Playing Through Dinoblade, a Game Where a Sword-Wielding Dinosaur Takes Down Other Dinosaurs, to the Ending

The game is set in a primeval world transformed by a cataclysm. The protagonist, a Spinosaurus, is pursued by enemies and narrowly escapes death. Seeking power, it then approaches a mysterious flame. Having made a pact with a mysterious being in order to survive, the protagonist sets out on an adventure with a blazing greatsword in its jaws. A dinosaur also holding a weapon in its mouth appears, and the first boss fight begins.

The first boss fight demonstrates the flow of combat in this game. The commentator opens with a charged ranged attack, whittling down the enemy's health before it closes in. Once the enemy is within range, they fight back with heavy-attack combos.

The game has a blade-lock system. When one occurs, you mash a button, and with luck you can land a counter for big damage. You can also parry an enemy's attack to break its stance and land another counter. Once its health is depleted, you can deliver a finishing blow. This is how "KIRA - The Exile" was defeated.

The next opponent is a fierce-looking dinosaur with an axe in its jaws. Since there was some distance between them, the commentator first opened with a charged attack. They then used a summoning skill learned in the previous boss fight, along with "Meteor Slash," a leaping attack.

According to the commentator, skill attacks are extremely powerful, but because they run on cooldowns, they can't be spammed. So once the skills are used up, you chip away with normal attacks and counters off parries.

This fight also introduces "boss souls" as one of the build elements. Equipping the soul of a defeated boss apparently activates passive effects such as increased damage dealt.

Further exploration brings out a huge dinosaur. Rather than a weapon, this boss fights with a dinosaur in its jaws. The enemy's opening move was to leap up and attempt a slam. The commentator leaped up as well and countered with a slam of their own. They then immediately chained skills together to end the first half of the fight.

The second half begins with a blade lock. The commentator says they don't really understand how it works, but praises how cool the presentation is.

In the previous boss fight, they had learned a new skill, "Meteor Domain." According to the commentator, this skill deals enormous damage but has a long wind-up. So they landed a counter to create distance from the enemy and activated it during the opening. After that, they cycled the short-cooldown summoning skill while swinging heavy attacks and recovering stamina through parries, depleting the rest of the boss's health.

After a mysterious conversation with a figure the commentator calls "the Zangetsu old guy," the protagonist passes through a canyon. Beyond it lies a scene that looks just like what you'd expect. Here the commentator also has some fun by slapping the title logo on screen on their own.

The boss of this area is a long-necked dinosaur. The commentator reflects that this species should originally have been herbivorous. They then explain that the recent cataclysm seems to have granted the dinosaurs intelligence, bringing about all sorts of changes to the world. In the fight, they skillfully cycled through five skills to deal heavy damage, finishing the boss off with a counter.

The next stage is a gloomy land drenched in rain, and the opponent is a dinosaur with a huge scythe in its jaws. The commentator first stops the enemy in its tracks with "Alpha's Roar." During that opening, they activate the long-wind-up "Meteor Domain" and follow up with a barrage of skills, pushing straight into the second half of the fight.

Progression elements are also introduced here. In this game, you can raise whichever stats you like. The commentator says that for this adventure they chose a damage-focused build, aiming to take down dinosaur after dinosaur with flashy skills.

In a suspicious, fog-shrouded land, something strange happens. The protagonist ends up fighting the old guy who had been lending a hand up to that point. The first form looked weak, so the commentator took it down quickly with skills.

In the second form, a humanoid enemy suddenly appears in what seemed to be a dinosaurs-only game, much to the commentator's surprise. For this fight, they had equipped gear that speeds up skill cooldowns. Thanks to that effect, they kept cycling skills relentlessly and won.

Arriving in a frigid area, the protagonist finds a dinosaur with numerous swords stuck in its back waiting for it. This is the game's final boss. The commentator closes the distance while dodging the enemy's ranged attacks.

During the fight, the commentator shares their thoughts on the game. They haven't skipped any of the cutscenes, but honestly, they say, their understanding of the story is lacking. Even so, they say they're more than satisfied just seeing cool dinosaurs fighting with weapons in their jaws. And they remark that, rough around the edges as it is, they feel a certain fondness for the creator's distinctive style.

Once its health is depleted, the boss changes form. The boss, which had seemed to be ice-themed, reappears wreathed in flame, and its look also seemed a bit sleeker. In the second form, the commentator stuns the opponent with the roar they had saved. Then, taking advantage of the attack boost right after the roar, they use up their remaining skills and take it down in one go.

Cornered, the boss goes berserk and summons a giant meteor. The commentator interprets it this way: it's said that the empowered dinosaurs will bring about extinction, and preventing that seems to have been the protagonist's destiny. In the end, they defeated "MAAKYUURII THE ICE KING." Having slain the dinosaurs that had gained needless intelligence and averted the threat of extinction, they reached the ending.

According to the commentator, the game originated when an animation the creator posted several years ago went viral. From there, the creator began learning how to develop games, and the project has now finally been completed, it seems. The commentator says they had been quietly rooting for this game, so they are personally happy about it as well.

As for their assessment of the game, they point out that while it's simple, it has some light exploration and build elements. Skills and parries are extremely satisfying once mastered, and there's surprisingly a lot of room for skillful play. For that reason, the commentator concludes, they enjoyed it all the way to the end.