to use my combat skills I seemed to do quite well. I had foregone any training in the charismatic arts so I could focus on magic, but every time I tried to charm someone or convince someone it went well enough. Perhaps, I thought, it would have been even better, or more options, or even a slightly different story would have been available to me had I focused on those skills instead. It made me excited to play through again.

My second play-through, this time I am a manipulator... I charm my way into getting what I want, and when that fails I use stealth to take it. I come again to the magical duel against an expert mage, but this time I have no skill at all in magic having eschewed it in favor of my other skills. I have a chance to decline the duel, but I am too proud, I would rather go down fighting a hopeless fight. Okay, the same options are available to me as when I had practiced magic, so it must be that the outcome changes. I pick the same choices as before just to see.... wait.... I win the duel in the exact same way?

My sense of disconnection grows... I have to test it... I restart the game several times over several hours. I've memorized the first several chapters up to the duel... It doesn't matter, your past choices don't matter, the only thing that changes the outcome is what you choose at that moment. This turns out to be true for every single choice and event I can find. The entire stat screen is a red herring, only occasionally altering a single line or two of text.

I absolutely love this game!

The narrative is so imerrsive and compelling. I really feel for the characters even the ones you can’t romance.

I’ve seen other reviews complaining about lack of choice and that makes no sense to me. It’s an interactive novel not an open world game. Even open world games have parts that have to be done to move on.

You really get to see your choices having an impact on your game. If you don’t have a high enough skill you can’t perform a move during a race. A simple choice of right or left might mean the difference in first or third place. I’ve played the game multiple times already trying out new choice combinations.

Although I did overall enjoy the game, and think that my money and time were well spent, I do have a couple of problems with the game.

First, was the fact that sometimes there would be pages and pages of reading, followed by a boring choice. There needed to be more of a balance between reading and choosing; between being a game and being a story. I understand that more choices would be hard on the writer, but not every (dialogue) choice needs to have long-term effect on the story and characters. I've unfortunately seen this same thing happen more and more often with CoG/Hosted games, and it only works when your writing is not only really REALLY good, but also gripping enough to make the player forget about choices. I'm saddened to say that was not the case with this one.

Second, was that damn underwater level in the final race. I may be wrong, and if I am then do ignore this part completely, but from what I personally experienced, whether or not you do well is completely dependent on whether you get LUCKY enough to choose the correct path (right x3, straight x2, left)??? I was baffled and taken completely by surprise because all previous races were based on skill. Anyways, I finished last on that final match, and it bothered me because all the training my character did by that point felt pointless.

This review does come out more negative than positive, but I do still recommend this game. The main characters are fun, the dialogue is witty and enjoyable, and the story is interesting enough to keep you entertained throughout. I am curious to what will come next.

another story that "cheats" forcing you to take an unwanted path, well attempts to by keeping you in an endless cycle until you agree to do what it wants you to do. I managed to max out my pessimist stat just refusing over and over again. Mind you I was playing a nice cheery guy before that. *shakes head*
Word to the author, no body is going to like being forced to follow that bit of story line. Its mean and demeaning, especialy when you are offered the false chance to "call a truce" with the npc used to put the PC in that position, and he laughs in your face. The only thing i would ever want to muck for him, would be his face. Seriously it would take me less than 5 minutes to write an alternate story path that would allow the MC to keep his dignity and find someone else to fly for. For that matter, make it One minute. Just try out again the next year and move the story along from there.
And yes, i could just follow the forced choice and hope the rest of the story turns out better, but saddly my experience with games that toy with the player that way is that they just keep shoveling false choices and unavoidable failures at you.

Despite a number of errors, including brackets scattered through random words, Dragon Racer manages to be a fun enough little game. While the game has hints of Eragon and D&D, overall, it is very much in the vein of "Runt of the litter" or "Dino Knight"; if one enjoyed either of those Choice of Games titles, one is relatively likely to enjoy this game. Similar to either of those games, one has a rival, and there are a variety of characters; some who are irksome, and some who are not. It does run a bit long, and feels like it has about two chapters too much, but it is relatively clear that those are designed to set up the next book. (Personally, however, I'd rather have seen them in the next book.) That said, there is currently no way to save one's playthrough, as, much like their parent company, Hosted Games does not seem to tend to implement that until they've received a rough draft of the sequel, so, while it is worth the price, all things considered, it may be best to wait.