The I of the Dragon

Worth buying? What 287 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 287 Steam reviews actually say.

Mostly Positive · 74%Mostly Positive · 74%2015

The verdict

A quirky, one-of-a-kind dragon action RPG that nostalgia fans love, but the Steam port has awkward unrebindable controls, bugs and dated visuals. Skip it if you lack patience or nostalgia.

Great for

Nostalgic players and dragon fans who tolerate janky old-school controls and some tinkering

Main risk

Terrible, non-rebindable controls and port bugs/crashes make it frustrating or unplayable for newcomers

What players love

Nostalgia and childhood charm

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews

“Childhood game, 10/10 for nostalgia.”
Steam review · 32.1 h played ↗

“Finding it here felt like finding a lost toy.”
Steam review · 4 h played ↗

“So nice to return to this atmosphere. A beloved childhood game.”
Steam review · translated · 6.4 h played ↗

Dragon growth, spells and RPG depth

Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews

“The sheer amount of spells is crazy. Over 60? I haven't even seen half of them yet.”
Steam review · 4.2 h played ↗

“The sense of progression from a weak hatchling to a massive elder dragon is perfect.”
Steam review · 4.7 h played ↗

“A wealth of spells (many based on terraforming, temporary but spectacular)”
Steam review · translated · 24 h played ↗

Unique chance to play as a dragon

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 positive reviews

“Unique game. Never played anything quite like it before or since.”
Steam review · 4.7 h played ↗

“The only sane dragon sim.”
Steam review · translated · 14.2 h played ↗

Eating enemies and terraforming mechanics

Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews

“eating enemies to get mana is the most genius mechanic ever”
Steam review · 4.5 h played ↗

“You can literally lower mountains to make flight paths or raise them to block enemies.”
Steam review · 4.2 h played ↗

Satisfying flight and dragon feel

Mentioned in ~1 in 12 positive reviews

“Unironically one of the best flight models in an RPG. You can stall, dive, glide... it feels heavy.”
Steam review · 4.7 h played ↗

“Right away the freedom of flight wins you over. There are no rigid corridors where you can only fly on rails.”
Steam review · translated · 4 h played ↗

Huge maps and good value

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 positive reviews

“The map variety is surprising. Snow, deserts, forests... and they are HUGE.”
Steam review · 4.2 h played ↗

“for the price of a sandwich, this gave me 20+ hours of fun.”
Steam review · 4.2 h played ↗

What players complain about

Clunky, unrebindable controls and camera

Mentioned in ~1 in 2 negative reviews

“the dragon acts like a flying tank that cannot go backwards”
Steam review · 0.9 h played ↗

“you won't find any WASD movement here”
Steam review · 1.2 h played ↗

“The dragon flies slowly and only forward; if you miss something, it makes a big loop.”
Steam review · translated · 0.1 h played ↗

Crashes and technical problems on modern systems

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews

“the game crashes almost constantly”
Steam review · 0.7 h played ↗

“Doesn't run on Steam Deck. Freezes up completely at the title screen.”
Steam review · 0.7 h played ↗

“I got this to run exactly one time.”
Steam review · 0.1 h played ↗

Aged badly and graphically dated

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews

“This game sure did not age very well at all, safe to skip if you have no nostalgia attached to it.”
Steam review · 2 h played ↗

“but now it's hard not just to play, it's hard even to look at”
Steam review · translated · 0.1 h played ↗

Poor Steam port with missing content

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews

“this game does not contain any english audio, in fact it does not even contain any scripts to trigger cut scenes for the game to even properly start”
Steam review · 7.5 h played ↗

“When you release the game, why you don't apply bug fixes that are PRESENT in other versions, released for example on GOG”
Steam review · 4.9 h played ↗

Repetitive grindy gameplay

Mentioned in ~1 in 10 negative reviews

“the sheer, unforgiving grind of the game makes it a boring slog”
Steam review · 13.3 h played ↗

“The game is a sequence of clearing areas with endlessly respawning monsters, which gets tiring after a couple of hours.”
Steam review · translated · 4.4 h played ↗

Laggy menus and low performance

Mentioned in ~1 in 12 negative reviews

“the game lags for a full second during every single menu transition”
Steam review · 1.1 h played ↗

“it is running on one frame per second”
Steam review · 0.2 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Unsupported

Minimum

OSWindows 98/Me/2000/XP/7/8/10

ProcessorIntel or AMD Single Core CPU

Memory2 GB RAM

GraphicsDirectX 9 compatible

Storage1 GB available space

Recommended

OSWindows XP/7/8/10

ProcessorIntel or AMD Dual Core CPU

Memory4 GB RAM

GraphicsShader 3.0 or higher

Storage1 GB available space

OSWindows 98/Me/2000/XP/7/8/10

ProcessorIntel or AMD Single Core CPU

Memory2 GB RAM

GraphicsDirectX 9 compatible

Storage1 GB available space

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