Dragon Hound Looks.. Kinda Good, Actually.

I’ve been meaning to do something on Dragon Hound all year, but I never managed more than a small mention of it in a news video a while back.
I’ve been watching Dragon Hound for a while now with cautious anticipation. Why? Because the game looks almost too good to be true. And you know what they say about things being too good to be true, right?

Dragon Hound is being developed by DevCat, the team behind both the Mabinogi and Vindictus MMOs.
While there isn’t that much information released on the game presently, it is confirmed to be a “monster hunting MMORPG,” yes, an actual MMORPG, with large groups of players visible on-screen at a given time.
It isn’t your average MMO though!
Instead, it takes influence from the popular Monster Hunter games, setting players up in a world overrun with giant dragons that you have to seek out and murder.. in some pretty sweet looking mounted combat!
Seriously, I feel bad for those poor horses. Imagine not only having to carry the weight of a Human, but having to carry around automatic artillery like that as well. That’s crazy.
Thankfully, the game is a PC-exclusive right now while in development, but Nexon, the publisher – yes, that Nexon, the Harbinger of MMO death – has expressed interested in making a mobile compatible version of it in the future as well.
Whether or not that means the game will be cross-play compatible, or just that there will be a mobile port of the game remains to be seen. But knowing Nexon, they’re likely going to focus on a mobile port as a priority regardless.

I have yet to see any non-mounted combat nor have I heard anything of the sort. It would seem as though the entirety of the game – or at the very least when engaged in combat – takes place atop your mount.
I say “mount” here as it hasn’t been confirmed whether or not additional mount types will be made available in-game down the line or if their intent is to only allow for horse-mounted combat.

Seriously, we’re going up against dragons. Flying, fire-breathing dragons. And what do we have? Horses with guns. Horses that are susceptible to being lit on fire.
I feel like what DevCat should allow us to do is not only down a living dragon, but capture and tame them, turning them into our very own weapons to use against their own kind.
I think it’d be epic getting to fly your own dragon into battle against other dragons, raining not only fire down upon them but also a barrage of bullets.
Maybe that’s just me, though. I get a kick out of thinking that could be a potentiality in the future, but it’s unlikely they’d incorporate flying into the game since that’d likely break a lot of things, mechanically.

While combat is no doubt going to remain on the back of your horse, though, I will admit here that the animations need a bit of work.
The game looks great visually. The movement however, looks much more stiff than I expected it would have. It doesn’t look bad, I just feel as though they need to work out the kinks a little more.
The horses – the movement of the weapons atop the horses – they just don’t interact with the combat as well as I would’ve liked them to, especially with the majority of the game centering around this specific content.
But this is just, what, pre-alpha footage? It was released early this year so I’m sure they’ve made quite a significant amount of changes not only to the appearance of the game, but to the animations as well.
If there’s one thing I know about South Korean MMOs – or, rather, South Korean games in general – it’s that they always make the game look better than the game ends up ultimately being itself.

According to an interview, it was revealed that the game will offer no form of PvP.
I’m sure that’s going to upset some of you as I can imagine you were looking forward to riding around large, open fields attempting to murder one another atop your trusty steeds.
I feel like the lack of PvP is a missed opportunity. The game is set in a large world – with large zones to ride around and explore.
I can only imagine the level of entertainment that could be had from Dragon Hound if you allowed us to traverse the field in large group PvP, searching out objectives and exchanging fire with enemy teams at range.
Shame the only form of content will be hunting dragons, but at the same time PvE-centric MMOs, and games both exist so I don’t see this being too large a problem. Just, as I mentioned, a missed opportunity.

The game looks like a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed my fair share of Monster Hunter games just like I’m sure the majority of you watching have at one point or another.
Dragon Hound looks like Monster Hunter if Monster Hunter were made to be a large, more group-centric MMO.
From what I understand I don’t believe you’ll encounter random people out in the world but you’ll be able to form or join large groups with more people than traditionally found within hub-based MMOs.
The combat requires the ability to actually aim, so if you aren’t used to I guess third person shooters, you might find it difficult acclimating.

I’m anticipating the game – I hope both DevCat and Nexon have plans for a Western release, but we’ve yet to hear anything new on the game all year, which is a little disheartening.
Especially with all the issues Nexon is having right now with the cancellation of games and the closure of teams and studios.
If we do get additional news on the game, you’ll know where to find it so make sure to keep an eye on our weekly news videos for future updates.