Developer Treyarch isn’t known for their original franchises. Even before becoming full-time Call of Duty developers, they largely worked on licensed games. However, they did make two games on their own: Die by the Sword and, its spiritual successor, Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm. They’re both medieval hack-n-slash adventures with the gimmick of offering direct control over sword movement.
This concept runs into a problem on the Dreamcast. Where Die by the Sword on PC had separate inputs for the character movement and sword controls, the Dreamcast only has one analog stick. So in Draconus, movement and changing the direction of your swings are mapped to the same stick. What you get is a ballet of fighters sliding around the battlefield while trying to pull combos off.
The combat is focused on timing attacks and defensive shield blocks, which reminds me of the Demon’s/Dark Souls series but a lot slippier. I like calling the game “Dark Souls: On Ice!” Yeah, the whole “like Dark Souls” thing is overplayed and annoying. However, I make a special exception for Draconus. I like my dumb joke.
