Overview and Story
Dragonkin: The Banished throws you into a medieval fantasy world wrecked by dragon blood. That nasty stuff mutates everything it touches, spawning twisted creatures that crawl up from below and push humanity to the brink.
You roll in as one of four playable heroes, each with their own backstory and style, and the main goal is clear: cut down swarms of corrupted beasts, take on massive Dragon Lords, and try to claw civilization back from the edge.
The story leans heavy into themes of corruption vs. balance, and your choices actually shift how the world rebuilds. The game mixes up biomes—jungles, tundra, volcanoes, and more—with weather systems that can change how fights play out.
If you’re into ARPGs like Diablo or Path of Exile, this one leans into the same loot grind, but adds its own flavor with dragon-taming mechanics and a world that evolves as you play.
Gameplay and Core Mechanics
There are four classes so far:
- Tracker – trap-setting, poison-loving ranged fighter.
- Barbarian – ice-fueled melee berserker.
- Oracle – lightning-powered caster with draconic synergy.
- Knight – fire lance and faith-driven tank/damage hybrid.
Combat is full-on hack ‘n slash with stagger/execution mechanics, environmental hazards like explosive plants, and wyrmlings (baby dragons) you can bond with that grow into serious companions.
The big system here is the Ancestral Grid, which lets you slot abilities and modifiers for a ton of different builds. Loot and gear progression feed right into it, plus wyrmling upgrades give you another layer of customization.
There’s also a hub city (Montescail) you expand as you play, which opens perks, vendors, and story bits that spill over into missions.
The Tracker Update (Sept 2025) added the Tracker class, a volcanic biome, new monsters and bosses, and some endgame wave/hunt modes. Multiplayer isn’t here yet but is on the roadmap.
Community Reception
On Steam, Dragonkin: The Banished currently sits at Mixed (605 total reviews, 22 recent). Players love the meaty combat and Grid build variety but aren’t shy about calling out issues—mainly Unreal Engine 5 stutter, a sluggish tutorial, and general early access optimization.
Big ARPG streamers like MrLlama and Zizaran have checked it out, praising the depth of builds after updates. On Reddit, early “hard skip” posts have softened as patches landed, with more players noting the devs’ steady progress.
Gaming outlets (IGN, GameSpot, etc.) like the ambition and unique twists but point out that it still needs polish to hang with the heavyweights.
To their credit, the dev team is active in Discord/forums, pushing fixes fast and teasing co-op, loot filters, and new elites in the pipeline.
- Store Links: Steam | Official Site | Xbox | PlayStation
| Developer | Eko Software | | Publisher | Nacon | | Release Date/Status | Early Access: March 6, 2025; Full expected October 2025–January 2026 | | Platforms | PC (Steam); PS5, Xbox Series X|S (2026) | | Genres | Action RPG, Hack ‘n’ Slash | | Price | $19.99 (20% off from $24.99 during promo) | | Modes | Single-player; Online co-op (upcoming) | | Rating | Not rated (violence, gore)