TFS
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This would easily be my favorite fight in the whole game if he actually used the Dragon Drakath model in Phase 2 instead of the hideous Merged Akriloth one (half of a dragon just glued to the floor - come on, am I supposed to be laughing at him? At least he isn't just a floating head like Inn Akriloth). We were on the verge of greatness, we were this close
I also think the DoT -> autoclaw at 20% is kind of a cheap gotcha. His other two instakills (Doomblade at the start of the fight and the Midir beam at the end of the fight) are telegraphed several turns in advance, so there's a clear understanding that unavoidable death events shouldn't catch the player by surprise - but this one automatically cuts you to 1HP even if you shield or otherwise avoid the damage, after the entire rest of the fight makes it clear that blocking the nuke at every 10% is the win condition.
These two things aside though, this fight is excellent. In no particular order:
-Human Drakath looks super cool and is super well-animated. I always thought this design looked frankly stupid in AQW, but being redrawn in DF's artstyle and being given better proportions does a lot for it. Actually using his wings to dive in for melee attacks is a much better interpretation of the character design than in AQW - plus it's really fluidly animated and looks cool.
-Drakath's dialogue in this fight is also super cool. It's made clear that this is the same Drakath from DF's Book 1 - and being motivated solely to get revenge on the Hero after the end of Book 1 is an awesome fanservice-y way to have interpreted him for DragonFable. By the end of the fight he's reduced to a screaming brat willing to destroy himself just to try and take the protag down... which is very much in line with his character in DF. And also a cool way to sneak in the final phase mechanic from AQW's Ultra Drakath fight. This isn't just a random fight against an AQW guy - it's personal.
-The secret move where he summons the Doomblade for an instakill is a suuuuuper cool callback to both DF Beta and the Book 1 Finale. Deepest cut callback. The frame where he changes into his dragon form is also a super cool callback to him bursting out of the tower in the Book 1 finale (but, again, why not just use the much better Dragon Drakath model...)
-Drakath borrows mechanics from all of the prior Chaos Lords, like Pandora. (Alteon's mimicry, Chaos Slayers' debuff evolution, Xing/Xang's cooldowns, Discordia's MPM nuke, etc). Unlike Pandora, it's not super on-the-nose and you might not even notice it if you aren't looking for it. bretty ebic
-The nuke at every 10% HP (also borrowed from AQW's Ultra Drakath fight) being layered with the stacking Chaorruption debuff is a super clever use of design space. This is a shield check fight, but unlike prior shield check fights the player has control over which is the correct turn to shield - by properly curating your damage you want to bring Drakath to each 10% threshold either immediately before or immediately after he uses Chaorruption so you can catch them on the same shield. Demanding the player figure out how to force an overlap between the controllable (Chaos Burst) and uncontrollable (Chaorruption) elements of Drakath's rotation is a fun and interactive way to raise the skill floor
-Like with Jaania EX, you don't get punished with an instant death in a fairly long fight if you fail one check. You're given the option to stun Drakath once as insurance against overshooting his HP thresholds - or, if you're proactive and know you won't make a mistake, an extra turn to burst him before the +All (from Escherion btw) goes up for a turn. Also very fun and interactive
I didn't find this fight super difficult, but it had unique and interactive mechanics without being a total pushover and I had a lot of fun with it. Honestly I was pretty unenthused with the chaos board when it started, and for the majority of its run, but both this fight and the one immediately prior are really good IMO. Like, again, if not for silly gripes about the art, this would straight-up be the best fight in the whole game, and I think that's really saying a lot.
Oh yeah, I'm also a little apprehensive about the portal still having the 'coming soon!' text. Even the most diehard AQW fans dislike the Queen of Monsters (she's like the Valtrith of AQW...) and Drakath would have been a super satisfying finale to end on
< Message edited by TFS -- 4/5/2025 5:47:17 >
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