The April Fool's jokes that are the hardest to swallow are the ones that truly give us hope, only to have everything come crashing down when reality sets in. April Fool's Day 2024 saw plenty of tempting fake announcements, but there was one minor joke among the big hitters that stung just a little bit more. Developer Inti Creates, known for games like Blaster Master Zero and Azure Striker Gunvolt, took to social media on that fateful day to unveil Divine Dynamo Flamefrit: an all-new, action-adventure, dungeon-crawling game.
Suffice it to say, it made a pretty strong impression with its sleek 16-bit graphics, flashy combat, and, most importantly, its ultimate commitment to replicating the 80s and 90s shonen anime aesthetic. While the trailer was clearly labeled as an April Fool's joke, that didn't stop fans from letting Inti Creates know that this is a game they actually want to play. Fortunately, the developer did. Once just an elaborate joke, Divine Dynamo Flamefrit is now out in fully playable form — and it's a pretty enjoyable little game.
In fact, Divine Dynamo Flamefrit is actually a spin-off of Inti Creates' roguelite deck-building RPG Card-en-Ciel, which launched just a few weeks before. In the universe of that title, Flamefrit is a successful entertainment franchise consisting of a popular anime and several related games — the first of which is supposedly the same game we're reviewing now. That meta element and background context isn't necessary at all to enjoy what Divine Dynamo Flamefrit has to offer, but it's a nice bit of fan service that reinforces the game's appeal to anyone who's tried Card-en-Ciel.
Divine Dynamo Flamefrit puts players in control of Yuta Hina, a heroic boy who has been magically transported to the fantasy world of Hologard and given the title of Dynamo Knight. With his newfound power and the help of his mech companion Flamefrit, Yuto sets out on a quest to locate his group of allies and defeat the evil Archfiend.
If that setting sounds insanely trope-y to you, it does the job. All the decor surrounding Divine Dynamo Flamefrit is a cheeky love letter to retro battles and mecha anime (with a healthy dose of old-fashioned RPG flavor), and it absolutely revels in emulating everything from the art style to the theme song. You can expect all kinds of anime staples from yesteryear to make an appearance, whether it's a boy-girl fight or the power of friendship defeating evil.
It's great, light stuff, with a decent supply of witty dialogue and visual gags that made us laugh out loud on a few occasions. More than anything, Divine Dynamo Flamefrit feels like a nostalgic hug to anyone who grew up watching the likes Pokémon, Sailor Moonor other classic Saturday morning anime offerings.
Aesthetics aside, the Divine Dynamo Flamefrit keeps things extremely simple in the gameplay department. The main mode primarily sees players as Yuto progressing through the maze dungeons, where he must take down enemies with his flaming sword and reach the end of the level, where a boss battle awaits. It's a very traditional and admittedly uninteresting dungeon crawling experience, with little to find other than health and magic refills and keys to open locked doors. Fortunately, the combat itself is engaging enough to make up for any shortcomings on this front.
Yuto's moveset consists of a sword attack, which can be pressed in rapid succession to perform a combo or held down to unleash a fiery blast, and a throw to dodge incoming attacks. That may sound pretty simple, but Divine Dynamo Flamefrit does a wonderful job of introducing enough wrinkles to keep things interesting.
For one thing, learning the pattern of enemy attacks and when to roll and dodge them is key to avoiding hits, meaning you can't just blindly run forward and slash your way to victory. Indeed, there were several times during our playthrough when it was truly difficult for us to maintain enough health to make it to the next checkpoint.
As a counterbalance to the challenge, each ally Yuto recruits allows him to swing a powerful new attack at the cost of some of his magic stock. Mastering the throw also allows you to pull off the perfect dodge, giving you a short window to hit an enemy's weak spot for an ultra-satisfying counterattack.
If we had one or two specific criticisms of Flamefrit's combat system, the first would be that it's a touch stiffer than we'd like. There's a reason even this element works in the service of gameplay, though, as it forces you to commit to whatever plan of attack you have. We were also disappointed to find that Yuto's ability to defeat chains of enemies by igniting bits of grass with his sword, which was shown in the game's trailers, was severely underutilized. Unfortunately, it's only a mechanic for the first level of the game and doesn't come back after that.
Of course, exploring Divine Dynamo Flamefrite and fighting from top to bottom is only half the experience. The real star of the series is the set of boss battles in the game, which take the form of first-person mech battles. For each boss, you take control of Flamefrit, aiming and firing your laser cannon while simultaneously blocking and parrying incoming attacks.
These encounters are flashy, fast-paced, and fun to play. They're also by far the hardest parts of the game — especially the last handful of fights, which offer a huge jump in difficulty and require lightning-fast reflexes to avoid certain devastating attacks. To put things into perspective, our initial playthrough of Divine Dynamo Flamefrit lasted about two and a half hours. About one-third of that time was spent puzzling over the final boss. By the time we finally delivered the finishing blow, we were standing in front of our couch with sweaty foreheads and fingers sore from mashing the buttons.
And just like that, it was over. Divine Dynamo Flamefrit consists of only three main dungeons spread over a runtime of a few hours at most. It's hard to get past the idea that the Divine Dynamo Flamefrit, for all the neat little things it does, is more like an appetizer than a full meal. In theory, we don't particularly mind the smaller scope of the game, given that it has a correspondingly low price. In fact, it's kind of refreshing to play a game that keeps things as short, sweet, and simple as possible.
However, we can't quite silence the voice in our head that wishes this little title was something more. It has a solid foundation, with fast and engaging gameplay, a great visual style, and a unique nostalgic flair, but none of these elements have the necessary room to develop beyond their most basic forms. The result is that Divine Dynamo Flamefrit feels like a novelty and far from essential game above all else — but man, it's easy.
Conclusion
Flamefrit's Divine Dynamo Pinnochio-esque journey from a one-off internet joke to a real game is commendable in itself. But the fact that it's so enjoyable may be an even sweeter victory. It doesn't reinvent the wheel in any respect, and its limited action-adventure game mechanics are as basic as they come, but the moment-to-moment gameplay is more than satisfying and flashy enough to make up for it. Couple that with a keen sense of humor and a flurry of nostalgic aesthetic callbacks to classic anime and old-school RPGs, and you've got a real gem of a title. Just try to enjoy those short few hours of work as much as you can.
