Dragon Star Varnir

Dragon Star Varnir
North American PlayStation 4 cover art
Developer(s)	Compile Heart
Publisher(s)	Idea Factory
Director(s)	Makoto Kitano[1]
Producer(s)	Norihisa Kochiwa[1]
Composer(s)	Motoi Sakuraba[1]
Platform(s)	PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch
Release	PlayStation 4 JP: October 11, 2018 NA: June 11, 2019 EU: June 13, 2019 Windows WW: October 9, 2019 Nintendo Switch JP: May 27, 2021 WW: August 3, 2021
Genre(s)	Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Dragon Star Varnir^[a] is a role-playing video game developed by Compile Heart and published by Idea Factory. It was released for the PlayStation 4 in Japan in October 2018 and worldwide in June 2019, for Windows in October 2019, and for Nintendo Switch in 2021.^[2] The game follows a knight named Zephy who is tasked to fight witches and dragons, but is turned into a witch by his enemies in order to save him from death by the hands of a dragon. The game received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised its battle system as an improvement from past Compile Heart games but criticized other aspects of its presentation.

Reception[]

Dragon Star Varnir received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic.^[3] Matt Sainsbury of Digitally Downloaded rated the game 90/100, saying the game "ratchets things up" from the developer's "budget, fanservicey JRPGs" with a "rich bit of storytelling", and saying that "battles [...] never become rote".^[4] Zach Wilkerson of RPGFan rated it 79/100, calling the battle system where the game "truly shines", though criticizing the story as "never reach[ing] the potential of its engaging premise", and saying that "too much happens at the beginning", with every major character introduced in the first half hour, hurting their character development.^[5] Brian Santana of IGN Spain rated it 65/100, criticizing the plot as simplistic with "flat characters", but praising the battle system and its tactical components.^[6]

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