Dragon Fin Soup: Grimm Bros. Little Drunk Riding Hood
Just because I was incredibly hyped for Gigantic does not mean there were not other things that I was excited to be a part of! The Grimm Bros. are a small development crew who created a game called “Dragon Fin Soup,” which I had the pleasure to test on the PS4, and witness others play on the Playstation Vita. In a nutshell, you have an RPG Roguelike set in a mysterious world with clear references to the Grimm’s Fairy Tales. The main character is essentially a drunken, vulgar Little Red Riding Hood. Beset with a troubled past filled with sadness (home set ablaze, family killed), she is alone in the world except for her trusty pet, which cleverly references the wolf from the same fairy tale. To cope she participates in simple acts of violence and alcohol to self-medicate through her depression.
As tends to happen when too medicated to see straight, the world around you is in an ever changing state. As such Dragon Fin Soup players can expect new experiences with each playthrough, though you’ll be able to count on incredulous, crude, and sometimes downright offensive creatures to populate it always. I think the one that stood out was the town pervert, who boldly hits on our heroine. There are other characters to unlock, and several game modes to get a shot at.
Gameplay isn’t as simple as thoughtless run n gun action between moments of depravity. The game controls in a way that felt a little awkward to me at first, with the left stick moving the direction you’re facing, and the directional pad moving you around on the map. It moves in a grid style, and each time you move or attack, the enemies around you will move as well. So simply running across the map like a madman will assuredly get you killed! Keeping an element of efficiency to your every move becomes vital to regular success. You can equip a variety of weapons, and you also start with a shotgun and bombs, both with their own merits. Bombs can hurt you though, so move away from their blast radius. There are so many cool things going on in this game, and much to explore. One of the technical aspects of the game I appreciate is that you can destroy the fences, boxes, trees, et cetera around you. But destroying property in town will cost you! You lose money for wrecking peoples’ property (which I didn’t notice until I was -47 gold). However, if you knock down a tree where an enemy is hiding, it will do a ton of damage to them.
As one would expect from a team willing to spend years of their lives building a fantasy world on the back of a giant dragon turtle, the dev group was quite enjoyable to speak with. They were primarily inspired by classic SNES RPGs (which we also talked about at length about favorites), and the quests that you follow in the main storyline will explain the lore of the world of Asura. There is more to see than the main storyline; lots of different opportunities can crop up thanks to the Rogue-like style of the game. Speaking of Rogue-like, Survival Mode dumps you into a forest with virtually nothing. Players must do their best to gather pets and items while staving off permadeath. It really is the ultimate fairy tale challenge. Players can also expect skins, more characters, and a wealth of things to do in Dragon Fin Soup! My overall experience was very positive, and I felt literally no frustration even after blowing myself up with my own bombs, and getting obliterated by a level 256 random encounter. Of course, I love crude humor, double entendre’, and the Grimms Fairy Tales; how could I not enjoy Dragon Fin Soup?
