Dragon Star Varnir

Dragon Star Varnir is a gorgeous JRPG with heavy visual novel elements and a unique turn based battle system, taking place in a world full of Witches and Dragons. Can this shape up to be a truly magical experience on the Nintendo Switch?

"Fight in 3-tiered battles, devour your enemies, and customize your characters in this epic RPG to end the dragon's curse!"

Developer: Compile Heart

Publisher: Idea Factory

Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch

Review Code Provided

The game is split into two distinct playstyles: dungeon crawling and visual novel segments consistently swapping between the two with a heavier focus on the latter, each area offers an abundance of materials to gather and chests to open. Often there will be areas on the map inaccessible until you have a certain character to use their unique skill but once you have the correct character within your party switching to them is easily done to stop it from feeling like a chore. The areas themselves are nicely detailed and a pleasure to look at and explore, although there are a few overused assets I never felt like I was bored by seeing them repeatedly, mainly referring to the large boulders you break for materials that can sometimes be seen in large clusters. Each new area/biome looks very distinct and memorable, from jungles to deserts you’ll be exploring every depth Varneria has to offer. Instead of sprinting you’ll be flying through each area, it’s a really cool addition but can feel a bit clunky in the more enclosed areas leaving you feeling a bit claustrophobic while flying. However it makes for a really unique way to traverse the environments, it’s a nice idea that was poorly executed but that doesn’t stop it from being fun.

Looking for something different? The 3 tier grid based aerial turn based combat system is where this game really shows off its potential to be a memorable experience, having those three levels to move up and down on to target specifically weak points on larger enemies really adds a level of depth to the combat helping it to set itself apart from other turn based games. Some attacks will even cause enemies to be knocked back and have a chance to bounce into other enemies to cause additional damage, while these are all nice features the core combat still comes down to exploiting elemental weaknesses which really fits the theme of the game. After a few battles you’ll be able to use each witches special form known as “Dragon Awakening” this usually happens fairly regularly and is engaged automatically once the bar fills up. Not only do their appearances change but they’ll be significantly buffed too so be sure to utilise these moments to deal the most damage possible. Also don’t forget to change the Party Formation regularly, this sets the default placement of party members in battle. Different formations offer different level bonuses during a fight. You can learn additional party formations from the books you receive as quest rewards.

Don’t forget to go home, the Witches' Den acts as your main hub as you explore and progress through Varneria. Each time you return to the Witches' Den, your health will be recovered so be sure to return regularly. From the Witches' Den you can shop, report quests and communicate with the other witches. As the story progresses, new choices will be added to the list of things you can do at the Den, from giving gifts to your fellow witches or feeding the younger ones dragon meat.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the story I won’t focus too much on explaining any details to avoid spoilers but I can assure you that it’s a very engaging and well written story with plenty of character development and deep undertones of political and sociological struggle. Although the subtext might not be as deep as other JRPGs it still has plenty to offer and is in no way shallow so don’t go skipping through all the text you cheeky scan reader you. Throughout the story you’ll be presented with a lot of important decisions to make that’ll affect how the story plays out, not only is there various endings but there’s also a “madness gauge” that’ll also affect which ending you’ll get. Though the story is mainly delivered through visual novel style text based interactions which are really enjoyable to read through, each is highly personalised and charming and kept me fully engaged and invested. There are still traditional in-game cutscenes that are fully voiced too which is a really nice way to break up the visual novel fatigue you might begin to feel after a while.

Can you hear that? From being spotted to character actions the sound effects are rather poor, not only is the quality often lacking but the audio levels are all over the place making even the well recorded sounds feeling out of place. I’m not sure if this has something to do with file compression to keep the file size down for the Switch or not. That being said, it's really not a deal breaker, just a minor complaint that I think is worth noting. The English voice acting itself is fairly well done, each actor really helped to bring their respective character to life, making it much easier to immerse yourself into Varneria.

Performance wise the game is abysmal on the Nintendo Switch, it tends to drop to 20fps very often and only keeps at a sturdy 30fps in some areas. It can feel really unpleasant to play at times, this is my only real complaint with the game. I’m sure a lot of people might be able to overlook the poor performance in favour of portability. Playing in docked mode though might be a headache recipe made up in a cauldron, hopefully this can be addressed in the future with a performance patch if not it’ll be something worth considering before you buy it.

Conclusion

Although the performance really damages the experience, the game itself is a delight, from the unique characters and a one of a kind battle system to the engaging story and interesting world building. If you can look past the poor frame rate there’s an amazing JRPG waiting for you, I would struggle to recommend this game based on the performance but considering it’s only £26.99 I feel like that justifies a recommendation. So, if you’re in the market for a good JRPG with heavy visual novel elements and an awesome battle system then this might just be the game for you!

JRPG rating: 2/3

Good game, worth your time and money

Pros

Solid world building

Lovable cast of characters

Unique battle system

Lots of content including the DLC

Cons

Poor performance

Author: Gabriel Sewell