This mix of Dungeons & Dragons and gacha is like a much better Raid: Shadow Legends

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I've probably played and reviewed at least two or three dozen different gacha games at this point, but every once in a while I still manage to be really surprised and impressed by one. Dragonheir: Silent Gods is one of the most immediately intriguing and captivating gacha games I've played in ages, and one that I'm definitely planning to stick with.

The first thing to know about Dragonheir is that every part of it is openly inspired by tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons. In fact, the PC version of the game has even done an official collaboration with D&D! In gameplay that terms, that means characters inspired by classic western fantasy, challenging tactical battles, and lots of dice-rolling. And on top of that, it features solid localization and voice acting, both far above the standard for this type of game on mobile.

Whereas a lot of gacha games just throw players into combat, Dragonheir has tons to do outside of fighting. I had to explore a strange world, take on quests, and even answer riddles. Many actions required rolling a virtual die, with the resulting number often being modified by one of my stats. For example, if I was trying to intimidate a guard to move out of my way, the die roll would be modified by my strength stat, while trying to sweet-talk an elf might be modified by my charisma.

The exploration and random events that popped up were my favorite part of Dragonheir, but the combat is no slouch either. I opened battles by choosing up to five characters in my party and placing them on a grid opposite a group of enemies. Once combat started, the characters moved around and attacked automatically, but I was able to affect things by choosing the right moment to use special abilities, as well as targeting said abilities at specific enemies or allies. There's a surprising amount of strategy at play here, and I actually found some of the encounters challenging in a way that was deeply satisfying to figure out.

As for the gacha, Dragonheir features over one hundred characters spread across four rarities. The "Legendary" rarity has the most powerful characters but also the most characters, which definitely makes me nervous. The developer has been really communicative about their monetization plans in posts on TapTap, including promises that fully free-to-play players will be able to get a good number of Legendary heroes, but also assurance that a character being Legendary wouldn't guarantee that they were better than an Epic or Rare hero. I'm cautiously optimistic that they're right, if only because I love the core of what they've built here and really want it to work.

Dragonheir: Silent Gods is currently in its second round of closed beta testing. If you're playing on Android and in one of the select regions (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, the United States, and the United Kingdom), you can download it now. Progress from the second closed beta will not be wiped when the game goes live globally, but it's not yet clear when that official launch will arrive. Either way, I recommend checking it out as soon as you're able.