Mia and the Dragon Princess Xbox Review - a fun ride with a quirky cast

On this overview, I shall be trying out Mia and The Dragon Princess from the sport improvement studio Wales Interactive. I believe it’s truthful to say that ‘Wales Interactive’ has given us an expansive run of FMV video games over time. The truth that there’s a brand new sport each quarter goes to point out the religion that they’ve of their model. They’re unofficially recognized for being the king and Queens of the FMV style for the trendy age, bringing us absolute classics like ‘Late Shift’, ‘The Complicated’, ‘5 Dates’, ‘Who Pressed Mute On Uncle Marcus’, ‘Blood Shore’ and most just lately ‘Ten Dates’. They’ve additionally introduced us indie gems like ‘The Bunker’, ‘The Shapeshifting Detective’ and ‘I Noticed Black Clouds’ to call just a few. And let’s not neglect their FPV horror survival hit ‘Maid of Sker’.

Now I’ve said earlier than in my previous critiques of ‘Wales interactive’ video games that they’re my favorite developer, not simply because I really like the video games they launch, however as a result of each brings one thing new to the desk. From riveting tales, new gameplay mechanics and delving into totally different genres, Wales Interactive isn’t afraid to experiment.

So let’s see how they’ve carried out this time round with ‘The Goonies’ impressed treasure searching journey of ‘Mia and the Dragon Princess’.

The story opens up with a very nice animation sequence supplying you with the backstory of Marshanda and the way she got here to satisfy the notorious pirate often known as ‘Purple Cat’. We be taught that the pair have these wrist gadgets (central plot system) that may lead them again to 1 one other if separated.

After this animatic sequence is completed we open on Marshanda within the current day in a hospital robe confused, on the run and misplaced in time. We see that she is sporting one among these wrist gadgets that leads her to the ‘Dragon Princess’ restaurant owned by the story’s villain Mr Walsh performed by ‘Physician Who’s’ (and the one and solely Physician) Paul McGann. So instantly this units the tone for this story. It entails pirates and a mystical wrist system main the primary character someplace which implies that the story entails a treasure hunt of types.

We’re subsequent launched to the secondary (and titular) Protagonist ‘Mia’ who’s a waitress working on the ‘Smugglers Tavern’ bar situated straight beneath the ‘Dragon Princess’ restaurant and owned by Skip performed by ‘Line Of Obligation’s’ Brian McCardie. We had been additionally launched to a different well-known face right here with ‘The Witcher’s’ MyAnnna Buring. They’ve actually put a variety of effort into giving us an all-star forged to inform this story.

With out giving an excessive amount of away we discover out that Marshanda is trying to reunite along with her pirate pal ‘Purple Cat’, nevertheless, her plan is disrupted by Paul McGann’s ‘Mr Walsh’ who needs Marshanda’s wrist system with a view to discover a misplaced pirate treasure. The story then takes us from the ‘Smugglers Tavern’ all the way in which to the misplaced underground rivers of London. It’s a narrative with some twists and turns which have callbacks to such movies as ‘The Goonies’ and ‘Nationwide Treasure’.

It’s a very good story with a number of totally different paths to select from and within the conventional ‘Wales Interactive’ fashion, every selection unlocks a brand new scene with a brand new branching story path resulting in a doable 10 totally different endings.

What’s distinctive this time round is the very cool and intuitive story tree that permits you to visually see all of the branching paths that the story can go in. All of the paths are greyed out to start with, however as you unlock increasingly scenes these paths will begin to fill in. What’s actually nice about this new function nevertheless is that it offers the choice to see what your present path on the story is and in addition the earlier path that you will have taken. This actually is a useful function because it lets you visually map out what paths to decide on with a view to unlock extra scenes. I personally love this new function and hope to see it in future ‘Wales Interactive‘ FMV video games going ahead.

One other new function in ‘Mia and The Dragon Princess’ is a standing bar that seems every time you make a selection. These stats vary from traits resembling well being, energy and intelligence. It’s a cool function to have in an journey treasure-hunting sport, nevertheless, I didn’t actually really feel prefer it added something to my playthroughs within the grand scheme of issues. I get that it’s a brand new tackle the statistics display that often reveals up on the finish of each playthrough in previous video games which reveals you the way you acted in that specific sitting, but I used to be extra targeted on the alternatives I used to be making and the motion on the display that I might typically neglect what my stats had been saying. Once more I get what they had been attempting to do in exhibiting real-time statistics, nevertheless, I personally desire seeing all of it in abstract on the finish.

One slight challenge that I did face was some body price points close to the beginning of the sport. Sadly, this occurs in roughly the identical place in every playthrough. This overview is predicated on an Xbox Sequence X playthrough, nevertheless, I did check out the Android model to check this challenge and it happens throughout the identical scene close to the beginning of the sport. Now it’s nothing detrimental to the general expertise but it surely seems to be to be extra a technical challenge on the filming facet of issues greater than the gameplay facet. One other challenge that may be a pet peeve of mine (being a filmmaker) is one which I’ve seen in previous ‘Wales Interactive’ video games. This being scenes not being accurately white balanced and in addition generally scenes being overexposed with exterior pictures or inside home windows being blown out. Once more this isn’t a gameplay challenge, it’s extra of a technical challenge to do with the filming facet of the mission. It doesn’t hurt the general high quality of the piece nevertheless scenes with these points are extra noticeable and detract from the immersion at occasions.

General ‘Mia and The Dragon Princess’ is a enjoyable trip with a unusual forged of characters set in an attention-grabbing, however considerably overplayed story. With new and much-awaited gameplay options ‘Mia and The Dragon Princess’ units the bar for future ‘Wales Interactive’ FMV video games. It’s a sport that may hold you hooked with every playthrough, making you need to come again for extra.

So with that mentioned ‘Mia and The Dragon Princess’ will get a complete rating of 8/10.