While still a brawler at heart, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is taking the series into roguelite territory when it comes out on July 27 for PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4. And its latest trailer breaks down this shift and how the game evolves over multiple runs.
Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons adds a metagame on top of each run
Developer Secret Base had previously talked about its “dynamic mission select,” tag-based combat, co-op, and 13 playable characters, and this trailer delves into most of those features. The team noted that combat wasn’t mashy and takes meter management to succeed. This special meter dictates special moves and defeating an enemy with said special moves will yield more cash.
And when one gang is defeated, the others get stronger, leading to bigger levels, stronger foes, and a new bosses. Players can then spend money they’ve earned on new upgrades to combat these rising threats. Cash earned during runs is converted to tokens that players can spend tokens on “tips,” artwork, and characters in the shop. The trailer showed some of these characters, like Adobo, Burnov, Chin, and Linda. They all have their own special moves and strengths, too.
It has all sorts of customization options that dictate the difficulty and, in turn, also affect how much cash players earn. Cranking it up results in more money. It even seemed like players can choose to enable permadeath or not.
This is the first installment in about six years, as 2017’s Double Dragon IV was the most recent one. It was widely panned, coming in at an average score of 52. This was quite a fall from 2012’s Double Dragon: Neon, which settled on an average score of 76. The series, while influential, was plagued by broad and numerous inconsistencies that mainly stemmed with how the brand was licensed out.
