With several big companies such as NCsoft missing out on G-Star 2018 and the annual exhibition flooded with new mobile games, it might seem that the overall show is pretty boring. However, there are still gems such as Dragon Hound from Nexon to talk about. It is definitely one of the few PC games showcased at G-Star 2018, and one with many question marks around it. Luckily, the Korean media managed to get hold of Dragon Hound’s game director for a short interview. We have summarized the important points below, so read on!
• Dragon Hound is currently in-development at devCat (Mabinogi, Mabinogi Heroes) using Unreal Engine 4 for the PC system.
• The idea for Dragon Hound started as a concept for a side-scroll mobile game, where players are able to “ride a horse, shoot an arrow, and catch a dragon”. However, it is not realistic as the bow and arrow are too small. Hence, then project expanded to include guns, Chinese gothic and steampunk elements.
• The level of technology in Dragon Hound is currently set as an equivalent to World War 1.
• The core gameplay of Dragon Hound revolves simply around “hunting”.
• Different weapons have different uses on the battlefield. For example, players will have to figure out which weapons deal more damage to a certain monster’s exterior, before being able to attack its internals. Both character actions and use of skills are important as well.
• The game director is proud to have Dragon Hound being compared with Monster Hunter, but he claims that the game is more of a mix between Monster Hunter and World of Tanks.
• A key difference pointed out between Dragon Hound and Monster Hunter is that the former has a much larger area for players to hunt, and the size of monsters are bigger. Hence, players might enjoy Dragon Hound more than Monster Hunter.
• Players cannot get off mounts during combat at all, hence the gameplay (targeting etc) will be something similar to that of World of Tanks’. Think of the character as being a centaur, as explained by the game director. Players can also upgrade and raise mounts in towns.
• There are melee weapons in Dragon Hound, not just ranged ones. There is a chainsaw which cuts through monsters’ exterior easily, and even a melee weapon which draws monster aggression. It is important for players to switch between ranged and melee weapons during combat for maximum effectiveness.
• Dragon Hound is designed to be a party-oriented multiplayer online game, not a traditional MMO per say. However, there are still features which will require a large number of players, such as town defense.
• The current demo version of Dragon Hound at G-Star 2018 does not showcase the expressions of monsters when internal organs such as eyes, heart, and lungs are damaged. This is currently in development, and an important element in the fight to bring down the monsters.
• Casual players can take a longer time to defeat monsters without aiming at these internal organs, but more hardcore players or parties can be more strategic in aiming at those parts to end the fight quicker.
• There are quests which require players to harvest certain organs, hence it is not always about destroying the monsters.
• There are also exterior parts of the monsters which, once destroyed, causes it to be unable to use certain moves or attacks.
• Players must also stock up on various consumable items before going into any monster battles to counter ailments and more.
• There are around 30 different species of monsters being prepared.
• All characters are able to equip any weapons they deem fit without any class restrictions.
• Villages in Dragon Hound are all floating, and will move their positions once a week. Apparently, this means a certain monster can only be encountered once a week, which is intentionally designed to reduce the speed of content consumption.
• There is no PVP planned, and the current end game content is a very, very difficult raid.
• The game director claims it takes around 15 minutes to subdue a big monster, and on average it will be around 10 minutes.
